In Asia, competitive elections were held following the end of World War II, in many cases as a result of decolonization (e.g., India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines), though once again the restoration of authoritarianism was commonplace. Elections were used as early in history as ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and throughout the Medieval period to select rulers such as the Holy Roman Emperor (see imperial election) and the pope (see papal election). Each person has one vote. It is important to distinguish between the form and the substance of elections. Dictators may use the powers of the executive (police, martial law, censorship, physical implementation of the election mechanism, etc.) [18], A representative democracy requires a procedure to govern nomination for political office. A process where a designated body of people (the electorate) choose who fills a post or posts. Authoritarian regimes often have used elections as a way to achieve a degree of popular legitimacy. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The mandate is more or less in effect for as long as the government is in power. when war breaks out). to remain in power despite popular opinion in favor of removal. Synonym Discussion of election. While openness and accountability are usually considered cornerstones of a democratic system, the act of casting a vote and the content of a voter's ballot are usually an important exception. [5] The Pala King Gopala (ruled c. 750s–770s CE) in early medieval Bengal was elected by a group of feudal chieftains. For example, in the United Kingdom, university graduates and owners of businesses in constituencies other than those in which they lived could cast more than one ballot until 1948. "Le système électoral et son effet sur la représentation parlementaire des partis: le cas européen. destruction of legitimately cast ballots,[26] Foreign electoral intervention can also occur, with the United States interfering between 1946 and 2000 in 81 elections and Russia/USSR in 36. In the late 1970s, elections were introduced in a smaller number of countries when some military dictatorships were dissolved (e.g., in Ghana and Nigeria) and other countries in Southern Africa underwent decolonization (e.g., Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe). Beginning in the early 1990s, the end of the Cold War and the reduction of military and economic aid from developed countries brought about democratization and competitive elections in more than a dozen African countries, including Benin, Mali, South Africa, and Zambia. In other cases, a regime may postpone an election if there is a significant chance that it will lose. On Election Day, 1888, approximately one hour after the last vote was cast, four masked men burst into a polling place in Plumerville, Arkansas. Dissent in eastern Europe could be registered by crossing out the name of the candidate on the ballot, as several million citizens in the Soviet Union did in each election before 1989; however, because secret voting did not exist in these countries, this practice invited reprisals. Unique election system. In Western Australia, the penalty for a first time offender failing to vote is a $20.00 fine, which increases to $50.00 if the offender refused to vote prior.[16]. After the election the votes were taken out and counted. Winners may be determined by a plurality, a majority (more than 50% of the vote), an extraordinary majority (a percentage of the vote greater than 50%), or unanimity. Results for all parliamentary elections since 1966, "Psephos," archive of recent electoral data from 182 countries, ElectionGuide.org — Worldwide Coverage of National-level Elections, parties-and-elections.de: Database for all European elections since 1945, Angus Reid Global Monitor: Election Tracker, IDEA's Table of Electoral Systems Worldwide, European Election Law Association (Eurela), List of Local Elected Offices in the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Election&oldid=1008893719, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from October 2019, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Benoit, Jean-Pierre and Lewis A. Kornhauser. [1], Non-governmental entities can also interfere with elections, through physical force, verbal intimidation, or fraud, which can result in improper casting or counting of votes. Non-partisan systems tend to be different from partisan systems as concerns nominations. How many electors are there? An election is a choice. [36], Process by which a population chooses the holder of a public office, "Elect" redirects here. [13][14] The Spartan election of the Ephors, therefore, also predates the reforms of Solon in Athens by approximately 180 years. In an extreme example, Charles D. B. In other cases, those who vote receive stamps in their passport for doing so, while those who did not vote (and thus do not receive stamps) are persecuted as enemies of the people. Even when opposition parties are allowed to participate, they may face intimidation by the government and its allies, which thereby precludes the effective mobilization of potential supporters. Competitive elections in Latin America also were introduced in phases. Election definition is - an act or process of electing. In some cases, electoral forms are present but the substance of an election is missing, as when voters do not have a free and genuine choice between at least two alternatives. However, in the European Union, one can vote in municipal elections if one lives in the municipality and is an EU citizen; the nationality of the country of residence is not required. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. How to use electoral in a sentence. Historically the size of eligible voters, the electorate, was small having the size of groups or communities of privileged men like aristocrats and men of a city (citizens). Electoral systems are the detailed constitutional arrangements and voting systems that convert the vote into a political decision. The leaves, with candidate names written on them, were put inside a mud pot. Article II of the United States Constitution requires that the election of the U.S. president by the Electoral College must occur on a single day throughout the country; Article I established that elections for Congressional offices, however, can be held at different times. Problems that prevent an election from being "free and fair" take various forms.[21]. The electorate does not generally include the entire population; for example, many countries prohibit those who are under the age of majority from voting, all jurisdictions require a minimum age for voting. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors who cast votes to decide the President and Vice-President of the United States. This includes any material that is handed out or left in a position to indicate it is for collection by the public. Other states (e.g., the United Kingdom) only set maximum time in office, and the executive decides exactly when within that limit it will actually go to the polls. Voting systems then determine the result on the basis of the tally. In many cases, nomination for office is mediated through preselection processes in organized political parties.[19]. Such elections were quite common in contemporary societies of the region. To elect means "to select or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in the United States. With the growth of the number of people with bourgeois citizen rights outside of cities, expanding the term citizen, the electorates grew to numbers beyond the thousands. Countries with an independent election commission include Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United Kingdom. How are they distributed among the States? Make sure to update your bookmarks! At that time, the holistic notion of representation characteristic of the Middle Ages was transformed into a more individualistic conception, one that made the individual the critical unit to be counted. Although these governments held elections, the contests were not competitive, as voters usually had only the choice of voting for or against the official candidate. Although elections were used in ancient Athens, in Rome, and in the selection of popes and Holy Roman emperors, the origins of elections in the contemporary world lie in the gradual emergence of representative government in Europe and North America beginning in the 17th century. Even with the implementation of universal suffrage, the ideal of “one person, one vote” was not achieved in all countries. There is a variety of schedules, for example presidents: the President of Ireland is elected every seven years, the President of Russia and the President of Finland every six years, the President of France every five years, President of the United States every four years. However, the gana members had the final say in his elections. In practice, this means the government remains in power for close to its full term, and choose an election date it calculates to be in its best interests (unless something special happens, such as a motion of no-confidence). [6][7] In the Chola Empire, around 920 CE, in Uthiramerur (in present-day Tamil Nadu), palm leaves were used for selecting the village committee members. Article II, section 1, clause 2 provides that no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the ElectionGuard is a way of checking election results are accurate, and that votes have not been altered, suppressed or tampered with in any way. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. Individual voters can see that their vote has been accurately recorded, and their choice has been correctly added to the final tally. Election, the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting. Reuven Hazan, 'Candidate Selection', in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds), Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy, http://agathe.gr/democracy/solon_the_lawgiver.html, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Solon, "Failure to Vote | Western Australian Electoral Commission", "Exhibitions > Citizenship > The struggle for democracy > Getting the vote > Voting rights before 1832", "India's spend on elections could challenge US record: report", "When the Great Power Gets a Vote: The Effects of Great Power Electoral Interventions on Election Results", Democracy Facing Global Challenges, V-DEM ANNUAL DEMOCRACY REPORT 2019, p.36, "N.C. board declares a new election in contested House race after the GOP candidate admitted he was mistaken in his testimony", "Sham Election Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc", "Kim Jong-un wins 100% of the vote in his constituency", "Yemen holds presidential election with one candidate", "Egyptian opposition calls for boycott of elections after challengers are arrested and attacked", "Alexei Navalny latest: Russian opposition leader arrested ahead of presidential election | The Independent", "Yes, There Are Elections in North Korea and Here's How They Work - The Atlantic", "Burma: 20 Years After 1990 Elections, Democracy Still Denied", "Liberia past and present 1927 elections", PARLINE database on national parliaments. Although both the American and French revolutions declared every citizen formally equal to every other, the vote remained an instrument of political power possessed by very few. The United States has a presidential system of government, which means that the executive and legislature are elected separately. Although elections were used in ancient Athens, in Rome, and in the selection of popes and Holy Roman emperors, the origins of elections in the contemporary world lie in the gradual emergence of representative government in Europe and North America beginning in the 17th century. A sham election, or show election, is an election that is held purely for show; that is, without any significant political choice or real impact on results of election. However, mass elections had quite different purposes and