Questions tagged [election]
Elections are the process by which a populace elects their political leaders. Elections are typically only utilized in democratic nations with some exceptions. Elections come in multiple different forms such as: First Past the Post (the first person to win a relative majority), Absolute Majority (the winner is the candidate which receives 50%+1 of the votes), Instant Run-Off Voting (system where voters rank their preferred candidates), and many more.
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Did provincial elections occur in 1934 in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal?
I was reading about elections in British India that happened as per the rules of the Government of India Act, 1919. From 1920 till 1934, a total of five elections were conducted i.e. 1920, 1923, 1926, ...
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How have historians calculated the total number of votes in general elections which had plural voting?
note: a good answer would track down the source of these figures (possibly from the books below) and explain the methodology behind counting them
In the 1830 general election to the parliament at ...
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Have there been situations in US history or other countries, where a 2 person election will elect A, but by adding a third person, B is elected? [closed]
Has it ever occurred in US history or in other countries, where:
Person A and Person B both are Presidential candidates.
Say, 60% of people are pro Person A, and 40% are pro Person B
Now, a third ...
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Was the 14th Amendment ever enforced against a Confederate veteran?
Headlines have recently told us that the Supreme Court of Colorado has excluded Donald Trump from the ballot in that state because of Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, which provides:
No person shall ...
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What were the details of the election fraud on the 1927 elections in Liberia?
The Wikipedia article says that the voter turnout exceeded 1660% because the number of those who participated in the elections far exceeded the number of eligible voters. The election was recorded in ...
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Who organised elections in the ancient Roman Republic?
I keep researching ancient Rome for my story world: alternative history where Rome has survived till the near future.
I remember from my primary school history course (and it was my favourite course) ...
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How long, historically speaking, did it take to tally and report the vote?
I am trying to get an idea of how long it may have taken American states to tally and report election results in days of yore---e.g., late 1700s till the civil war. I know the telegraph was used to ...
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Why did Jimmy Carter handily win the state of Georgia in 1980, despite losing other southern states?
Two explanations easily come to mind.
The first is that Georgia is "bluer" than other southern states. In support of this theory is that Joe Biden won it in 2020, and Bill Clinton in 1992.
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Is it known if Yeltsin was planning to give up power peacefully if he lost the 1996 election?
In 1995 Yeltsin was considering to declare a state of emergency and cancel the Presidential elections, as there was a large chance he would lose the 1996 election:
The question now, some analysts ...
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What did US presidential ballots look like when unpledged electors were offered?
Unpledged presidential electors have run in at least four US presidential elections. In 1960, 14 were elected.
In this age, where the electoral college is almost a mere formality and we rarely think ...
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Where can I find video of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's concession in 1979?
The Canadian parliamentary elections of May 1979 were a defeat for the Liberals and a victory for the Progressive Conservatives, resulting in Pierre Elliott Trudeau's replacement by Joe Clark as prime ...
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How did the generation who elected Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison feel about the electoral college?
In 1824, John Quincy Adams became the first president to win the presidential election, but lose the popular vote. It would not be until 52 years later in 1876 with Rutherford B. Hayes when this would ...
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Were there any local or regional elections in Nazi Germany?
There were Reichstag elections in 1933 (twice), 1936 and 1938. There was an election for Berlin's city parliament in March 1933 (as seems to have been the case everywhere in Prussia), but apparently ...
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When else has an incumbent president alleged election fraud by a challenger?
I know this is a hot issue these days, but I am trying to keep my question factual here.
When fraud is alleged in an election, I am usually familiar with one of two cases:
One or more challengers ...
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When did results of general elections start being available within twelve hours after an election?
I read in an unrelated but generally reliable book that in one national election in Germany in the early 1930s or late 1920s, the results were in by 3:00 a.m. the next morning.
When you think of it, ...
