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410 county unit votes 206 unit votes needed to win | ||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Talmadge: 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90% >90% Tie: 40–50% Thompson: 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The1950 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1950. Incumbent governorHerman Talmadge won the Democratic primary overMelvin Thompson on June 28 with 49.33% of the vote and 295 out of 410county unit votes. The primary was a rematch of the 1948 special election. This would be the last gubernatorial rematch in the state until2022.
At this time, Georgia was a one-party state, and the Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory. Talmadge was re-elected in the November general election without an opponent.
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.[1]
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.[2][3]
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.[2][3]
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.[4]
| Candidate | Popular vote | County unit vote | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |
| Herman Talmadge | 287,637 | 49.33 | 295 | 71.95 |
| Melvin Thompson | 279,137 | 47.88 | 115 | 28.05 |
| C. O. Baker | 10,250 | 1.76 | ||
| Pat Avery | 3,050 | 0.52 | ||
| J. W. Jenkins | 2,963 | 0.51 | ||
| Total | 583,037 | 100.00 | 410 | 100.00 |
| Source:[5] | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Herman Talmadge (incumbent) | 230,771 | 98.44% |  0.87 | |
| Independent | Morgan Blake | 3,325 | 1.42% | N/A | |
| N/A | Write-ins | 334 | 0.14% | 0.13 | |
| Majority | 227,446 | 97.02 | |||
| Turnout | 234,430 | ||||
| Democratichold | Swing | ||||
