The County Unit System was used by the U.S. state of Georgia to determine a victor in its elections.
Each county was given a certain number of votes and the candidate who received the highest number of votes in that county won all their 'unit votes'. A candidate had to have a majority of county unit votes to win and if no candidate received a majority, then a run-off election would be held between the top two finishers.
For example, in 1946, there were 410 County unit votes. The eight most populous counties had six unit votes, the next thirty most populous counties had four votes each and the remaining 121 counties had two votes each. This made the system heavily biased to the more rural counties.
Eugene Talmadge's 1946 primary victory was due to the Unit system. Talmadge lost to James V. Carmichael by 16,000 votes but won the election since he received 244 county unit votes, as opposed to 144 for Carmichael.
In 1963, the county unit system was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in its Gray v. Sanders decision. The Supreme Court found that the system violated the 'One Man, One Vote' principle.
External link
Gray v. Sanders (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=372&invol=368) FindLaw page on the Supreme Court decision ending the County Unit System
The countyunitsystem was established in 1917 when the Georgia legislature, overwhelmingly dominated by the Democratic Party, passed the Neill Primary Act.
Urban counties were the 8 most populous; town counties were the next 30 in population size; and rural counties constituted the remaining 121.
Census data from 1960 illustrates the inequities of the countyunitsystem.
Besides the county fair, the board is concerned with issuing licenses and granting permits for public use of the fairgrounds, planning capital improvements on fairgrounds and facilities, and sending delegates and exhibits to participate in the state fair.
Under the countyunitsystem, administration of county schools in rural areas was consolidated under one official, the superintendent of county school district, who replaced the county school superintendent.
Counties adopting home rule charters after 1958 were given the authority to change the structure of their county government and as a result most elected to relieve the sheriff of tax collection duties and assign them to another county official.
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