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Has any U.S. Vice President not been nominated as presidential candiate although he ran as candiate? [closed]
The nomination process for US presidential candidates favors incumbents. This seems also to be true for Vice Presidents (e.g. George H. W. Bush, Gore). Have any Vice Presidents not been nominated ...
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Why did Al Smith win six "Dixiecrat" states, and very little else?
Al Smith was the governor of New York who ran for President against Herbert Hoover in 1928. A factor in the race was that he was also the first Catholic to run on a major party ticket (John F. Kennedy ...
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Did any deputies in the USSR ever get recalled via provisions in the 1977 constitution?
Many socialist countries, including the USSR, had provisions in their constitutions for recalling deputies by voters/citizens.
For instance, 1977 constitution of the USSR has
Article 107. Deputies ...
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Did Wilson's 'He kept us out of war' really win the 1916 Presidential Election?
In the 1916 United States presidential election, President Woodrow Wilson barely defeated Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate.
Wilson ran on the slogan 'He kept us out of war'. From what I ...
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How did encasillado work?
El Turno Pacifico alternated Conservative and Liberal rule of Spain during the Bourbon restoration. There were elections, but the practice of encasillado ensured "the outcome of elections was ...
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Have primary voters in US overseas territories or their delegates ever had a noteworthy influence in any primary election or convention?
While watching Ken Burns' The Roosevelts I noticed that from the days of TR up through the early 1960s, footage of the party conventions where presidential candidates were nominated seemed to ...
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What was the international (not American) opinion of the 1984 Nicaraguan Election?
The Reagan administration obviously condemned it as a "Soviet sham," which ramped up tensions and aid to the Contras.
What were the opinions of the international community? What did human rights ...
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Why have the northern plains states voted consistently Republican in Presidential elections since 1940?
Beginning in 1940 (with Wendell Wilkie), the four northern plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska have voted Republican in all but one Presidential election (the Johnson ...
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Have there been any lawsuits over gerrymandering outside the United States?
In countries that use first-past-the-post legislative elections, drawing district maps that have political effects is called Gerrymandering. It is famously seen as shameless but nearly impossible to ...
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Were there any natural disasters that decisively changed the result of a later election by killing the electorate of one side?
I'm thinking of something similar to this:
Let's say instead of a general election, the UK had decided to hold a second referendum on Brexit. Among the two options Remain & Leave, it's unclear ...
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Were there any elections under the Vichy regime?
My question is as in the title: during the Vichy regime in France, from July 1940 to, say, June 1944 were there any official election of any kind - for mayors, lawmakers, etc? If none, do you have a ...
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Who conducted the first "straw poll" in U.S. election politics, and when was it conducted?
Prior to Gallup and Roper et al in the 1930's and The Literary Digest in 1916, what was the first election straw poll in US elections? Three sources that I found cite three different answers (though ...
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Was Nixon's Vietnam claim right before the 1968 election true?
In Richard Nixon's final appeal to voters on NBC right before the 1968 Presidential Election, he made an explosive claim about the Vietnam war. Here is how the Eugene Register-Guard reported it:
[...
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How did the election of one-third of Senators every two years stay in sync with addition of new states?
The Constitution says:
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from
each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years.
Immediately after they shall be ...
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In the election of 1800, why did Burr end up with as many electoral votes as Jefferson, rather than one fewer?
In the election of 1800, the Federalist candidate for president, John Adams, received one more electoral vote than the candidate for vice president, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. This was by design, as ...
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How were Icelandic bishops elected before the union with Norway?
By reading some basic texts (in English translation) (like Hungrvaka) I came to know that the bishops were elected on Iceland, and then had to make a journey to mainland Europe to be consecrated (...
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Was there really a Communist presidential nominee or political party in the 1876 election?
In David Leip's political atlas, it says that 'Communist' gained 32 votes in the 1876 presidential election. The name of the candidates and the state where these votes were counted doesn't appear.
Of ...
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Did FDR support Hoover for the presidency of the US in 1920?
