Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-08-02
INEQUALITIES OF THE
COUNTY UNIT rule

There elsewhere
from State Senator Joseph H. FeIker on the pend
ring county unit bin Of which he is the author.
/: He describes The Journals comment this meas
fure as acaustc unpariamentary unjust, unfair and
EerToneous" II the senator viii duly reflect, he can
not fail to see that whatever have said on this
ssubSsct has had no reference to him, for whom
we have the frendlest regard has been directed
impersonaIly against the bill itself, which, are
convinced. is a menace to the essential rights of
Georgia citizenship.
Our sole, interest in this matter is that which
the public shares and which every voter should feel
when the power and the freedom Of his ballot are
challenged. Our views uRtinged by any shade
of political craftsmanship and for that reason we
~fnd it unnecessary TO reply to the senator's state
ment that the present executive committee has twice
applied the county uSit rule to gubernatorial pri
mary We are not now concerned nor the peo-
pie concerned, with what the executive committee
has done. We considering a particular piece of
legislation which seeks to make the socalled
ivcounty unit rule the and only plan under
I which primaries may be held in Georgia. That is
the issue; and by its inherent right wrong, not
-y the interest of any political clan, it must be
weighed
It is one thing for an executive committee to
sappiy a particular rule device to a particular
soccsEton; it would be vastly different thing for
THE General Assembly to incorporate this rule in
the law Of the commonwealth and to make it iron
cladfor all times and places wherea state OrSdis-
triet primary may be held. -..1..,.t
Such a law would, in effect, annul the funda-
mental right Of citizenship that the ballot of every
voter shall count for the that of every other
voter
1t would imperil the basic principle of Democracy
that the majority of the people shall rule.
i It would not, as has been contended, strengthen
the rights Of the rural counties, but on the con-
srary. it would weaken them.
: It would not protect the state against the domi-
nance Of Special interests; on the contrary, it
would smooth the way and widen the path to such
undesirable control by making it possible for
politicians in convention instead of all the people
.at the polls to determine nominations.
Under the county unit rule, three thousand citi-
tzens in one county given no more representa-
stion in a convention than three hundred citizens
Gin another. 1t has been pretended that such a plan
favors the country county If this were true if as
a matter of fact the socalled unit rule discrimi-
mated in favor Of the voter who chances to live
n rural community against the voter who happens
TO live in thickly populated district it would
for that very circumstance be unjust and I'M
Democratic and unworthy of any fair-minded Geor-
gisns support In effect, however, the rank and file
of the country counties suffer distinct disadvan-
tage from this very rule Consider, for instance,
the comparative influence of Thomas county, which
has four votes in state convention Cuntil recently
It had six) and that of group of smaller counties
with only two votes each in the convention. The
popular vote Thomas county, as the records show,
has been conspicuously less than the popular vote
in either Colquitt. Berrien, Cherokee Dodge Hart
Madison. Padding. Polk. Spalding Walker or Whit
eld- Yet under the unit" rule each of these coun-
ties has only delegates to the convention where
rs Thomas has four; and the rights of every voter
in those counties cut down accordingly.
This is due to the fact thst a county's repre-
sentation in the legislature is determined not by
its rolling population. by its white or it's Demo
cratic population, but by its total population includ
ing negroes Eas well as whites and including both
children and. adults. When, therefore county's
FOte in the convention IS apportioned by its repre-
kentation in the legislature. as is done under the
Punt" system there is likelihood that the iDdvidual
ti1zen may suffer a. grieyuus abridgment of hts
BALLOTS right; and in the long run this applies as
5orc6ly to the man in the rural coItnty as to him
in the city.- 70
This is but instance OF many inequalities to
which the county unit system gives rise LIS defect
and danger lie in the fact that it substitutes techn
al device for natural right; that it rests upon
artificial boundary lines, not upon citizenship; and
shat it supplants the liberties of man with the
tyranny of mhchinemade standard.
+ There can be but one rule fair to each and to all
ctzens; ard that IS that every voters ballot shall
count for the that of every other voters
ballot and that the candidate receiving the majority
of such ballots shall be nominated. It is because
the county unit rule strikes at the heart of this
great Democratic principle that is illogical and un
just 1t takes away power from the people as a
whole; it takes away the right Of the individual
BIO such law should be placed among the statutes OF
Georgia; and it cannot be, if to retain
system Of truly popular government