Georgia countywide elections in 2012 - the Dixiecrat lives on

[Adam Griffin]

I plan to provide a much more detailed analysis of all of this later today, but for now, a brief intro/explanation will have to suffice.

I have constructed this map, which shows the election outcomes for every countywide election in the state of Georgia in 2012. Just to clarify, this is not a map showing all elected positions in each county, but rather, just those for 2012. This includes true countywide elections, as well as those for Board of Education and County Commission that are district-based (though 'round these parts, at-large voting for these types of seats is quite common). I did leave off did two "Civil Court" positions in Augusta and the "Clerk of State Court" in Cobb, as these were odd-ball positions that didn't exist anywhere else and I didn't want to mess up my flow. Those three were it in terms of omissions, though.

When you zoom in on each county, you'll see a legend with abbreviations. Those abbreviations are obviously at the top-left of the map. Not all legends are the same; some include Solicitor (a position that only occurs in about 20% of the counties in GA), while a few also have a Treasurer added to them. As I described on the map, unless a County Commission had a sole Commissioner or more than 5 Commissioners, I left the 5-box template intact - anything white is just a relic. The darker colors mean that said party won all offices up for election in 2012 (minus those won by independents). The lighter shades indicate which party won a majority, and yes, not in Atlas colors (sorry, it wasn't made for here ).

Full-size image

[Oldiesfreak1854]

What do all those details on the county mean?  This is very difficult to read and understand.

[Gass3268]

Good work AG!

[ilikeverin]

What's going on in Augusta?

[jimrtex]

What's going on in Augusta?

The Masters?  Elected officials wear green jackets to indicate that they are non-partisan.

[Adam Griffin]

What do all those details on the county mean?  This is very difficult to read and understand.

I'm not sure if you mean the fact that I had to cram roughly 2,000 offices onto a map, or the size of the map (in the case of the latter, click on the full size link). There are abbreviations used to make it possible, which are explained in the top-right corner of the map (SH is Sheriff, CR is Coroner - which I forgot to add to the key, SU is Surveyor, etc). Because of the scope, I realize it's a bit hard to take in as one entity, but it's mainly to be used as reference material for identifying where Dems/Reps hold office that are out of place. The best way I suppose to take it all in is to use the county shading to grasp whether a particular party has a total lock on a given county or not.

What's going on in Augusta?

As Jim said, they're non-partisan; Augusta-Richmond County abolished partisan elections a few years ago. Since 2012, Macon-Bibb has also decided to do the same, but I'm not sure if it's been finalized yet.

[Bacon King]

I hereby pronounce Chattooga to be an honorary fellow traveller of the great Georgian Black Belt - College Town - Inner Metro Triumvirate of Predominantly Democratic Counties

[Bacon King]

Also OMG at Telfair. Not too surprising I guess because Telfair is the only city I know where their old fashioned southern gentry attitude remains completely intact and the GOP takeover of local governments down there was more a symbolic overthrow of the "old money"/"good old boy" rule than anything else

[Adam Griffin]

non-atlas colors don't shoot

Fun fact: Democratic county sheriffs in Georgia are still insanely popular, and only just barely became a minority after 2012 (78 R, 77 D, 4 N-P).



The next most prominent countywide Democrat is a coroner (82 R, 70 D, 3 N-P). Kind of appropriate, no? Especially when you look at my CD, as it's the 2nd most Republican CD in the state and yet 5/12 of its whole counties have Democratic coroners.

[old timey villain]

I hereby pronounce Chattooga to be an honorary fellow traveller of the great Georgian Black Belt - College Town - Inner Metro Triumvirate of Predominantly Democratic Counties

Yeah, what's going on up there?

[Adam Griffin]

I hereby pronounce Chattooga to be an honorary fellow traveller of the great Georgian Black Belt - College Town - Inner Metro Triumvirate of Predominantly Democratic Counties

Yeah, what's going on up there?

Basically, the far northwestern part of GA along the stateline was traditionally isolated from the rest of the state by several chunks of the Appalachians. Dade & Chattooga in particular couldn't be accessed from GA until mid-20th century - you had to enter AL or TN to get into each. I believe this is the biggest reason behind why Chattooga County has held on for so long in that regard.

The one Republican you see there that was elected in 2012 was the FIRST Republican to be elected there since Reconstruction, and the only reason he was elected was that the presumptive Democratic nominee dropped out the week before qualifying and they couldn't find a replacement.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Really nice maps, but shame on you for using the Wrong Colors.