consequences under the one-party communist regimes of eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the period from the end of World War II to 1989–90. An election is a way people can choose their candidate or their preferences in a representative democracy or other form of government. An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. [20], In many of the countries with weak rule of law, the most common reason why elections do not meet international standards of being "free and fair" is interference from the incumbent government. However, they tend to greatly lengthen campaigns, and make dissolving the legislature (parliamentary system) more problematic if the date should happen to fall at time when dissolution is inconvenient (e.g. [22] A third of the 100 seats will be up for grabs in the 2018 midterm elections, while the rest will be … Although many of them reverted to authoritarian forms of rule, there were exceptions (e.g., Botswana and Gambia). When the Electoral votes were tallied in the 1800 U.S. presidential election—only the fourth election in the young nation’s history—there was a problem. Males, the dominant cultural group in North America and Europe, often dominated the electorate and continue to do so in many countries. Professor of Political Science, University of Calgary, Alberta. Nonvoting was another form of protest, especially as local communist activists were under extreme pressure to achieve nearly a 100 percent turnout. Published results usually show nearly 100% voter turnout and high support (typically at least 80%, and close to 100% in many cases) for the prescribed candidate(s) or for the referendum choice that favors the political party in power. Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems. ", LGDJ; This page was last edited on 25 February 2021, at 16:41. In the United States, elections for public offices are typically held between every two and six years in most states and at the federal level, with exceptions for elected judicial positions that may have longer terms of office. With the Electoral College holding such a grip over the outcome of this presidential battle, both Mr Trump and Mr Biden were, above all, fighting for seats in the College. Members of the House are elected for two-year terms, so all 435 seats are decided during the midterm elections. When elections are called, politicians and their supporters attempt to influence policy by competing directly for the votes of constituents in what are called campaigns. Suffrage is typically only for citizens of the country, though further limits may be imposed. Elections with an electorate in the hundred thousands appeared in the final decades of the Roman Republic, by extending voting rights to citizens outside of Rome with the Lex Julia of 90 BC, reaching an electorate of 910,000 and estimated voter turnout of maximum 10% in 70 BC,[17] only again comparable in size to the first elections of the United States. Dictatorships may hold elections in cases where no substantive opposition is remotely feasible (e.g., because opposition forces have been repressed) or when economic factors favour the regime. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In some systems no nominations take place at all, with voters free to choose any person at the time of voting—with some possible exceptions such as through a minimum age requirement—in the jurisdiction. Many countries have growing electoral reform movements, which advocate systems such as approval voting, single transferable vote, instant runoff voting or a Condorcet method; these methods are also gaining popularity for lesser elections in some countries where more important elections still use more traditional counting methods. As far as partisan systems, in some countries, only members of a particular party can be nominated (see one-party state). For the "free elections" of Polish kings, see, Lack of open political debate or an informed electorate. With exceptions, such as Turkey, Iraq, and Israel, competitive elections in countries of the Middle East are rare. Election is the fact of electing, or being elected. In sub-Saharan Africa, competitive elections based on universal suffrage were introduced in three distinct periods. When Americans go to the polls in presidential elections they're actually voting for a group of officials who make up the electoral college. All electoral material that is to be distributed on election day by political parties, groups, candidates, and any other persons or organisations, must be registered with the Electoral Commissioner. Electoral system, Method and rules of counting votes to determine the outcome of elections. Clan elders indirectly choose the members of the … King of Liberia was reported to have won by 234,000 votes in the 1927 general election, a "majority" that was over fifteen times larger than the number of eligible voters. Additional countries held elections in the period dating roughly 1943 to 1962, though again many did not retain democratic governments. [1], In Vedic period of India, the Raja (chiefs) of a gana (a tribal organization) was apparently elected by the gana. Election, the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting. Nor were the lowest of the four classes of Athenian citizens (as defined by the extent of their wealth and property, rather than by birth) eligible to hold public office, through the reforms of Solon. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is one of the most powerful men in Washington. [1] However, by 1920 all Western European and North American democracies had universal adult male suffrage (except Switzerland) and many countries began to consider women's suffrage. At the same time the Kingdom of Great Britain had in 1780 about 214,000 eligible voters, 3% of the whole population. Election definition: An election is a process in which people vote to choose a person or group of people to... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples
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