1958 Georgia gubernatorial election

1958 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary

←  1954 September 10, 1958 1962  →
410 county unit votes 206 unit votes needed to win
Nominee Ernest Vandiver William Bodenhamer Lee Roy Abernathy Party Democratic Democratic Democratic Electoral vote 400 10 0 Popular vote 499,477 87,830 33,099 Percentage 80.51% 14.16% 5.34%
Popular vote by county County unit vote County results Vandiver:     50-60%     60-70%     70-80%     80-90%     >90% Bodenhamer:     50-60%
Governor before election Marvin Griffin Democratic Elected Governor Ernest Vandiver Democratic

The 1958 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 1958.

Lieutenant Governor Ernest Vandiver won the Democratic primary on September 10 with 80.51% of the vote and 400 out of 410 county unit votes. At this time, Georgia was a one-party state, and the Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory. Vandiver won the November general election without an opponent.

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

• Lee Roy Abernathy, Southern gospel singer
• William T. Bodenhamer, Baptist preacher and state legislator from Ty Ty
• Ernest Vandiver, Lieutenant Governor of Georgia ^[5]

Campaign

Bodenhamer ran a "biblical segregationist" campaign ^[5] aligned with incumbent Governor Marvin Griffin, whom Vandiver had alienated during their term together. ^[6] He opened his campaign by showing pictures of Vandiver between two Negro politicians and said, "Birds of a feather flock together." ^[6] He accused Vandiver of being "the candidate of the NAACP." ^[5] Vandiver responded by promising that "no, not one" black would be admitted to Georgia's white schools. ^[5]

Lee Roy Abernathy, a gospel singer from Canton who frequently appeared on Atlanta television, also ran on a platform promising to diminish the powers of the governor and make monthly television reports to the people of Georgia. ^[6]

Results

Candidate	Popular vote		County unit vote
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Ernest Vandiver	499,477	80.51	400	97.56
William T. Bodenhamer	87,830	14.16	10	2.44
Lee Roy Abernathy	33,099	5.34
Write-in	3	0.00
Total	620,409	100.00	410	100.00
Source: [7]

In the decisive county unit count, Vandiver won 400 out of 410 votes, with Bodenhamer winning the remaining ten. ^[8] This was the last primary election held under the county unit rule, which was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in Gray v. Sanders .

General election results

1958 Georgia gubernatorial election ^{[9] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Ernest Vandiver	168,414	100.00%

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. "The Georgia Baptist Convention and Desegregation, 1945–80". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 83 (4): 697. Winter 1999.
6. Tucker, William (September 8, 1958). "Sparks Fly Anew In Georgia Campaign". The Madera Tribune. p. 6. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
7. "Our Campaigns - GA Governor - D Primary Race - Sep 10, 1958".
8. Compiled by Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, Director (1958). Georgia's Official Register, 1957-1958. Atlanta, GA: State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History. p. 728.
9. "Our Campaigns - GA Governor Race - Nov 04, 1958".
10. "New Georgia Encyclopedia: Ernest Vandiver Jr. (1918-2005)". Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2013.