title: Mossberg 500

text: Designed in 1961 by Carl Benson, the Mossberg 500 was created mainly for use by hunters, but quickly found itself in use by law enforcement because of its reliability and low cost. In the 1970s, the M500 was submitted for military use, but failed to meet the MIL-SPEC 3443E protocol, which involves firing 3,000 rounds of shells with no more than two malfunctions. During the testing, some M500s were created to better match the MIL-SPEC, which came at an increase in cost. M500s began to be purchased by the US military in limited numbers, with the first order consisting of approximately 5,900 shotguns for the Navy and Coast Guard.


title: Mossberg 500

text: To maintain its low cost, Mossberg continued to produce the M500 for civilian and police markets, and in 1987, designed the M590 specifically for military use. In response to a Navy request, the M590 was modified, with a thickened barrel, extended magazine, barrel shroud, and bayonet lug. The new model, designated the M590A1, became the standard shotgun in the United States military.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Replacement for the M500 came as early as 1999, when the Marine Corps adopted the semi-automatic M1014 Combat Shotgun, which became standard issue by 2001. In 1997, the Army began to develop the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System, an underbarrel shotgun designed for usage on the M4 carbine, and which could also be used as a standalone weapon. The MASS first entered service in 2010. Despite the competing shotgun designs, including with other pump action models such as the Remington Model 870 and Winchester Model 1200, Mossberg shotguns continued to see usage in various American military branches until the end of the 2010s.


title: Mossberg 500

text: M500 and M590 shotguns were first used during the 1991 Gulf War, wherein they were used to defend US supply depots. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the M500 shotguns were primarily used for breaking locks and hinges during door breaches.


title: Mossberg 500

text: In 2009, U.S. Army Special Forces Groups procured Military Enhancement Kits to provide a standardized shotgun configuration based on the Mossberg 500. The kits included a collapsible stock, "shotgun retention system", 1913 receiver rail, fore end rail system and breaching barrels. A total of 1301 shotguns were converted with the first unit being equipped in July 2009. The majority of the kits convert the standard issue shotgun to a 14" compact model with a 16" accessory breaching barrel, H92239-09-P-0113.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The name "Model 500" covers an entire family of pump shotguns designed to chamber "magnum" shells. The standard model holds five or five shells in the magazine and one in the chamber. The Model 500 is available in 12 gauge, 20 gauge, and .410 bore, with the 12 gauge being the most popular and having the most optional features available. A 16 gauge model was introduced in 1963 and later discontinued.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The standard finish for the Model 500 is an anodized aluminum alloy receiver and a polished and blued barrel. Some models come with a matte black matte-anodized receiver, and a matte blued barrel. Some 500 models are anodized to look parkerized, with parkerized barrels. This is also true of the 590 series since an aluminum receiver cannot be parkerized.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Mossberg also offers camouflage painted models, in a number of different patterns. Stocks are either wood or composite, with the composite stocks being matte black or camouflage to match the rest of the gun. A special model called the Mariner is available with the Marinecote finish, an electroless-nickel finish that is highly corrosion resistant. Mariner models use the black composite stocks.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The primary difference between the Model 500 and Model 590 is in magazine tube design. The Model 500 magazines are closed at the muzzle end, and the barrel is held in place by bolting into a threaded hole at the end of the magazine tube. Model 590 magazines are designed to be opened at the muzzle end, and the barrels fit around the magazine tube and are held on by a capnut at the end. The Model 500 magazine facilitates easy barrel changes, as the barrel bolt serves no function other than holding the barrel in place. The Model 590 magazine facilitates easy cleaning and parts replacement, as removing the nut allows removal of the magazine spring and follower.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Both the Model 500 and Model 590 have polymer trigger guards and safeties, and standard barrels. The Model 590A1 has an aluminum trigger guard and safety, a heavier barrel, and a bayonet lug (although some versions of the 590 also have bayonet lugs), intended for military use under extreme conditions and rough handling; the metal trigger guard was added in response to the 3443G materials requirements, and the heavy barrel was added at the request of the Navy to prevent barrel deformation if the shotgun caught in the closing of heavy steel ship doors. Some 590A1s have a sling swivel on the back of the bayonet lug, some do not. The 590A1 usually has a swivel mount on the stock even when there is no corresponding mount on the forward end of the weapon. The 590A1 is generally sold through military and law enforcement channels, though in most jurisdictions the and barreled models are available and may be legally purchased by any non-prohibited persons. 590A1s with 14" barrels are Title II firearms, and may be purchased only by non-prohibited persons in NFA-legal states, after completing BATF transfer forms.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The riot gun versions of the pistol grip Model 500 (Persuader, Cruiser, Road Blocker, and Mariner) are available with an and barrel depending on magazine capacity. The 590 is only available with a barrel and flush-fit magazine tube. The 590A1 is available with a , 18.5-inch, or barrel. One model sold as Model 590-SP (catalog item 51663) is technically a 590A1, as it uses the heavy barrel and military trigger group, but unlike models designated 590A1 it is sold on the civilian market.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Unlike Model 500 and 590 shotguns (with the exception of ghost-ring sight 590 models), Model 590A1 shotguns cannot be easily fitted with the common factory 500 heat shield, due to the heavier barrel. A heat shield and bayonet lug are required for military 3443G Type I riot shotguns, and some 590A1s are so equipped. The 590A1 heat shield, p/n 16335P, is available for purchase from Mossberg for about the same price as the 500 heat shield.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The standard Model 500 uses a length of pull (LOP) for the stock, which is suitable for adult shooters of average or greater size. The Bantam models use a LOP stock and a forend that sits further back than the standard model. The Super Bantam stock includes two recoil pads and a stock spacer.


