Portal:Elections

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Introduction

A ballot box used in France

An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

The universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern representative democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where the Elections were not used were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot.

Selected general articles

The 2015 cash-for-votes scam was a South Indian political scandal, the second scandal of its kind since the 2008 North Indian cash-for-votes scandal. The 2015 political scandal started off when the Telugu Desam Party Leaders of Telangana state were caught in a video footage, aired in the media, offering bribes to a nominated MLA for his vote in the 2015 elections of the Telangana Legislative Council. The Telugu Desam MLA Revanth Reddy was arrested by the Telangana Police when he was offering Rs. 50 lakhs to the nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson. Reddy was then presented before the court of justice and sent to jail. Similarly, the phone conversation, which was quoted as the voice of N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, with the same nominated MLA was aired in the news media.

The Telugu Desam party alleged that the scandal, was a political vendetta, doctored by the Telangana State Government under the direction of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, alongside the YSR Congress Party.But eventually proved as a false statement in investigation. In a further development, The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, granted bail to Revanth Reddy and two other co-accused due to lack of substantial evidence. Read more...
Election auditing refers to any review conducted after polls close for the purpose of determining whether the votes were counted accurately (a results audit) or whether proper procedures were followed (a process audit), or both.

Both results and process audits can be performed between elections for purposes of quality management, but if results audits are to be used to protect the official election results from undetected fraud and error, they must be completed before election results are declared final. Read more...
A general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.

In presidential systems, a general election is a regularly scheduled election where both the president, and either "a class" of or all members of the national legislature are elected at the same time but can also involve special elections held to fill prematurely vacated positions. A general election day may also include elections for local officials. Read more...
Plurality voting is an electoral system in which each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the candidate who polls the most among their counterparts (a plurality) is elected. In a system based on single-member districts, it may be called first-past-the-post (FPTP), single-choice voting, simple plurality or relative/simple majority. In a system based on multi-member districts, it may be referred to as winner-takes-all or bloc voting. The system is often used to elect members of a legislative assembly or executive officers. It is the most common form of the system, and is used in most elections in the United States, the lower house (Lok Sabha) in India, most elections in the United Kingdom (excluding some Scottish and Northern Irish elections), and Canada.

Plurality voting is distinguished from a majoritarian electoral system, in which, to win, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of votes, i.e., more votes than all other candidates combined. Both systems may use single-member or multi-member constituencies. In the latter case it may be referred to as an exhaustive counting system: one member is elected at a time and the process repeated until the number of vacancies is filled. Read more...
A recall election (also called a recall referendum or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before that official's term has ended. Recalls, which are initiated when sufficient voters sign a petition, have a history dating back to ancient Athenian democracy and feature in several contemporary constitutions. In indirect or representative democracy, people's representatives are elected and these representatives rule for a specific period of time. However, where the facility to recall exists, should any representative come to be perceived as not properly discharging their responsibilities, then they can be called back with the written request of specific number or proportion of voters. Read more...
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions entitled to representation. Read more...
A snap election is an election called earlier than expected.

Generally it refers to an election in a parliamentary system called when not required (either by law or convention), usually to capitalize on a unique electoral opportunity or to decide a pressing issue. It differs from a recall election in that it is initiated by politicians (usually the head of government or ruling party) rather than voters, and from a by-election in that the winners will serve an entire term as opposed to the remainder of an already established term. Read more...
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is invited to vote on a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new law. In some countries, it is synonymous with a plebiscite or a vote on a ballot question.

