The New Student's Reference Work/Elections
Elections. An election is the act of selecting a person or persons for some office. Elections often take place at stated intervals in connection with clubs, societies and similar organizations, with a view to having the different offices of the organization filled by the best available persons.
An election in politics is the act or process of publicly choosing by vote a person or persons for public office. In general, the most important political elections are those for the legislative bodies of the various countries and, in republics, the election of the president. It has been found necessary to pass many laws for the regulation of important elections, with a view to the prevention of bribery and corruption. In the United States, Federal laws regulate the election of Federal government-officials, such as the president, vice-president and members of Congress, while state-laws regulate the election of state officials. Voting is now usually by ballot.
A ballot formerly signified a little ball used in secret voting. But voting by ballot has now come to mean simply secret voting, irrespective of the particular means used. The commonest form of ballot now in use is that of a ticket, with the names of the candidates for the office printed upon it. The voter casts his vote by putting some mark, such as a cross, opposite the name of the person or persons for whom he wishes to vote. Sometimes the names of all of the candidates are arranged in separate columns on the ballot, all the Republican candidates in one column, all the Democrats in another, etc. One object of this is to encourage the voter to vote a straight ticket, that is, to vote for all the candidates of the one party to the exclusion of all the candidates of the other party. The expense of preparing and distributing the ballots is now usually borne by the state.
A majority is simply the excess of votes that one party receives over another party or parties at an election. For instance, if A receives 100 votes, B 80 and C 60, A has not a majority, as he received only 100 votes out of 240, or less than half of the total number of votes cast. If A had received 200, B 80 and C 60, A would have a majority of 60.
A plurality, on the other hand, is the number by which the votes for the highest of a number of candidates exceed those of the next highest candidate, when the candidate receiving the greatest number of votes has not a majority of all the votes cast. Thus, if A receives 100 votes, B 80 and C 60, A has a plurality of 20, having 20 more than the next highest candidate B. Sometimes the word majority is loosely used in the sense of plurality.
A primary election is the means used to nominate the candidates for office in a general election. Only members of the particular party concerned take part in in it; that is, there are Republican primaries for nominating the candidates of the Republicans and Democratic primaries for nominating the Democratic candidates. In many places the primary elections have at times degenerated into selfish partisan organizations from which the majority of the voters of the party were excluded. Abuses of this nature have led to the passing of laws in many states for rigidly regulating the primary elections. These laws in the main provide that sufficient public notice of the meeting shall be given, that the voting shall be by ballot, that the election-officials shall be sworn, that frauds shall be duly punished and that the expense involved, except in a few cases, shall be borne by the state.