title: Mossberg 500

text: By using the short pad, the LOP can be reduced to ; with the spacer and longer pad, the LOP is . A number of different models are offered with Bantam and Super Bantam stocks, or they can be ordered as accessories and fitted to any Model 500.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The new Model 505 Youth shotgun, introduced in 2005, is similar to the Bantam but scaled down further. The 505 has a LOP buttstock (compared to a standard model's , or a Bantam's ), a barrel, and a four-shot magazine tube. The 505 is available in 20 gauge and .410 bore. Parts are not interchangeable with other model 500 variants.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The Model 535, new for 2005, is similar to the Model 500, but with a lengthened receiver that can fire shells, in addition to and shells. The 535 is a less expensive alternative to the Mossberg 835 Ulti-Mag, but the 535 lacks the 835's overbored barrel. The non-overbored barrel of the 535 does, however, allow the use of slugs, which cannot be used in the overbored barrel of the 835.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Model 535 barrels are not interchangeable with Model 500 or Model 835 barrels, but 535 barrels are available in smoothbore and rifled in a variety of vent ribbed, barrel lengths and different sights. The 535 is also available in a tactical model with ghost ring sights and a collapsible pistol grip buttstock. Although Model 500 barrels can be used with Model 535 receivers, magazine tubes from the Model 500 must also be used because of the magazine tube length difference.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The Model 500 comes in a variety of different receiver configurations, whose main difference is the magazine configuration. The basic Model 500 comes with a magazine tube capable of holding five shells, which is called a six-shot model (a full magazine plus a round in the chamber). The 500 is also available with an extended magazine tube that holds seven rounds, making an eight-shot model. The 590A1 is available with five- and eight-shot magazines, sold as six- and nine-shot models respectively. The Model 590A1 also allows the use of magazine extensions in place of the magazine cap to further increase the capacity of ammunition.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The variants with the extended magazine tubes use different barrels, as the barrel is held in place by attaching at the end of the magazine tube. The shortest barrel length available for the eight- and nine-shot models is , which fits flush with the long magazine tube. A ribbed modified choke field barrel was also manufactured for the 8-shot model 500. The shortest barrel for Title I six-shot models is , while military and law enforcement personnel (as well private persons in NFA states) can also get a barrel (the 590 Compact), which uses a special 5-shot magazine.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The Model 500 is available in many variants, for a wide variety of applications. The ease of changing barrels on the Model 500 means that a single shotgun may be equipped by the owner with a number of barrels, each for a different purpose. As sold, the Model 500 is generally classed into two broad categories: field models and special purpose models.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Field models are the basic sporting models. They are available with a variety of barrel lengths and finishes, and may be set up for waterfowl hunting, upland game hunting, turkey hunting, or shooting slugs. Most smoothbore models come with interchangeable choke tubes and vent rib barrels, while the slug models come with rifle sights or scope bases, and may have smooth cylinder bore or rifled barrels.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Special purpose models are intended for self defense, police, or military use. The Model 590 and the eight-shot Model 500s are only sold as special purpose models. Special purpose models have short barrels, either for the six-shot models, or for the eight- and nine-shot models, but the barrels are fully interchangeable with all models of the same magazine tube length and in the 500 family. Most models come with special designations like SPX, Tactical, Mariner, etc.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Special purpose models may be equipped with a variety of specialty parts which may include adjustable stock, "Speedfeed" stock that holds four additional rounds of ammunition, pistol grip, ghost ring and fiber optic sights, Picatinny rail, forearm band, heatshield, ported barrel, muzzle brake, and even a bayonet lug. All special purpose models come only in black trim with either blued, non-glare matte blue, or parkerized finishes and now come with drilled and tapped receivers for scope and optics mounting.