Some definitions of 'plebiscite' suggest that it is a type of vote to change the constitution or government of a country. However, some other countries define it differently. For example, Australia defines 'referendum' as a vote to change the constitution, and 'plebiscite' as a vote that does not affect the constitution. In Ireland, the vote to adopt its constitution was called a "plebiscite", but a subsequent vote to amend the constitution is called a 'referendum', and so is a poll of the electorate on a non-constitutional bill. Read more...
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Different ways to apportion electoral districts

Gerrymandering is a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander (/ˈdʒɛriˌmændər, ˈɡɛri-/); however, that word is also a verb for the process. The term gerrymandering has negative connotations. Two principal tactics are used in gerrymandering: "cracking" (i.e. diluting the voting power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts) and "packing" (concentrating the opposing party's voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts). A third tactic, shown in the top-left diagram in the graphic to the right, is homogenization of all districts (essentially a form of cracking where the majority party uses its superior numbers to guarantee the minority party never attains a majority in any district).

In addition to its use achieving desired electoral results for a particular party, gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, or class group, such as in U.S. federal voting district boundaries that produce a majority of constituents representative of African-American or other racial minorities, known as "majority-minority districts". Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Read more...
Boundary delimitation (or simply delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries, particularly of electoral precincts, states, counties or other municipalities. In the context of elections, it can be called redistribution and is used to prevent unbalance of population across districts. In the United States, it is called redistricting. Unbalanced or discriminatory delimitation is called "gerrymandering." Though there are no internationally agreed processes that guarantee fair delimitation, several organizations, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems have proposed guidelines for effective delimitation.

In international law, the related national delimitation is the process of legally establishing the outer limits ("borders") of a state within which full territorial or functional sovereignty is exercised. Occasionally this is used when referring to the maritime boundaries, in which case it is called maritime delimitation. Read more...
A sham election is an election that is held purely for show; that is, without any significant political choice or real impact on results of election.

Show elections are a common event in dictatorial regimes that feel the need to feign the appearance of public legitimacy. Published results usually show nearly 100% voter turnout and high support (close to 100% in many cases) for the prescribed candidate(s) or for the referendum choice that favors the political party in power. Dictatorial regimes can also organize show elections with results simulating those that might be achieved in democratic countries. Read more...
A ballot box used in France

An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

The universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern representative democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where the Elections were not used were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot. Read more...
Luis Guillermo Solís, then-President of Costa Rica, votes behind a privacy screen

The secret ballot, also known as Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous, forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying. The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.

Secret ballots are used in conjunction with various voting systems. The most basic form of secret ballot utilizes blank pieces of paper, upon which each voter writes his or her choice. Without revealing the votes to anyone, the voter would fold the ballot paper and place it in a sealed box, which is emptied later for counting. An aspect of secret voting is the provision of a voting booth to enable the voter to write on the ballot paper without others being able to see what is being written. Today, printed ballot papers are usually provided, with the names of the candidates or questions and respective check boxes. Provisions are made at the polling place for the voters to record their preferences in secret, and the ballots are designed to eliminate bias and to prevent anyone from linking voter to ballot. Read more...
This is a list of the next general elections around the world in democratic polities. The general elections listed are for the government of each jurisdiction. These elections determine the Prime Minister and makeup of the legislature in a parliamentary democracy, or the president and then the legislature in a system where separate votes are taken for different tiers of government.

In most jurisdictions, general elections are held between every three to five years, with presidential elections sometimes attaining 6 (Mexico, Russia since a 2008 amendment) or 7 years (France's septennat until 2000). Read more...
A fixed-term election is an election that occurs on a set date, and cannot be changed by a majority of incumbent politicians.

Fixed-term elections are common for most mayors and for directly elected governors and presidents, but less common for prime ministers and parliaments in a parliamentary system of government. Read more...
This is a list of close election results at national and state level.

It lists results that have been decided by a margin of less than 1 vote in 1,000 (a margin of victory of less than 0.1%). To provide context, after the first table is another table showing the distribution of winning margins in different areas. Depending on the area, from 1 in 40 to 1 in 500 election contests is decided by less than 1 vote in 1,000. This list is limited to elections in which at least 1,000 votes were cast. Read more...
Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts (also called super-districts), as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.

