1954 Georgia gubernatorial election

1954 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary

←  1950 September 8, 1954 1958  →
410 county unit votes 206 unit votes needed to win
Nominee Marvin Griffin Melvin E. Thompson Tom Linder Party Democratic Democratic Democratic Electoral vote 302 56 26 Popular vote 234,690 162,007 87,240 Percentage 36.32% 25.07% 13.50%   Nominee Frederick Barrow Hand Charlie Gowen Party Democratic Democratic Electoral vote 22 4 Popular vote 78,125 73,809 Percentage 12.09% 11.42%
County results Griffin:     20-30%     30-40%     40-50%     50-60%     60-70%     70-80% Thompson:     30-40%     40-50%     50-60%     60-70%     70-80% Linder:     30-40%     40-50%     50-60%     60–70% Hand:     20-30%     30-40%     40-50%     80-90% Gowen:     80-90%
Governor before election Herman Talmadge Democratic Elected Governor Marvin Griffin Democratic

The 1954 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1954.

Lieutenant Governor Marvin Griffin won the Democratic primary on September 8 with 36.52% of the vote and 302 out of 410 county unit votes. At this time, Georgia was a one-party state, and the Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory. Griffin won the November general election without an opponent.

This was the final of Melvin Thompson's three failed bids for Governor.

Democratic primary

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

• Marvin Griffin, incumbent Lieutenant Governor
• Charlie Gowen, State Representative from Brunswick
• Frederick Barrow Hand, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives
• Tom Linder, Commissioner of Agriculture
• Melvin Thompson, former Governor (1947–48)

Results

Candidate	Popular vote		County unit vote
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Marvin Griffin	234,690	36.32	302	73.66
Melvin Thompson	162,007	25.07	56	13.66
Tom Linder	87,240	13.50	26	6.34
Frederick Barrow Hand	78,125	12.09	22	5.37
Charlie Gowen	73,809	11.42	4	0.98
Grace Wilkey Thomas	6,285	0.97
Ben Garland	2,847	0.44
Edmond Barfield	747	0.12
Arthur H. Neeson	485	0.08
Total	646,235	100.00	410	100.00
Source: [5]

General election

Results

Georgia gubernatorial election, 1954 ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Marvin Griffin	331,899	99.98%
	N/A	write-ins	67	0.02%
Majority			331,832	99.96
Turnout			331,966
	Democratic hold		Swing

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. "Our Campaigns - GA Governor - D Primary Race - Sep 08, 1954".
6. "Our Campaigns - GA Governor Race - Nov 02, 1954".