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There was a bond election in my town in 1960. I was old enough to vote but was not a property owner.
I complained to the county clerk. After she determined I supported the bond, she said to me "honey, do you own a watch"? I said yes ma'am. She said come on, you are a property owner.
I'll bet the rent money she didn't say that to minorities.
In South Carolina in the 1920s, Democratic candidates would win over 96% of the Presidential vote, and only about as few as 50,000 people voted in Presidential elections.
So nobody voted, other than a few Democrats.
WTH?
I get that Black people were prohibited from voting, but why didn’t middle and upper-income white people vote: peer pressure or legal restrictions? Or were there just so few literate white people that the pool of voters was really small?
And did 96% of people really support Democrats, or was there just intense social and peer pressure to vote for them?
If South Carolina was like other southern states the local and state elections would have been decided in the Democratic party statewide primaries, which people regarded as the de facto elections. The general election was little more than a formality as there would be no meaningful opposition to the Democratic nominees, and it was a foregone conclusion that the Democrats would win the presidential vote in the state. If another party looked like it had even a remote chance of winning any post due to Democratic apathy the party would mobilize enough of its members to insure victory.
Strange. In 1970, the South including Florida was very Democrat at the state level.
The Governor of Florida in 1970 was Democrat Reubin Askew and he won the whole state by 14% and he won the panhandle by landslide. Then he won re-election by 21%. Then Democrat Bob Graham won by a landslide the governorship in 1978 and 1982 by landslides including the panhandle. Florida didn't elect a Republican governor until 1986 Bob Martinez and Florida didn't turn Republican at the state level until Jeb Bush took over.
Florida Senate and lower house was Democrat majority in the 70's.
The Democrat party was in power at the state level in Florida in the 70's, it must have been easy to register as a Democrat especially in the Panhandle, the Democrats ran the state.
People think that the South switched parties after the 1964 civil rights act and that's a myth. The whole South stayed Democrat at the state level for decades after 1964.
Until just a very few years ago (probably less than ten) even in the Little Dixie region of Oklahoma, which for many decades had been as "red" as anywhere in the country, nearly all voters and local candidates were registered Democrats. Republicans always carried the region in presidential elections but unless you were a registered Democrat you were excluded from the party primaries, and anyone running for a local office as anything else (Republican, independent, third party) tended to be seen as trying to do an end run run around the opposition to get on the general election ballot.
Being a democrat could mean many things. Each state is different but compare VA and AL. George Wallace embraced segregation with his populism. In VA, the populist was Henry Howell. Howell was called "howelling Henry" with his slogan "keep the big boys honest." He was a firebrand populist who embraced civil rights. Eventually, even George Wallace publicly apologized for his racism, some accepted his apology, others like John Lewis didn't. Henry Howell campaigning as the Byrd machine collapsed, his appeal to voters addresses the opening of the voting franchise after the Voting Rights Act was passed; the Byrd machine could not survive with a popular franchise:
If South Carolina was like other southern states the local and state elections
would have been decided in the Democratic party statewide primaries,
which people regarded as the de facto elections.
The general election was little more than a formality.
It's rather much the same way today too. In far too many states not just the old south.
In South Carolina in the 1920s, Democratic candidates would win over 96% of the Presidential vote, and only about as few as 50,000 people voted in Presidential elections.
So nobody voted, other than a few Democrats.
WTH?
I get that Black people were prohibited from voting, but why didn’t middle and upper-income white people vote: peer pressure or legal restrictions? Or were there just so few literate white people that the pool of voters was really small?
Wow -- even I didn't know that so few were voting in the 1920's. There were more than a million people of voting age (about half black and half white), and less than 5% voted.
Wow -- even I didn't know that so few were voting in the 1920's. There were more than a million people of voting age (about half black and half white), and less than 5% voted.
As others have tried to explain, the Republican Party did not bother to mount a serious presidential campaign in most southern states in those days. Voter participation was very much higher in state and local elections.
As others have tried to explain, the Republican Party did not bother to mount a serious presidential campaign in most southern states in those days. Voter participation was very much higher in state and local elections.
That may be true in the 1920s, but the disturbing part is that primary elections only became common in the early 20th century, and were only regulated like general elections starting in 1890.
I can only imagine how undemocratic (s)elections were in the south during the 19th century when candidates were chosen by closed party organs and the general election was uncontested.
There was a bond election in my town in 1960. I was old enough to vote but was not a property owner.
I complained to the county clerk. After she determined I supported the bond, she said to me "honey, do you own a watch"? I said yes ma'am. She said come on, you are a property owner.
I'll bet the rent money she didn't say that to minorities.
Where were you? What were "minorities", and why do you consider them to be such?
There were terrorist groups roaming about the former confederacy, though those that rail about commie secret police seemed to have edited & erased this fact from history.
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