Talk:General election

The Parliament Act 1911 and single polling days

The article originally asserted that the change from multiple polling days for UK general elections to single polling days was mandated by the Parliament Act 1911. However, on inspection of the Act as enacted, one finds no such provision. I have accordingly amended the article to remove this reference and replaced it with a simple note of when single polling day elections began in the UK. —Calisthenis(Talk) 02:53, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

(Single topic???)

Don't the two sections of this article need to be split into two articles? They refer to two different things. →bjornthegreat ^t|_c 23:19, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

• I don't think they need to be split - they need to be mixed. They two halves refer to the same thing (I think) - Matthew238 03:13, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
  • What you thought was quite wrong, and your restraint toward the accompanying article since then was beneficial and is praiseworthy.
    --Jerzy•t 01:45, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
    
• I'd say split them. A disambiguation page seems best. Mr sandman 03:37, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Yes, split. Despite doing it in two sections, what the article says about American use of "general election" is terrible. I'd prefer "equal Dab'n" (i.e. a Dab page) but what i'm going to do immediately is
    1. Pretty much split out the "In the United States of America" sec'n. I say "pretty much" bcz i think an "American usage" section near the bottom is worthwhile, reflecting misuse of "general election" to mean either "November election", "biennial November election", or "quadrennial November election" (depending on taste, degree of understanding of election law, and when uttered), rather than what insiders mean when they say, in an election context, just "the general". Except among insiders (which includes state election laws), "general election" is rare and quite ambiguous in US contexts.
    2. Put the split-out material into General election (U.S.) (or General election (U.S. law)?), which will probably briefly duplicate and/or refer to General election#American usage.
    3. Create a Dab page General election (disambiguation) which will do no harm, and may be needed even if General election (parliamentary) remains merely the Rdr that i'll for now create to the accompanying article -- i.e., even if the accompanying article remains the primary topic, in which case the Dab's most important role will have been provoking discussion of which is the primary topic.

  These edits will clarify why splitting & some form of explicit Dab'n is needed.
  While i lean strongly to using General election as the Dab page, it seems constructive to await further opinions before proceeding.
  --Jerzy•t 01:45, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
  

Talk vandalism

The portion of the now named "(Single topic?)" discussion section, preceding this subsection as its supersection, is an outgrowth of a discussion that was cut short for 30 months by the presumable vandalism on 09:00, 24 April 2007 by 87.42.13.23 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log), who reduced the 03:37, 14 November 2006 revision to what amounts to a forgery:

halves refer to the same thing (I think) - [[User:seems best. Mr sandman 03:37, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

The vandalism is as of now reverted, and the preceding discussion advances, above where it was begun.
--Jerzy•t 01:45, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Election Day

I found the following in the "In the United States of America" section:

General election is also a term used to differentiate from a primary election. In the United States, primary elections serve to narrow down a field of candidates, and general elections actually elect candidates to offices. The general election is usually held on Election Day, Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years.

It meets the above definition of "general election" because the entire United States House of Representatives is elected on Election Day, though not the entire United States Congress. Before passage of the 17th Amendment, members of the United States Senate were not directly elected by the people but rather by their state's legislatures. Though Senators have been directly elected since then, only one-third of them are available for election on any given General Election Day. The U.S. President is also chosen during a November General Election that follows primaries.

The first sentence is accurate, but the "also" would be misplaced after splitting. The first clause of the second is correct, but misleadingly imprecise in making no reference to parties; its second clause is only usually correct, bcz it neglects runoffs.
I started rewriting the third sent, and the second graph, before getting focused on the fact that even an accurate discussion of Election Day doesn't belong in this article. (It was probably written in pursuit of the misguided attempt to show that the the US sense of "general election" can be subsumed into the parliamentary sense, which it can't: the Nov contests between the candidates to be one town's dog catcher is still a general election.) But it would go along these lines:

Nearly all such general elections are held on Election Day, the Tuesday that falls between November 2 and November 8 inclusive. While the Federal government does not organize any elections within states -- even those for Federal officials -- this date is set by the national Constitution for elections (implicitly general elections) of two kinds

those of (presidential electors for) the President, in every year whose number is divisible by four, and

those of members of the House of Representatives, in every even-numbered year

These are conducted according to the election laws of each respective state, and involve the voters who have their respective sole residence for electoral purposes in that state.

The remaining elections for Federal offices reflect the Constitution's provision for each U.S. state to be represented in the national Senate by two Senators (for a total of 100); just after the end of each even-numbered year, the six-year terms of office of 33 or 34 of them expire (but those expiring in a given year never include two representing the same state). Pursuant to the 17th Amendment of the Constitution, the governor of the state concerned has the duty to call an election for the purpose, and in practice this election is always held on the Election Day preceding the expiration.

Thus each general election for a Senator coincides with a general election for the House, sometimes with a general election for President, and possibly with general elections for offices of the corresponding state and/or subdivision of it.)

It may be valuable in improving Election Day (United States), but i don't need another distraction from the accompanying article!
--Jerzy•t 05:53, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Unclear sentence

"...independent action by the lower house than the House of Lords..." in the "American Usage" section.

1) What on Earth does this sentence mean? It doesn't seem to make sense. 2) Why does it mention the House of Lords, as opposed to anything that exists in the United States?

Any ideas? Leushenko (talk) 11:09, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

External links modified

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"Independent" not mentioned under 'United States' section

Just for consideration: should not a a brief reference to "Independent" voters being eligible to vote in 'General' elections appear somewhere under (at least) the 'United States' section? Yes, perhaps this falls under a wiki voter page, but I believe it would be helpful to have a link here. Thank you.75.88.137.76 (talk) 14:13, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Self-contradictory

The lead sentence of the article (which is unsourced and unsupported elsewhere) claims that a general election is an "electoral process to choose most or all members of an elected body, typically a legislature," making it seem like this definition must be satisfied for an election to be considered general. Yet, just a few sentences down, the lead says the US has a "slightly different" meaning of a general election, saying it is "the ordinary electoral competition following the selection of candidates in the primary election," which clearly is not always an election for most or all members of an elected body. Gödel2200 (talk) 21:57, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

I will also note that just two sentences after the lead sentence, the article reads: "In most systems, a general election is a regularly scheduled election..." which seems to say that the definition only applies for "most systems," whereas the first definition presents itself as a universal one. Gödel2200 (talk) 22:14, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

Absolutely. The first sentence describes a parliamentary election. --95.24.65.15 (talk) 21:50, 31 March 2024 (UTC)