Elect in United Kingdom

Meaning of Elect

The following is an old definition of Elect [1]: To select, choose; also, selected, chosen, elected: as, a judge-elect, the President-elect.Election. A choosing, or selecting; also, the condition of having been choslen or selected; choice, selection. Primer election. First choice. In England, in cases of partition, unless otherwise agreed, the eldest sister (coparcener) has the first choice of purparts. 1. Selection of a person to fill an office in (1) a private corporation,- whence (the word(s) which follow it are derivatives from the same root word) corporate election; or (2) in a department of government – national, State, county, municipal, – whence (the word(s) which follow it are derivatives from the same root word) popular election. In its constitutional sense, a selection by the popular voice of a district, county, town, or city, or by an organized body, in contradistinction to appointment by some single person or officer. Voting and, taking the votes of citizens for members to represent them in the general assembly or other public stations. In either of the senses noted, particularly in the case of a popular election, whether a general or a special or local election, choice of persons is effected through the instrumentality of a board or officers of election, within an election district or precinct, or place of known and fixed boundaries, on an appointed election day and between certain election hours, with a prescribed mode for certifying the election returns, and all in conformity with the election laws; followed, too, in cases, by an election contest between opposing candidates. The doctrine at the foundation of popular government is, that in elections the will of the majority controls; mere irregularities or informalities in the conduct of an election are impotent to thwart the expressed will of the majority. All fraudulent acts affecting the purity and safety of elections are offenses at common law. But Illegal votes will make void an election only when they affect the result. A statute which, in addition to the requirements of the constitution, provides that ” no person hereafter naturalized shall be entitled to be registered as a voter within thirty days therefrom,” is unconstitutional. Elective. (1) Pertaining to the right, in the individual, to choose agents of government: as, the elective franchise, see, in this resource, the term (2) Bestowed by virtue of a popular election, as opposed to being invested with by appointment: as, the elective system – for filling judicial offices. See Judiciary. Elector. (1) One who has the right of a choice or vote; more particularly, one who has the right of casting a vote for a public officer. (2) One who, having a right to vote, actually votes. Electoral. Pertaining to or consisting of electors: as, the ” electoral college,” on which the formal legal choice of President and Vice-President is made finally to depend. PresidenUal electors. Members of the electoral college. “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit vmder the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.” ” The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.” ” The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; – The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; – The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons haying the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the Presi- dent, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, be- fore the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole num- ber shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. The act of Congress approved February 3, 1887 (24 St. L. 373), to fix the day for the meeting of the electors of President and Vice-President, and to regulate the coimting of the votes, and tlie decision of questions arising thereon, provides as follows: That the electors of each State shall meet and give their votes on the second Monday in January next following their appointment, at such place in each State as the legislature of such State shall direct. Sec. 2. That if any State shall have provided, by laws enacted prior to the day fixed for the appointment of the electors, for its final determination of any controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, by judicial or other methods or procedures, and such determination shall have been made at least six days before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors, such determination made pursuant to such law so existing on said day, and made at least six days prior to the said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in the Constitution, and as hereinafter regulated, so far as the ascertainment of the electors appointed by such State is concerned. Sec. 3. That it shall be the duty of the executive of each State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appointment of electors in such State, by the final ascertainment under and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing tor such ascertainment.to communicate, under the seal of the State, to the secretary of state of the United States, a certificate of such ascertainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such electors and the canvass or other ascertainment under the laws of such State of the number of votes given or cast for each person for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast; and it shall also thereupon be the duty of the executive of each State to deliver to the electors of such State, on or before the day on which they are required by the preceding section to meet, the same certificate, in triplicate, under the seal of the State; and such certificate shall be inclosed and transmitted by the electors at the same time and in the same manner as is provided by law for transmitting by such electors to the seat of government the lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice-President; and section one hundred and thirty-six of the Revised Statutes is hereby repealed; and if there shall have been any final determination in a State of a controversy or contest as provided for in section two of this act, it shall be the duty of the executive of such State, as soon as practicable after such determination, to communicate, under the seal of the State, to the secretary of state of the United States, a certificate of such determination, in form and manner as the same shall have been made; and the secretary of state of the United States, as soon as practicable after the receipt at the state department of each of the certificates hereinbefore directed to be transmitted to the secretary of state, shall publish, in such public newspaper as he shall designate, such certificates in full; and at the first meeting of Congress thereafter he shall transmit to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and every such certificate so received theretofore at the state department. Sec. 4. That Congress shall be in session on the second Wednesday in February succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of one o’clock in the afternoon on that day, and the president of the Senate shall be their presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the president of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter A; and said tellers, having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates; and the votes having been ascertained and counted in the manner and according to the rules in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to the president of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote, which annoimcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice-President of the United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the journals of the two Houses. Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper, the president of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. When all objections so made to any vote or paper,from a State shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision; and the speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives for its decision; and no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment has been lawfully certified to according to section three of this act from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have been received by the president of the Senate, those votes, and those only, shall be cotmted which shall have been regularly given by the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in section two of this act to have been appointed, if the determination in said section provided for shall have been made, or by such successors or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the board of electors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in case there shall arise the question which of two or more of such State authorities determining what electors have been appointed, as mentioned in section two of this act, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the votes regularly given of those electors, and those only, of such State shall he counted whose title as electors the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its laws; and in such case of more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State, if there shall have been no such determination of the question in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and those only, shall be coimted which the two Houses shall concurrently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in accordance with the laws of the State, unless the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such State. But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted. When the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question submitted. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally disposed of. Sec. 5. That while the two Houses shall be in meeting as provided in this act the president of the Senate shall have power to preserve order: and no debate shall be allowed and no question shall be put by the presiding officer except to either House on a motion to withdraw. Sec. 6. That when the two Houses separate to decide upon an objection that may have beeh made to the counting of any electoral vote or votes from any State, or other question arising in the matter, each Senator and Representative may speak to such objection or question five minutes, and not more than once; but after such debate shall have lasted two hours it shall be the duty of the presiding ofiicer of each House to put the main question without further debate. Sec. 7. That at such joint meeting of the two Houses seats shall be provided as follows: For the president of the Senate, the speaker’s chair; for the speaker, immediately upon his left; the Senators, in the body of the hall upon the right of the presiding officer; for the Representatives, in the body of the hall not provided for the Senators; for the tellers, secretary of the Senate, and clerk of the House of Representatives, at the clerk’s desk; for the other officers of the two Houses, in front of the clerk’s desk and upon each side of the speaker’s platform. Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared; and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this act, in which case it shall be competent for either House, acting separately, in the manner here-inbefore provided, to direct a recess of such House not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday excepted, at the hour of ten o’clock in the forenoon. But if the counting of the electoral votes and the declaration of the result shall not have been completed before the fifth calendar day next after such first meeting of the two Houses, no further or other recess shall be taken by either House. See Ballot; Bribery; Candidate; Congress; Deposit, 1 (1); Holiday; Qualified, 1; Vacancy; Vote. 2. The obligation imposed upon a party to choose between two inconsistent or alternative rights or claims, in cases where there is a clear intention of the person from whom he derives one that he should not enjoy both. This, technically, is ” election,” or the ” doctrine of election,” at law and equity. In equity jurisprudence, presupposes a plurality of gifts or rights, with an intention, express or implied, of the party, who has a right to control one or both, that one should be a substitute for the other. Thus, one may have an election: to pay money or deliver goods, as a consideration; to observe a contract, or pay damages or forfeit a sum; to retain a security for a debt, or surrender it and share as a distributee in a dividend; to rescind or affirm a voidable contract; between a statutory and common-law remedy; between a joint and a several action; between suing an agent and suing his undisclosed principal; between independent grounds of defense or of action.A very common example is the choice a widow makes between dower and a testamentary provision. A person who is entitled to any benefit under a will or other instrument, must, if he claims that benefit, abandon every right or interest the assertion of which would defeat, even partially, any of the provisions of the instrument. But in no case is one to be put to an election unless it is clear that the provisions of the instrument in sonie degree would be defeated by the assertion of his other rights. The doctrine rests upon the equitable ground that no man can be permitted to claim inconsistent rights with regard to the same subject, and that any one who asserts an interest under an instrument is bound to give full effect, as far as he can, to that instrument. Or, as it is sometimes expressed, he who accepts a benefit under a deed or will must adopt the contents of the whole instrument, conforming to all its provisions and relinquishing every right inconsistent with it. An election may be implied as well as expressed. Whether there has been an election must be determined upon the circumstances of the particular case, rather than upon general principles. It may be inferred from the conduct of the party -his acts, his omissions, and his mode of dealing with the property. Unequivocal acts of ownership, with knowledge of the right to elect, and not through a mistake with respect to the condition and value of the estate, will generally be deemed an election to take under a will. It has be come a maxim that no one is bound to elect in ignorance of his rights. Compare Satisfy, 2 (2). 3. The right to choose, or the act of choosing, between different actions or remedies, where the plaintiff has suffered one species of wrong from the act complained of. This right arises where he may sue in tort or upon the contr’act implied by law in the case; or where he may bring an action of a purely equitable nature, or such as merely seeks a money judgment.

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Notes and References

1. Concept of Elect provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889)