The 1920 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the wider United States presidential election. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
With the exception of a handful of historically Unionist North Georgia counties – chiefly Fannin but also to a lesser extent Pickens, Gilmer and Towns – Georgia since the 1880s had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. Disfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and most poor whites had made the Republican Party virtually nonexistent outside of local governments in those few hill counties, and the national Democratic Party served as the guardian of white supremacy against a Republican Party historically associated with memories of Reconstruction. The only competitive elections were Democratic primaries, which state laws restricted to whites on the grounds of the Democratic Party being legally a private club.
Nonetheless, the largely white but secessionist “upcountry” regions of the state – lying immediately south of the few substantially unionist counties – had seen strong opposition to the policies of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson since World War I broke out. Wilson had attempted to purge anti-war Southern Democrats in the 1918 midterm elections, and with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and his League of Nations proposal, further hostility to him emerged in Georgia.
All these factors meant Cox lost significantly in the upcountry areas of the state where Harding carried many areas that had supported Populist Thomas E. Watson or Progressives in recent elections. Elsewhere, however, partisan loyalties remained extremely strong, so that Harding's gain was less than most other Southern states and Georgia surpassed Louisiana – where a major anti-Wilson revolt was occurring at the polls in Acadiana – as the third-most Democratic state behind Mississippi and South Carolina.
Democratic primary
A primary for the Democratic presidential candidate was held in Georgia on April 20, 1920. United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer defeated Thomas E. Watson and Hoke Smith, despite losing the popular vote to Watson. Polls did not open in Wilkinson County, leading Chairman John Flynt of the Democratic State Executive Committee to appoint two Palmer delegates from that county in accordance with primary rules. The subcommittee of the State Executive Committee, empowered to set the rules for all primaries other than gubernatorial or senatorial contests, had determined that the Georgia's delegates to the 1920 Democratic National Convention would be allocated to the candidate receiving the highest number of county unit votes under the county unit system. This selection would be formalized at the Georgia presidential convention in Atlanta on May 18, along with other matters. B. M. Blackburn, a representative of Watson, stated that it "would be utterly unfair and ridiculous for a minority to control the convention". Smith claimed that he had "no idea that the convention would consider itself bound by any rules except its own."
Watson contested the results in Chatham, claiming that his name had been scratched off the ballots; in Wilkinson, as there had been no primary election; and in Bulloch, asserting that his supporters had been unable to vote in a precinct where no ballot box was provided. Smith contested Murray and Atkinson, claiming that the county executive committees had arbitrarily excluded certain precincts.
At the convention, the majority of delegates, who were composed of Smith and Watson supporters, ignored the rule passed by the Democratic state executive committee, viewing the convention as sovereign and above the committee, with the right to select national convention delegates. This majority passed resolutions opposing the Covenant of the League of Nations as negotiated at Paris, rejecting a potential Wilson third term, advocating free speech, free press, local self-government, and repeal of all espionage, sedition, and conscription laws passed during the war. Furthermore, they elected William J. Vereen to succeed Clark Howell as Georgia's member of the Democratic National Committee.
The majority offered to split the delegation in three, which was refused by Palmer leaders. The majority then elected delegates to the national convention to vote only for a candidate favorable to the principles endorsed by the convention. After adjournment, Palmer supporters convened separately, electing a rival delegation pledged to Palmer, and reelecting Howell as national committeeman. The Credentials Committee of the national convention chose to seat the delegates pledged to Palmer.