1924 United States Senate election in Georgia

1924 U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Georgia

←  1918 September 10, 1924 1930  →

Nominee William J. Harris Thomas W. Hardwick Party Democratic Democratic Electoral vote 380 32 Popular vote 144,740 75,713 Percentage 65.66% 34.34%

U.S. senator before election William J. Harris Democratic Elected U.S. Senator William J. Harris Democratic

The 1924 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 4, 1924. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator William J. Harris was re-elected to a second term in office.

As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with no opposition in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was considered tantamount to election.

Democratic primary

The Democratic primary election was held on September 10, 1924.

County unit system

From 1917 until 1962, the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Georgia used a voting system called the county unit system to determine victors in statewide primary elections. ^[1]

The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to the Electoral 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 a winner-take-all basis. ^{[2] [3]}

Candidates were required to obtain a majority 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, a runoff election was held between the top two candidates to determine a winner. ^[4]

Candidates

• Thomas W. Hardwick, former Governor, former U.S. Senator
• William J. Harris, incumbent U.S. Senator

Results

Democratic primary, 10 September 1924

Candidate	Popular vote		County unit vote
	Votes	%	Votes	%
William J. Harris	144,740	65.66	380	92.23
Thomas W. Hardwick	75,713	34.34	32	7.77
Total	220,453	100.00	412	100.00
Source: [5] [6]

General election

Results

1924 United States Senate election in Georgia ^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	William J. Harris (Incumbent)	155,497	100.00%
	Democratic hold

References

1. "County Unit System". Georgia County Clerks Association. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
2. "Eugene Talmadge". The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. The African-American Experience. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
3. "County Unit System, eh?". Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. October 6, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
4. Buchanan, Scott (June 13, 2017). "County Unit System". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
5. Guide to US Elections 2005, p. 1376.
6. Georgia Register 1925, pp. 172–175.
7. Guide to US Elections 2005, p. 1328.
8. "GA US Senate, 1924". Our Campaigns. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
9. "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1924" (PDF). Clerk.house.gov. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
10. Georgia Register 1925, pp. 240–241.

Bibliography

• Guide to US Elections, Fifth Edition, Volume II . CQ Press. 2005. ISBN   978-1-56802-981-8 . Retrieved October 4, 2022.
• Compiled by Ruth Blair, ed. (1925). Georgia's Official Register, 1925 (PDF). Atlanta, GA: State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History.