Rebirth of the County Unit System
It looks like we are about to see the rebirth of the County Unit System that was outlawed by the courts in Georgia in 1962. I’m talking about a proposal dubbed the “Presidential Election Reform Act” that is being pushed in California by a lawyer representing the California Republican Party.
At present, California allots all of its 55 electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections, a practice followed by most states. A few states allot their electoral votes based upon percentage of votes cast statewide. But the new California proposal is a throwback to the days of one party dominance and segregation, but not for the purpose of segregation but rather to guarantee a Republican victory no matter what the statewide vote shows.
A little history. The County Unit System was used by the State of Georgia beginning in 1917, during the days of Democratic Party dominance, to determine a victor in its primary elections. Simply put, a county (there are 159 in Georgia) received ‘unit’ votes based upon population. The eight most populous (urban) had six ‘unit’ votes each, the next thirty (medium) had four each, and the remaining 121 (rural) counties had two each, for a total of 410 county ‘unit’ votes. As a result, the small counties with two votes each had a majority (242), despite having only one-third of the population. This allowed the Democratic primary to be controlled by the less populous rural voters and the party machine. Four tiny counties in South Georgia could outvote populous Atlanta. For instance, Eugene Talmadge won the 1946 primary with 244 country unit votes as opposed to 144 for his opponent James Carmichael, even though he had lost the popular vote by 16,000.
In 1963, the county unit system was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Gray v. Sanders, finding that the system violated the ‘one man, one vote’ principal.
Now comes the Republican Party in California, resurrecting that old unconstitutional system, and pushing to allow the statewide winner of the popular vote two electoral ballots (there are 55,) and each voting precinct to cast one electoral ballot. The thinking here is that there are more small “Red” precincts than there are “Blue” ones, thereby guaranteeing a win for the Republican Presidential Nominee. Evidently they don’t feel the ‘one man, one vote’ principal means anything, and the illegal Georgia County Unit System lives again.
We shouldn’t allow this to happen, no matter what the state or the controlling party. We need ‘one man, one vote.’
At present, California allots all of its 55 electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections, a practice followed by most states. A few states allot their electoral votes based upon percentage of votes cast statewide. But the new California proposal is a throwback to the days of one party dominance and segregation, but not for the purpose of segregation but rather to guarantee a Republican victory no matter what the statewide vote shows.
A little history. The County Unit System was used by the State of Georgia beginning in 1917, during the days of Democratic Party dominance, to determine a victor in its primary elections. Simply put, a county (there are 159 in Georgia) received ‘unit’ votes based upon population. The eight most populous (urban) had six ‘unit’ votes each, the next thirty (medium) had four each, and the remaining 121 (rural) counties had two each, for a total of 410 county ‘unit’ votes. As a result, the small counties with two votes each had a majority (242), despite having only one-third of the population. This allowed the Democratic primary to be controlled by the less populous rural voters and the party machine. Four tiny counties in South Georgia could outvote populous Atlanta. For instance, Eugene Talmadge won the 1946 primary with 244 country unit votes as opposed to 144 for his opponent James Carmichael, even though he had lost the popular vote by 16,000.
In 1963, the county unit system was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Gray v. Sanders, finding that the system violated the ‘one man, one vote’ principal.
Now comes the Republican Party in California, resurrecting that old unconstitutional system, and pushing to allow the statewide winner of the popular vote two electoral ballots (there are 55,) and each voting precinct to cast one electoral ballot. The thinking here is that there are more small “Red” precincts than there are “Blue” ones, thereby guaranteeing a win for the Republican Presidential Nominee. Evidently they don’t feel the ‘one man, one vote’ principal means anything, and the illegal Georgia County Unit System lives again.
We shouldn’t allow this to happen, no matter what the state or the controlling party. We need ‘one man, one vote.’
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 6:09 PM
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