Franklin Foer writes in a new Guardian article:
Americans of all persuasions began yearning for the salvific
ascendance of the most famous engineer of his time: Herbert Hoover. In
1920, ...
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In the 19th century, what brought on a general election in the United Kingdom?
A quick scan of a list of British governments in the 19th century quickly reveals that, while terms of office were limited to seven years, most parliaments did not last so long. Instead the ...
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Could the 1864 US presidential election have been postponed?
This article on HistoryNet makes the following observation about the 1864 election:
The 1864 race for the White House was the United States’ first presidential election during wartime. Proposals to ...
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Was Hitler ever a member of the Reichstag?
Pretty much what the title says. Hitler apparently wasn't noted for any parliamentary activity; either he was never a member of the Reichstag (MR), or he was a quite non-notable MR.
Ballots of the ...
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Origin of French electoral tie-breaking mechanism (oldest candidate wins)
The French Code électoral specifies that ties be broken by giving the oldest candidate the win. (At least in certain elections. See for example L126, L262, L338, LO512.)
What is the historical origin ...
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Why is there a difference in ordinal numbers of UK General Elections and Parliaments? Was a UK Parliament ever formed without an election?
I heard on the radio that the current 56th General Election of the United Kingdom will elect the 57th Parliament. Assuming this is correct, surely the first election would elect the first parliament, ...
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Why did Roosevelt and Truman change the usual switch date of presidency? (4th of March to 20th of January)
Before Roosevelt, all Presidents started and ended their time in office on 4th of March (excluding, of course, deaths). Roosevelt himself took the office on March 4, 1933.
I don't understand why ...
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Which immigrants became elected officials in an acquired language? [closed]
With some exceptions, candidates up for election are usually natural born citizens that are native speakers of the government's language. With the exception of the first generation of leaders in ...
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Why did South Carolina continue to select their Presidential Electors by legislative choice until after the Civil War?
Looking back through a history of the electoral college, many of the states did not at first actually have a popular vote to decide the electors for president. Instead many states chose electors by ...
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Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
After the elections (of Donald Trump as US President in 2016) there were many news reports of large-scale, mass protests throughout the US, for example:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/...
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In multimember constituencies of the House of Commons, how many votes did each voter have?
From the 1200s until the 1900s, seats in the Commons were elected in multimember -- primarily two-member -- constituencies. How many votes did enfranchised voters get in these elections? Did the ...
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What was the voting mechanism in early elections to the Commons?
From the 1200s in England, counties and towns sent two representatives to Parliament. Sheriffs ran the local elections, in which voters were enfranchised by being freeholders or potwallopers. ...
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Were UK Parliamentary constituencies ever altered before 1832?
Seats in the House of Commons orginally represented boroughs and towns. The Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 altered the district map by eliminating some boroughs and changing the number of seats in ...
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Organizing the 1788 presidential and congressional elections
In 1788 the new Constitution of the United States went into effect in the states that had ratified it, and that meant elections had to be organized for representatives in Congress and for members of ...
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Why was Truman considered a heavy underdog in the 1948 election?
The 1948 (election) link to wikipedia states:"The election is considered to be the greatest election upset in American history.1[3]" with no less than three sources.
One possible reason might have ...
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Did George McGovern publicly support Jimmy Carter in 1976?
When former President of the United States Gerald Ford died in 2007, George McGovern, who was the Democratic nominee in the 1972 election, gave an interview to Larry King where he said this:
MCGOVERN:...
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Has there ever been a US election that flipped as many state seats as the 2010 midterm elections?
In the 2010 United States midterm elections, the Democrats lost a net of 680 state legislative seats, which were gained by the Republicans. This manifested itself in 21 chambers which the Democrats ...
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How did 18th-century gubernatorial elections in Vermont compare to similar elections in other states?
In an disorganized way I have been reading various things about the 18th-century history of Vermont and I wondered whether their way of choosing and installing governors was unique, or the same as ...
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