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An election is a formal 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. • The basic function of elections in a democracy is the selection of political representation. • Elections: a peaceful resolution of tension within society. • Through elections voters are mobilized on behalf of certain values, demands, or goals.
Four elements of elections: universal, equal, secret, and direct. • Universal: every person has the right to vote. • Equal: each person’s vote has the same value. • Secret: it is not possible to find out whom or what a person voted for. • Direct: the voter selects his representative. 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. Suffrage The question of who may vote is a central issue in elections. The electorate does not generally include the entire population; for example, many countries prohibit those judged mentally incompetent from voting, and all jurisdictions require a minimum age for voting. Much of the history of elections involves the effort to promote suffrage for excluded groups. The women’s suffrage movement gave women in many countries the right to vote, and securing the right to vote freely was a major goal of the American civil rights movement. Extending voting rights to excluded groups (such as convicted felons, members of certain minorities, and the economically disadvantaged) continues to be a goal of voting rights advocates. Suffrage is typically only for citizens of the country, though further limits may be imposed. 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. Electoral systems An electoral system is commonly understood as the rules that govern how votes obtained by a political party or candidates are translated into representatives (seats) in a representative body, and the interaction between these and party behavior. What Are the Potential Objectives of an Electoral System? The reasons for these unpredictable effects lie partly in that any electoral system is a set of compromises in attempting to attain a range of socio-political objectives, many of which are not complementary. Some of the possible objectives for an electoral system could be described as to: • Assist effective representation, so that all societal groups have potential access to political positions • Minimize complexity, so that elections are accessible to voters • Be realistic and sustainable with regard to a country’s financial, technical, and administrative capacities • Provide incentives for conciliation, cooperation and mutually beneficial action between political participants • Encourage voters to influence who represents them • Promote the public’s perception of the legitimacy of the parliament and the government • Assist the establishment of effective government • Promote a system of coherent political parties • Promote the accountability of the government, and elected representatives, to the public • Encourage the growth of political parties that are inclusive of a broad range of societal groups • Assist in promoting parliamentary oversight of executive activity • Be innovative in finding solutions to perceived past shortcomings. It is apparent that there may be conflict between many of these objectives, and a decision will need to be made on which are the most important to any country at its stage of political and societal development. There often will not be agreement on this – various political parties and other political and social interest groups are likely to have different ideas about which are the higher priority objectives. Some potential conflicts are: • Ensuring effective voter influence balanced against encouraging coherent political parties • Establishing accountable government yet providing broad based representation • Keeping the system simple, yet not being afraid to innovate • Balancing the need for short term solutions against longer term stability considerations • Maintaining accessibility by building on past electoral systems, without being restricted by their historic parameters. In attempting to achieve a mix of objectives no electoral system can be value neutral. A choice has to be made about which values are the most important – recognizing that whatever choice is made, various political forces may well be relatively favored and others relatively disadvantaged. |
The Secret Ballot
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. The secret ballot is a relatively modern development, but it is now considered crucial in most free and fair elections, as it limits the effectiveness of intimidation.
Scheduling
The nature of democracy is that elected officials are accountable to the people, and they must return to the voters at prescribed intervals to seek their mandate to continue in office. For that reason most democratic constitutions provide that elections are held at fixed regular intervals. In the United States, elections are held between every three and six years in most states, with exceptions such as the U.S. House of Representatives, which stands for election every two years. 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 United States every four years.
Pre-determined or fixed election dates have the advantage of fairness and predictability. 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. when war breaks out). 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. 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). This calculation depends on a number of variables, such as its performance in opinion polls and the size of its majority.
Elections are usually held on one day. There are also advance polls and absentee voting, which have a more flexible schedule.
Source: Engineering Electoral Systems: Possibilities and Pitfalls