Election

I

Introduction

Election, procedure by which the members of an organization or a governmental jurisdiction, such as a state or nation, select a person or people to hold offices of authority. An election may also register choices between alternate courses of action, and it may be conducted by ballot, by a show of hands, or by oral voting. In democracies, elections usually select executive, legislative, administrative, and some judicial officials. Those who participate by voting are known collectively as the electorate.

II

Election Procedure

Before officials are elected, they are usually nominated as candidates from among all the individuals who aspire to a particular office. In Great Britain, a person may be nominated for a position in the House of Commons by presenting a petition bearing the signatures of as few as ten qualified voters, although the person stands little chance of election until he or she is adopted by a local major party organization. In the United States, aspirants have been nominated by caucus, convention, and primary elections. Candidates for president and vice-president are selected by national conventions.

A

General Elections

By participating in general elections, voters determine which of the nominated candidates shall hold office. Such elections are called direct elections if the electorate makes this ultimate choice; they are called indirect elections if the electorate chooses instead a group of representatives who then make the final selection. Thus, in the United States, the election of a member of Congress by his or her constituency is direct, as is the election of a member of the House of Commons in England. Technically the choosing of the American president by an electoral college is a form of indirect election, but since electors in each state vote for the party candidate with the most popular votes in that state, the choice of the electoral college almost always corresponds with the national popular vote. On the other hand, the selection of the British prime minister by the majority party in parliament is a true indirect election. The American tradition favours direct election and is based on the assumption that officials so elected, and subject to re-election, are more responsive to the will of the electorate than are those chosen indirectly.

Elections have not always been used to achieve democratic results. In some countries, in some states of the United States, and in some private organizations, the electorate has often in practice been restricted to the membership of one or more groups or parties. In some general elections, the choice before voters has been a positive or a negative vote for a single candidate. Such problems are often the target of electoral reform. The frequency of elections is also important in the democratic dimension of public affairs. In many countries, notably some European parliamentary democracies, the executive branch of the government can, within specified limits, dissolve the legislative branch and call for a new election of legislative members.

Still another consideration in this regard is the variety of public matters that are open to the elective process and the number and kinds of officials subject to election. In some countries, the electorate selects a party, rather than individual candidates, so that the legislative body may reflect a wide scope of organized political opinion. In such countries, both the executive and administrative officials are usually elected indirectly. By contrast, the officials to be selected in elections may include executives, legislators, judges, commissioners, and other administrators. These elections are consistent with the tradition of direct elections, and they often require a long, complex ballot. Voters may also be asked to approve or reject financial propositions such as tax levies and bond issues, and in states that provide for direct legislation they may even be asked to vote directly for or against specific pieces of legislation that have been referred to them. These elective votes closely resemble referendums.

III

History

Historically, elections have been identified with the rise of democracy. In the city-states of ancient Greece, often cited as examples of pure democracies, members of the council of state were chosen by lot from a list of candidates selected by the demes, or local governments. The citizens of ancient Rome elected important public officials and voted on public matters. In the Middle Ages suffrage was limited. Among the early Teutonic tribes, the freemen elected their kings; later, heredity became the basis for kingship. From the mid-13th century until the beginning of the 19th century, the German monarchs and the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were elected by the princes of the realm, who were called electors. Medieval Venice chose its doges, or chief magistrates, by a complicated system of indirect elections involving an intermediate electoral body selected by lottery.

In England, the method of selecting the members of Parliament was not defined by law in the early history of that institution. The statesman Simon de Montfort summoned a parliament in 1265, calling for representatives of counties and boroughs. Subsequently, an informal and irregular system of electing parliamentary representatives developed with procedures varying from county to county. Many elections took place at mass meetings following a reading by the sheriff of a writ of election. A number of abuses that developed later were eliminated by law in the latter half of the 19th century.

In the United States, in 1787, the Constitution provided for the election of the chief executive in Article II, Section 1, and the members of the national legislature in Article I, Section 2. A number of election abuses, however, led in the latter part of the 19th century to the adoption of the Australian, or secret, ballot and to the practice of registering voters prior to election day.

See also Electoral Reform.