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Show SENATORIAL PRIMARY ELECTIONS In 29 of the states where U. S. senators were elected in 1926, the nominations were made by the direct primary. In 17 of the 29, the primary vote settled the election. A clear majority ma-jority of all the senators elected in 1926, virtually received their certificates certifi-cates of election from the primary. There is much food for thought in this state of affairs. In the southern group; Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina, Caro-lina, the vote for senator in the Demo-ciatic Demo-ciatic primary exceeded the vote in the general election by large margins, running- up to 500 per cent. ..The aggregate ag-gregate primary vote for senator was two and one-half times the total general gen-eral election vote for senator. When the primaries closed in the summertime, summer-time, the elections were over. Similar in general result, though not by so conclusive a margin, was the senatorial contest in the following 9 republican states California, Illinois, Illin-ois, Iowa, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin. The total vote for Republican Repub-lican senatorial candidates in these 9 states was 4,741,930 in the primaries, against 3,369,178 votes for Republican Republi-can nominees in November. Reduced to percentages, the primary pri-mary vote exceeded the general election elec-tion vote by 40 per cent in nine Republican Re-publican states, and by 140 per cent in eight Democratic states. Among the striking examples of the power of the primary in settling senatorial sena-torial contests, the following are interesting: in-teresting: Senator Caraway of Arkansas was nominated in the August primary by 220,816 votes, and elected in November, Novem-ber, by a political gesture of 28.1CS votes. Georgia's Democratic primary renominating re-nominating Senator George brought cut 190.190 voters of whom only -!7.3"-! returned to the polls in November. Novem-ber. S-:::?.tor Smith's primary contest brought to the polls 160,262 South Carolina Democrats but when November No-vember 2nd came around only 14,560 attended the fall ratification. |