Revolution By Judicial Action in Georgia
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | Albert B. Saye |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296401700102 |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
10
REVOLUTION
BY
JUDICIAL
ACTION
IN
GEORGIA
ALBERT
B.
SAYE
University
of
Georgia
OLITICAL
DEVELOPMENTS
in
Georgia
during
the
year
1962
demon-
strated
the
truth
of
Louis
D.
Brandeis’
maxim,
&dquo;resistance
to
evolution
invites
JL
revolution.&dquo;
The
Constitution
of
the
United
States
was
used
as
a
&dquo;fiery
sword
of
freedom&dquo;
to
rid
the
state
of
an
archaic
political
structure
and
to
introduce
a
new
era
in
politics.
Readers
of
this
journal
are
familiar
with
the
county
unit
system
of
election
under
which
the
governor
and
other
state
officers
of
Georgia
were
elected
under
the
old
regime.1
Stated
briefly,
it
was
a
&dquo;winner
take
all&dquo;
system
applied
to
county
votes,
similar
to
the
system
used
in
the
electoral
college
for
state
votes
in
electing
the
President
of
the
United
States.
The
system
itself
had
some
merits,
debatable
at
least;
but
failure
to
modify
it
to
give
added
voting
strength
to
metropolitan
areas
as
they
grew
up
caused
the
system
to
become
ridiculous.
For
example,
Fulton
County
where
Atlanta
is
located
had
14.11
per
cent
of
Georgia’s
population
in
1960,
but
it
had
only
1.46
per
cent
of
the
county
unit
votes;
whereas
Echols
County
with
.05
per
cent
of
the
state’s
population
had
.48
per
cent
of
the
total
unit
votes.
An
effort
to
modify
the
county
unit
system,
sponsored
vigorously
for
three
dec-
ades,
failed
to
produce
tangible
results.
The
system
rested
on
custom
and
the
Neill
&dquo;
Primary
Act
of
1917.
As
a
safeguard
against
any
modification,
in
1950
the
General
Assembly,
dominated
by
rural
areas,
proposed
an
amendment
to
the
constitution
which
would
have
written
the
unit
system
in
its
archaic
form
into
the
state’s
funda-
mental
law.
The
amendment
was
defeated
by
a
popular
vote
of
164,377
to
134,290.
A
similar
constitutional
amendment
passed
the
General
Assembly
in
1952.
It
was
defeated
by
a
popular
vote
of
309,170
to
278,882.
Both
of
the
proposed
amendments
,
would
have
passed
had
their
ratification
depended
on
a
county
unit
vote.
Advocates
of
abolishing
or
modifying
the
county
unit
system
were
happy
to
see
the
proposals
to
write
the
system
into
the
constitution
defeated,
but
this
victory
was
an
empty
one
for
the
moment.
All
candidates
for
governor
continued
to
be
avowed
supporters
of
the
unit
system,
and
the
most
moderate
proposals
for
revision
went
unheeded
by
the
political
leaders.
Efforts
to
secure
relief
through
the
federal
courts
had
not
been
lacking.
The
leader
in
this
regard
was
Dr.
Cullen
B.
Gosnell,
professor
of
political
science
at
Emory
University.
In
1946
a
petition
was
filed
to
enjoin
use
of
the
county
unit
sys-
tem
in
determining
the
Democratic
nominee
for
Congress
in
the
Fifth
Congressional
District
which
includes
Fulton,
DeKalb,
and
Rockdale
counties.
Under
the
unit
sys-
tem,
Fulton
and
DeKalb
counties
each
had
six
unit
votes,
and
Rockdale,
next
to
the
smallest
of
Georgia’s
159
counties,
had
two
unit
votes.
Rockdale’s
vote
usually
con-
trolled
the
election,
as
it
did
in
1946,
although
the
candidate
&dquo;carrying&dquo;
Fulton
1
William
G.
Cornelius,
"The
County
Unit
System
of
Georgia:
Facts
and
Prospects,"
Western
Political
Quarterly,
14
(December
1961),
942-60.
See
also
"Georgia’s
County
Unit
Sys-
tem
of
Election,"
Journal
of
Politics,
12
(February
1950), 93-106.
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