Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-07-27
The UnWiSdOrl and the Injustice
OF the County Unit System

",
approve it, Advocates of this measure urge the
Importance of having fixed rules for our primary
elections, instead of leaving essential matter
to the option of transient and sometimes partisan
committees Well, 1t would be desirable indeed to
have a fixed rule provided the rule were just and
right But how deplorable it would be to rivet
upon the State a rule that is unjust and wrong!
That is what will be done If the pending bill be-
comes law.
The Journal yields to no in devotion to the
principle that the power of choosing public officials
should be placed directly in the hands of the voters
rather than left to political jugglery in which the
will of the people can be thwarted or ignored. 1t
is because of our stanch and ongsanding belief in
that very principle that we are opposed TO bill
which while protesting to abolish minority rule
and political trickery in party conventions, pro-
poses to ingraft upon the law itself system which
is of the very of minority rule and which
lends itself with peculiar readiness to political
chicane.
Does anyone pretend that the County Unit sys-
I'm gives every voter equal voice and every
county its rightful weight in the selection of State
house officers?
Does anyone deny that it is possible under the
County Unit system for a candidate having only
minority of the States popular vote to be NOM
mated over a candidate who is the majoritys
choice?
Or does anyone deny that under the County
Unit system it is possible for a handful of voters
in one county to nully ballots of thousands of
voters in other counties?
Every Georgians vote should count equally
whether he resides in Rabun or Chatham, In Ecnols
or Bibb Wherever a hundred votes or
a thousand votes or ten thousand votes
are cast for a candidate, they ought to
be credited-every one of them. But under the
County Unit system this fair and logical plan Is
displaced by one that is altogether arbitrary and
ineuuitable. Under that system, as far as State
primaries are concerned. votes are not counted as
so many ballots representing the will of so many
citizens; they are counted political blocks rep
resenting it may be, nothing whatsoever as regards
the will of the State a whole.
The County Unit system, it should be remem-
bered is part and parcel of those Juggling political
conventions which the Neill bill assumes TO re-
form or abolish. 1t gives each county twice as
many convention unit votes as the county has
representatives in the lower chamber of the Cen
eral Assembly. Now, suppose that one county
which on the unit basis is entitled to two votes polls
a popular vote of 1881 Suppose that another
county also entitled to two votes on the unit
basis polls a popular vote of 373. Under the
County Unit system those 1881 votes count for
no more in the general reckoning than the 31S
votes Is that fair? is it democratic? is II
worthy of a Commonwealth that has blazoned Wis
dom and Justice on its shield?
The figures have instanced are not mag
inary; they are from the official returns of APP
ping and Baker counties for the State Democratic
primary of 1914. They illustrate in addition to
the gross inequity of the County Unit system, the
absurdity of the claim that that system is a pro-
rection to the rights of the small counties. APP
plng and Baker both among the less populous
counties and neither, we assume is fearful OF De-
ing oppressed by the other. Wherein did the
County Unit system protect the Appling voters VINO
we're virtually disfranchised when that countys
1851 ballots given no larger credit in the
State returns than Baker county's 373 ballots!
The truth is the County Unit system protects moth
ing except the political evils that have sprung up
and thriven under it's baleful influence 1t is as
unjust to the small counties to the large coun-
ties and outrageously unjust TO the people as
whole
The Nel bill prescribes the popuar-vote plan
for the individual county, but inconsistency aban-
dons that principle when it comes to the State II
the system of counting votes on unit basis in
stead of a popular basis is fair and ine as its
advocates contend, why not apply it to the counties
as we'll as to the State as a whole? Why not
provide that in good old Muscogee, for example,
votes shall be reckoned a basis of district units
instead of by the number actually cast? If our
friends who are seeking thrust this unreasonable
and unjust system into statutes dared to follow
their plan where it logically leads and put 1t into
operation within the counties well as within the
State they soon would find that they had stirred
I'D more war in Georgia than ever Ireland knew in
the days of her seven kings.
The fact that State Democratic executive
committee after another has prescribed the county
unit rule for our primaries does not alter the prir
ciple involved one iota Certainly, the mere fact
that party committees have adopted the rule for
party purposes is no reason or warrant for writing
IL into the States broad statutes. Let Democratic
executive committees take the responsibility of con-
tinung this reprehensible system, if they will; but
as for making it permanent and mandatory under
the law-surely the Legislature will do no such
wrong against the people If the object really is
to purge our primaries of convention trading and