Incumbent Democratic governor Ellis Arnall was term-limited, and ineligible to run for a second term before spending four years out of office (thus in 1950).

[3][4] The election was won by the Democratic nominee and former governor Eugene Talmadge, who died weeks later in mid-December, before his scheduled inauguration in January 1947.

[6] The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to the Electoral College, but in practice the large ratio of unit votes for small, rural counties to unit votes for more populous urban areas provided outsized political influence to the smaller counties.

[28] The General Assembly then declined to certify Eugene Talmadge as the winner, instead resolving that "no person had a majority of the whole number of votes" because of his death.

It defined the General Assembly's role in certification as purely ministerial, and held that the constitution did not allow it any discretion in the process, including considering the death of a candidate.

[29] Ironically, the court then resolved the initial controversy of who should have been governor after certification in favor of Ellis Arnall; since the constitution defined the gubernatorial term as four years but stipulated it does not expire until a successor is "chosen and qualified", and a dead person is not qualified, the court held Arnall should have continued serving as governor.

[29] In a 1985 interview, Arnall admitted he shared the interpretation that he could continue in office for up to another full term, but had little interest in doing so.