“The word comes from Latin ēligere, meaning 'to pick out' — an election is, etymologically, a choosing, a sorting, a picking from among available options, and the word says nothing about votes or democracy.”
Latin ēlectiō comes from ēligere: ē- (out) + legere (to pick, to gather, to read). An ēlectiō was a picking-out, a selection. The same root legere produced 'collect,' 'select,' 'elegant' (chosen, picked out), 'legend' (something gathered to be read), and 'legible.' An election was any act of choosing — not necessarily by voting. Popes were elected. Abbots were elected. The word named the result (someone was chosen), not the method (how they were chosen).
Medieval elections were not democratic. The election of a pope by the College of Cardinals, formalized in 1059, was an election — a choosing — but the electors were a tiny, exclusive group. The election of the Holy Roman Emperor by the seven Electors (established by the Golden Bull of 1356) was an election, but the 'electorate' was seven people. The word 'election' accumulated its democratic connotation gradually, as the pool of choosers expanded.
Universal suffrage — the right of all adult citizens to vote in elections — was achieved in most Western democracies only in the twentieth century. Women gained the vote in New Zealand in 1893, in the UK in 1918 (with restrictions, fully in 1928), and in the US in 1920. The word 'election' covered all of these — the seven-elector imperial choice and the 150-million-voter presidential election — without changing.
The word has specialized meanings in theology (God's election of the saved), in chemistry (electron affinity), and in law (election of remedies — choosing which legal path to pursue). The thread connecting all uses is the act of choosing. An election is a choice. Everything else — the ballot, the campaign, the concession speech — is infrastructure the word does not require.
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Today
Elections are held in over 100 countries worldwide. The word appears in headlines more often than almost any other political term. But the quality of elections varies enormously — a competitive multiparty election in a liberal democracy and a single-candidate vote in an authoritarian state are both called 'elections.' The word does not discriminate.
The Latin root — to pick out — is the most accurate part. An election picks someone out of a group. How the picking is done, who does the picking, and whether the picking is free and fair are all separate questions that the word itself does not answer. The etymology is neutral. The practice is not.
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