The most widely used families of PR electoral systems are party list PR, the single transferable vote (STV), and mixed member proportional representation (MMP). Read more...
Election silence, pre-election silence, electoral silence, or campaign silence is a ban on political campaigning prior to a presidential or general election. Under this rule, in some jurisdictions, such as Slovenia, it is forbidden to try to convince people to vote for a specific candidate or political party on the day of election. Some jurisdictions have declared that, legally, election silence is in violation of law regarding freedom of speech. It is however used in some of the world's democracies "in order to balance out the campaigning and maintain a free voting environment". Read more...
Psephology /sɪˈfɒlədʒi/ (from Greek psephos ψῆφος, 'pebble', as the Greeks used pebbles as ballots) is a branch of political science which deals with the study and scientific analysis of elections.

Psephology uses historical precinct voting data, public opinion polls, campaign finance information and similar statistical data. The term was coined in 1948 in the United Kingdom by W. F. R. Hardie (1902–1990) after he was asked by his friend R. B. McCallum for a word to describe the study of elections; first written use in 1952. Read more...
Voting is a method for a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, in order to make a collective decision or express an opinion, usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting. Residents of a place represented by an elected official are called "constituents", and those constituents who cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called "voters". There are different systems for collecting votes. Read more...
An indirect election is an election in which voters do not choose between candidates for an office, but elect people who then choose. It is one of the oldest forms of elections, and is still used today for many presidents, cabinets, upper houses, and supranational legislatures. Presidents and prime ministers can be indirectly elected by parliaments or by a special body convened solely for that purpose. The election of the executive government in most parliamentary systems is indirect: elect the parliamentarians, who then elect the government including most prominently the prime minister from among themselves. Upper houses, especially of federal republics, can be indirectly elected by state legislatures or state governments. Similarly, supranational legislatures can be indirectly elected by constituent countries' legislatures or executive governments.

Examples of indirectly elected individuals include:
- the election of the United States President and the Vice President is indirect election. Voters elect the Electoral College, which then elects the President. The Electoral College is a controversial issue in American politics, as the Electoral College vote may not agree with the popular vote.
- The President of Germany is similarly elected by a Federal Convention.
- in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister usually is a member of the House of Commons, the lower, elected house of Parliament, and is the leader of the political party with the most seats able to command a majority either outright or by agreement with other parties. Similar arrangements are used in the devolved assemblies and most local councils.
- in Spain, the Congress of Deputies votes on a motion of confidence of the king's nominee (customarily the party leader whose party controls the Congress) and the nominee's political manifesto, an example of an indirect election of the Prime Minister of Spain.
- Many countries with parliamentary systems elect their head of state indirectly (Germany, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, India, Israel, Bangladesh). In most of these, head of state is merely a ceremonial figurehead with limited power.
- Political party nominees can be indirectly elected in party conventions, such as in the United States. Local caucus attendants vote for delegates, who vote for a nominee in state conventions.
Read more...
Signature collection point at The Body Shop in Kluuvi shopping centre, Helsinki, for one of the first citizens' initiatives in Finland, about banning fur farming.

In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote, in parliament or via a referendum ( sometimes called a plebiscite), the latter then being dubbed a Popular initiated Referendum.

The initiative can often be rejected by the parliament, but it can also be forced to see the proposition put to a referendum. The initiative may then take the form of a direct initiative or an indirect initiative. In a direct initiative, a measure is put directly to a referendum after being submitted by a petition. In an indirect initiative, a measure is first referred to the legislature, and then put to a popular vote only if not enacted by the legislature. Read more...
Suffrage universel dédié à Ledru-Rollin, Frédéric Sorrieu, 1850

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage, as distinct from passive suffrage, which is the right to stand for election. The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called full suffrage.

