Three Kings

There's an old joke that goes; What's the difference between a Northern tale and a Southern tale? A Northern tale begins "Once upon a time..." and a Southern tale begins "Y'all ain't gonna believe this..." Well Bubba, I'm here to tell you, Y'all ain't gonna believe this! This has got to be one of the most bizarre incidents to take place in state politics anywhere, bizarre but true! The time, November 1947 and Eugene "the wild man of sugar creek" Talmadge had been elected governor of Georgia for the fourth time (1932, 1934, 1940, and 1946). Defeating political foe and current Governor Ellis Arnall, who defeated Talmadge in 1942 due to a scandal involving the University of Georgia. But "Ole' Gene" dies of cirrhosis of the liver on 21 December 1946, before he had been inaugurated governor. The controversy that followed quickly evolved into a constitutional crisis.
Knowing Talmadge was not well going into the November general election, some of the Talmadge cronies undertook a write-in campaign for Gene's son, Herman. The reason for the write-in campaign was due to a provision, which stated that the Georgia General Assembly would elect a governor from the next two candidates, if the winner of the general election died before taking office. Since Republicans were non-existent in 1940's Georgia, the Talmadge camp reasoned that the younger Talmadge would become governor should daddy Gene die.
Before 1945, this would have been constitutional, since Georgia had no lt. governor before this time. But OOPS, The 1945 Georgia Constitution created the office of lt. governor to succeed governors should they die while in office, making their ploy moot. In 1946, M.E. Thompson, a Talmdage foe, was elected Georgia's first lt. governor. Simultaneously, the out going governor, Ellis Arnall, who was also a Talmdage foe refused to leave the office of governor until the Georgia Supreme Court heard the case and make its decision concerning this crisis. Talmdage, Thompson and Arnall would face off in January 1947 when the General Assembly convened.
The General Assembly, which was overwhelmingly in support of the Talmadge forces, moved to disregard the new Constitution, and the lawmakers decided that. Thompson was not the governor since neither Thompson nor Talmadge had been sworn in when "Ole' Gene" met his maker. In an attempt to thwart the Talmadge forces, the Thompson camp began serving drinks laced with knockout drops to pro-Talmadge legislators. After the unconscious legislators were revived, the General Assembly moved to choose the next governor from the next two candidates receiving votes. Now another problem arose for the Talmadge camp, young Herman had placed third among write-in votes. The Talmadge forces in the General Assembly quickly pressed for an adjournment to regroup. The day was saved when a set of ballots from Talmadge's home county of Telfair was "conveniently discovered" and had gone "uncounted" when the election took place in November 1946. The ballots were rushed to Atlanta to be counted. When the Telfair ballots arrived, the write-in ballots placed Herman Talmadge into the top two of candidates receiving votes behind his late father. It was later discovered that all of the Telfair ballots were written in the same handwriting and all voters had also cast their ballots in alphabetical order, and some of the voters resided in local Telfair County cemeteries.
In anticipation of possible bloodshed, the major radio networks sent their war correspondents to cover this riveting story in Atlanta. There was a real concern about the possibility of violence. The National Guard, which had recently returned from World War II, supported the Talmadge camp and The State Guard, formed to be the National Guard's temporary replacement, supported Arnall. There was a fear that these two armies might start fighting with each other over this issue. Luckily, no violence erupted during the crisis.
The younger Talmadge was then sworn in at 2 A.M. on 15 January 1947 as governor of Georgia. However, the outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall refused to relinquish the office of governor, stating that Herman Talmadge was a "pretender" to the governorship. Talmadge left the governor's office and told the adjutant general, Marvin Griffin, to see to it that Ellis Arnall got back safely to his home in Newnan, about 40 miles south of Atlanta. Griffin was then instructed to change the locks on the doors of the governor's office. Talmadge's orders were followed, and he took control of the governor's office later that morning.
Arnall returned to the Capitol late on the morning of 15 January to the governor's office. When he tried to go into the governor's office, he was told that he could wait to see Governor Talmadge just like any other citizen. Angered at the turn of events, Arnall took control of the information booth at the front door of the Capitol building. From here, Arnall would continue to claim that he was still governor. When a pro-Talmadge legislator dropped a firecracker into the information booth, Arnall then moved to his nearby law office, although rumors circulated that Arnall had commandeered the men's restroom as his office. Arnall would continue his claim to be governor for 3 more days until he "resigned" the office in favor of M.E. Thompson.
Upon the "resignation" of Arnall, Lt. Governor Thompson then claimed to be the acting governor. Some of the other state department heads began to choose sides between Talmadge and Thompson. The attorney general refused to bond Talmadge's choice for state revenue commissioner, and the state treasurer refused to honor any spending requests from Talmadge. Not knowing which man was the legitimate governor, the secretary of state even began sitting on and sleeping with the state seal which was needed by the governor to make certain documents legal. On 21 January, Talmadge proposed that he and Thompson resign, and re-run the election and allow voters to decide among the two. Thompson quickly said "no way", but did file a motion before the Georgia Supreme Court.
This event had a rather anticlimactic ending. In March 1947, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned two lower court rulings and decided that M.E. Thompson was the Acting Governor. The Court ruled that the General Assembly should have declared Eugene Talmadge the governor-elect although he had been dead for three weeks by the time the legislature met. At that point, M.E. Thompson should have been sworn in as Acting Governor because the declared governor-elect was dead. The Court did rule that a special election be held in 1948 to decided the remainder of the term ending in 1950. To the surprise of some, Talmadge abided by the Court ruling and gave up the governorship to Thompson. However, Talmadge would have the last laugh. In 1948, Talmadge decisively defeated Thompson in the special election. Think it was on the strength of those alphabetized dead voters? Something to think about.