For 60 years, populous Atlanta (331,314) has been frustrated by Georgia's archaic county-unit system, which keeps Democratic primaries and therefore state government firmly under the thumb of county woolhats. Four times suits to abolish the system have been instituted; each fizzled before the Supreme Court. Last week Atlanta's plucky Mayor William B. Hartsfield launched a determined fifth try. As Private Citizen Hartsfield, the mayor filed a Federal Court suit protesting that while Atlanta's Fulton County (pop. 473,572) contains 14% of Georgia's population, the county-unit system allows it only 1½% of the state's voting power and is thereby discriminatory and unconstitutional.
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