Suffrage is often conceived in terms of elections for representatives. However, suffrage applies equally to referenda and initiatives. Suffrage describes not only the legal right to vote, but also the practical question of whether a question will be put to a vote. The utility of suffrage is reduced when important questions are decided unilaterally without extensive, conscientious, full disclosure and public review. Read more...
In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary widely across jurisdictions. Read more...
A midterm election refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term of the executive. This is usually used to describe elections to a governmental body (generally a legislature) that are staggered so that the number of offices of that body would not be up for election at the same time. Only a fraction of a body's seats are up for election while others are not until the terms of the next set of members are to expire. The legislators may have the same or longer fixed term of office as the executive, which facilitates an election mid-term of the tenure of the higher office.

In the United States, the president and vice president are elected every four years in indirect (electoral college) presidential elections. The legislative bodies of the United States are the Senate (who serve six year terms) and House of Representatives (2 year terms). The Senate has one-third of its members up for election every two years while the House has all its membership up for election every two years. Regarding elections to the United States Congress, the point of reference is the president's term. There are three classes of United States Senators; each election replaces one class, hence a "midterm election" appears as one-third through the term of one class and two-thirds through the other, while still midway the term of a president. In addition to federal legislative bodies, governors of 36 states and three territories are also up for election during a midterm election. Read more...
In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lot, allotment, or demarchy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates, a system intended to ensure that all competent and interested parties have an equal chance of holding public office. It also minimizes factionalism, since there would be no point making promises to win over key constituencies if one was to be chosen by lot, while elections, by contrast, foster it  In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy.

Today, sortition is commonly used to select prospective jurors in common law-based legal systems and is sometimes used in forming citizen groups with political advisory power (citizens' juries or citizens' assemblies). Read more...
An anonymous elector is generally a registered voter whose safety would be at risk if their details were available on a public electoral register. Read more...
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation or vote rigging, is illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. What exactly constitutes electoral fraud varies from country to country.

Many kinds of election fraud are outlawed in electoral legislation, but others are in violation of general laws, such as those banning assault, harassment or libel. Although technically the term 'electoral fraud' covers only those acts which are illegal, the term is sometimes used to describe acts which are legal, but considered morally unacceptable, outside the spirit of an election or in violation of the principles of democracy. Show elections, containing only one candidate, are sometimes classified as electoral fraud, although they may comply with the law and are presented more as referendums. Read more...
In primary elections in the United States, crossover voting refers to a behavior in which voters cast ballots for a party with which they are not traditionally affiliated. Even in the instance of closed primary elections, in which voters are required to receive a ballot matching their own political party, crossover voting may still take place, but requires the additional step of voters to change their political affiliation ahead of the primary election. Read more...
A referendum (in some countries synonymous with plebiscite, or a vote on a ballot question) is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This article summarises referendum legislature and practice in various countries. Read more...
For each de jure and de facto sovereign state and dependent territory an article on elections in that entity has been included and information on the way the head of state, head of government, and the legislature is selected. Merged cells for "head of state" and "head of government" indicate the office is the same for that country; merged cells for "lower house" and "upper house" indicate a unicameral legislature. The linked articles include the results of the elections. For a chronological order, see the electoral calendar. Read more...
A ballot box used in France

An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

The universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern representative democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where the Elections were not used were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot. Read more...
A primary election is the process by which voters, either the general public (open primary) or members of a political party (closed primary), can indicate their preference for a candidate in an upcoming general election or by-election, thus narrowing the field of candidates.

Primaries are used in various countries throughout the world. Its origins can be traced to the progressive movement in the United States, which aimed to take the power of candidate nomination from party leaders to the people. Political parties control the method of nomination of candidates for office in the name of the party. Read more...
Election cybersecurity or election security refers to the protection of elections and voting infrastructure from cyberattack or cyber threat – including the tampering with or infiltration of voting machines and equipment, election office networks and practices, and voter registration databases.

Cyber threats or attacks to elections or voting infrastructure could be carried out by insiders within a voting jurisdiction, or by a variety of other actors ranging from nefarious nation-states, to organized cyber criminals to lone-wolf hackers. Motives may range from a desire to influence the election outcome, to discrediting democratic processes, to creating public distrust or even political upheaval. Read more...
A political party is an organized group of people, often with common views, who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good or furthering their supporters' interests.

