What prompted Georgia to eliminate the County Unit System?

The elimination of the County Unit System in Georgia was primarily prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Gray v. Sanders in 1963. This landmark decision declared that the County Unit System violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by giving disproportionate voting power to rural counties over urban ones. The system had allowed less populous rural counties to have a greater influence in statewide elections, which was considered inequitable and undemocratic. As a result of this ruling, Georgia had to reform its electoral system to ensure that all citizens had equal voting rights, thus leading to the abolition of the County Unit System.

Other options, while contributing to the broader context of civil rights and electoral fairness, did not directly result in the elimination of the County Unit System in the same legal and structured manner as the Supreme Court's decision. The statewide referendum involved in later reforms was a consequence of the court ruling rather than a direct prompt for the elimination.