Evening star., 1952-09-28
Georgia Vote
Republicans and Anti ToImodge Democrats
Fight County Unit Primary Proposal
By WiIIiom Hines

chance Of a two-party system In
Georgia.
Anti Talmadge Democrats, who de-
feated Herman'S father Gene in
popular votes in the 1916 Democratic
gubernatorial primary but who lost
under the county-unit system, COM
plain that the amendment would pre-
vent any one-however popular-from
running as an independent.
Gov. Talmadge agrees that no in
dependent could seek Office. but says
independents don't have much
chance in Georgia anyway. He
laughs off the Republican complaint.
however. saying that it takes only
one person to hold a primary and
that the Republicans could man
age if they had to.
Undoubtedly with a great deal Of
money and effort the Republicans
could figure out some way of hold
ing a simultaneous primary in all
of Georgia's 159 counties. But they
point out that the sensible way to
build party is to build by degrees.
not to rush off. ill-prepared, in 159
different directions at once.
Despite Gov. Talmadge's pro-
testations that the county-unit sys-
tenn preserves the democratic proc
ess by "diffusing" political initiative
throughout the State. county-unit is
the greatest thing since the poll tax
for keeping the vote under control.
The Talmadge forces emphasize an
alleged similarity between county,
unit and the electoral-college sys-
tenn used in presidential elections.
Actually, there is much closer COR
relation between population and elec-
toral college membership nationally
than there is between population and
county-unit votes in Georgia.
Only twice in American history
1876 and 1888-has the electoral-col-
lege system worked counter to the
popular vote. to elect the minority"
Presidents Hayes and Benjamin Har-
riSon. The Atlanta Journal has com.
piled list showing 13 occasions in
the last 20 years when the county,
unit system enabled a candidate to
win despite popular votes for his
opponent.
Weighted Votes
Under the county unit system, a
big-city residents vote is hardly
worth casting. One vote in Chatta-
hoochee County in the 1850 primary
swung as much weight as 122 votes
in Fulton County. where Atlanta is
located. The smallest county in the
State has two unit votes for its 2,494
inhabitants. or one for each 1,247
persons. Fulton County has six votes
for 473.572 residents, Sor one for each
1929 inhabitants.
The eight largest counties of the
State, which together muster 48 unit
votes, have 1850 census population
of 1.215,171. The "a smallest counties.
which also have 48 unit votes. have
an aggregate population of 124.73l.
The metropolitan counties thus have
35.3 per cent of the population but
only lit per cent of the vote, while
the smallest have per cent of the
population but the same III per
cent voting strength.
The meaning of figures such as
these did not escape the late Gov.
Gene Talmadge, who often said he
didn't care if he never carried a
county with streetcar tracks in it. Nor
does this meaning escape Genes son
Herman.
Like father, like son, the present
Governor is doing his best to put the
county unit issue on the explosive
basis of race. 1t is his contention that
Atlanta "bloc voters, s,Ehis term for
Negroes-are strong enough to run
Georgia unless the State has the
protection of the county unit system.
Actually, there aren't enough bloc
voters" in Fulton County to do much
damage-about 1900 out of 125.0O0.
The Atlanta Negro vote is smaller
in proportion to Negro population
than the white vote is to white popu-
lation. And what is more. Negroes do
not vote as a bloc in Georgia.
Just in case the race issue doesn't
convince voters, Herman is waving
the red flag as we'll. He contends that
radicals are behind the anti-amend-
ment campaign-entirely overlooking
the fact that neither the Junior
Chamber of Commerce nor the
League Of Women Voters contains
any appreciable radical element.
Nor. for that matter, do the ARCH
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