While there is some international commonality in the way political parties are recognized and in how they operate, there are often many differences, and some are significant. Many political parties have an ideological core, but some do not, and many represent ideologies very different from their ideology at the time the party was founded. Many countries, such as Germany and India, have several significant political parties, and some nations have one-party systems, such as China and Cuba. The United States is in practice a two-party system but with many smaller parties also participating and a high degree of autonomy for individual candidates. Read more...
Map of electoral system for national legislatures, .
  Two-round system
  Instant runoff
  Majority bonus system
  Plurality-at-large
  General ticket
  SNTV
  Cumulative voting
  Borda
  Party-list PR
  STV
    MMPR
        Parallel voting

An electoral system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Political electoral systems are organized by governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations.

Electoral systems consist of sets of rules that govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who can stand as a candidate, how ballots are marked and cast, how the ballots are counted (electoral method), limits on campaign spending, and other factors that can affect the outcome. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions, and can use multiple types of elections for different offices. Read more...
By-elections, also spelled bye-elections (Ireland only) (known as special elections in the United States and the Philippines, and bypolls in India), are used to fill elected offices that have become vacant between general elections.

In most cases these elections occur after the incumbent dies or resigns, but they also occur when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall, ennoblement, criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance). Less commonly, these elections have been called when a constituency election is invalidated by voting irregularities. Read more...
An example of runoff voting. Runoff voting involves two rounds of voting. Only two candidates survive to the second round.

The two-round system (also known as the second ballot, runoff voting or ballotage) is a voting method used to elect a single winner, where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate receives the required number of votes, then those candidates having less than a certain proportion of the votes, or all but the two candidates receiving the most votes, are eliminated, and a second round of voting is held.

The two-round system is used around the world for the election of legislative bodies and directly elected presidents. For example, it is used in French presidential, legislative, and departmental elections. In Italy, it is used to elect mayors, but also to decide which party or coalition receives a majority bonus in city councils. A two-round system is used also to elect the presidents of Afghanistan, Argentina, Austria, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Macedonia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. Historically it was used to elect the Reichstag in the German Empire between 1871 and 1918, and in New Zealand in the 1908 and 1911 elections. Read more...

Did you know...

... that in the Eutaw riot in Alabama, several black citizens were killed by the Ku Klux Klan during a campaign of terror that led to the election of Democratic governor Robert B. Lindsay?
... that the Northern Ireland Assembly will lose 18 MLAs because of the Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, effective at the snap election today?
... that Cuitláhuac García Jiménez lost the 2016 Veracruz gubernatorial election to Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, but defeated Linares' son in 2018?
... that Marc Kasowitz has represented Donald Trump in bankruptcies, sexual misconduct allegations, and the Russian election interference investigation?
... that residents of Uttan aided Gilbert Mendonca's candidacy in the 2009 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election by refusing to allow other candidates to campaign in their town?
... that Richard Rushall's election to mayor of Rangoon was described by The Straits Times as having given "universal satisfaction"?

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Selected images

A British election ballot paper, 1880
A ballot from the 1936 elections in Nazi Germany. Voters had no options other than Adolf Hitler.
A ballot box used in France
Roman coin depicting election
Election Proceedings in Buenos Ayres: Voting under military protection (The Illustrated London News, 26 March 1892).
Campaigners working on posters in Milan, Italy, 2004
The Presidential Election in Argentina, the Polling Station at the Church of La Merced, Buenos Aires. "The rival voters were kept back by an armed force of police out of sight to others. Only batches of two or three were allowed to enter the polling-office at a time. Armed sentries guarded the gates and the doors leading to the office, and were also posted on the roofs of adjoining houses and in the belfry and tower of the church." (Godefroy Durand, The Graphic, 21 May 1892).