 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
410 county unit votes 206 unit votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Talmadge: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Roberts: 40–50% 50–60% Nix: 40–50% 60–70% 70–80% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1940 Georgia gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1940, in order to elect thegovernor of Georgia.
IncumbentDemocratic governorEurith D. Rivers was term-limited, and ineligible to run for a third term until spending four years out of office (thus in 1944).[1]
As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with only token opposition in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was consideredtantamount to election.
The Democraticprimary election was held on September 11, 1940. As Talmadge won a majority of county unit votes, there was norun-off.
From 1917 until 1962, theDemocratic Party in theU.S. state ofGeorgia used a voting system called thecounty unit system to determine victors in statewide primary elections.[2]
The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to theElectoral College, but in practice the large ratio of unit votes for small, rural counties to unit votes for more populous urban areas provided outsized political influence to the smaller counties.[3][4]
Under the county unit system, the 159 counties in Georgia were divided by population into three categories. The largest eight counties were classified as "Urban", the next-largest 30 counties were classified as "Town", and the remaining 121 counties were classified as "Rural". Urban counties were given 6 unit votes, Town counties were given 4 unit votes, and Rural counties were given 2 unit votes, for a total of 410 available unit votes. Each county's unit votes were awarded on awinner-take-all basis.[3][4]
Candidates were required to obtain amajority of unit votes (not necessarily a majority of the popular vote), or 206 total unit votes, to win the election. If no candidate received a majority in the initial primary, arunoff election was held between the top two candidates to determine a winner.[5]
| Candidate | Popular vote | County unit vote | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |
| Eugene Talmadge | 183,133 | 51.58 | 318 | 77.56 |
| Columbus Roberts | 127,653 | 35.95 | 80 | 19.51 |
| Hosea Abit Nix | 44,282 | 12.47 | 12 | 2.93 |
| Total | 355,068 | 100.00 | 410 | 100.00 |
| Source:[7][8][9] | ||||
In the general election, Talmadge faced token opposition.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eugene Talmadge | 267,574 | 91.94% | ||
| Independent Democrat | Eugene Talmadge | 22,303 | 7.66% | ||
| Total | Eugene Talmadge | 289,877 | 99.60% | ||
| Prohibition | J. L. R. Boyd | 875 | 0.30% | ||
| Independent | Joseph M. Wallace | 296 | 0.10% | ||
| Turnout | 291,048 | 100.00% | |||
| Democratichold | Swing | ||||
The Executive power shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold his office during the term of two years, and until his successor shall be chosen and qualified. He shall not be eligible to re-election, after the expiration of a second term, for the period of four years.