title: Mossberg 500

text: "Special Purpose" models are not the same as "Law Enforcement" models; the latter have heavier duty barrels, safeties, trigger guards, and will stand up to harder use.


title: Mossberg 500

text: In 2018, Mossberg released the 590M, a pump-action shotgun fed by a double-stack magazine. It is available in three models; one is a derivative of the Shockwave, the other two are variants of the base 590, one having ghost ring sights and a heat shield, the other without. The magazines are available in 5, 10, 15, and 20-round capacities.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Mossberg shotguns currently designated "law enforcement models" are 590A1s. 590A1s differ from other 500/590 shotguns, in that they have heavy barrels, metal trigger guards, and metal safeties. 590A1s are available in , , and barrels. The 590A1 is also used by the U.S. and allied armed forces, having been designed to meet the stricter standards outlined by the U.S. Army.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Model 500s were also previously sold as law enforcement combos in 12 gauge with both and barrels, birch buttstock, pistol grip and sling.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The model 500 HS410, or "Home Security" model, is available in .410 gauge only, and is specifically designed for defensive use. It comes with a youth-sized stock, a vertical foregrip, and a special muzzle brake and spreader choke (to help produce wider patterns when using buckshot) on an bead sight barrel. The .410 gauge round, while by far the least powerful common shotgun chambering, remains a formidable shotgun shell. A 90-grain slug generates energy close to (and in some manufacturer claims, exceeding) a .357 Magnum when fired from a full length barrel. The HS410 is targeted at the novice user who desires a simple, easy to use, and effective defensive weapon. It is packaged with an introductory video covering use and safety, and some versions have a laser sight mounted in the foregrip.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The Mossberg Shockwave is a pump action firearm based on the 590 series of shotguns. It is distinguished from the rest of the 590 series by its barrel and "birds-head" style grip. The Mossberg Shockwave was the best-selling pump action shotgun in the United States in 2020.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The action of the Shockwave is taken from Mossberg's 590 series of shotguns. It features the same sliding tang safety on the top rear of the receiver, twin action bars, and dual extractors seen on other models. The name is inherited from the manufacturer of the grip, Shockwave Technologies. Mossberg claims the grip reduces recoil. The Shockwave weighs empty, holds five rounds in the magazine tube, and has a single brass bead front sight with no rear sight. Production began in 2017 with a 12 gauge model, adding 20 gauge and .410 bore models later.


title: Mossberg 500

text: In the United States, the Shockwave does not fit the definition of a shotgun as defined by the ATF, which says that shotguns have barrels over in length and are made to be fired from the shoulder. It avoids restriction as a short barrel shotgun under Title II of federal firearm laws by remaining over in length and not being made to have a shoulder stock. The ATF refers to the Shockwave as a non-NFA firearm. While legal without a tax stamp at a federal level, regulations also vary by state, thereby prohibiting purchase in some states.


title: Mossberg 500

text: The Mossberg 500 has always been marketed as a multi-purpose firearm. Mossberg sells a wide variety of accessory stocks and barrels, allowing many configurations to be made (including, in the past, a bullpup configured model 500). Mossberg is also the only company to ever offer a double-action-only model. The model 590DA offers a longer, heavier trigger pull, to reduce the chance of an accidental discharge by the operator, and was targeted at the police market.


title: Mossberg 500

text: With the appropriate parts, the same Model 500 can be a field gun, a slug gun, defensive weapon for civilian, police, or military use, trap and skeet gun, or .50 caliber (12.7mm) rifled muzzleloader.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Mossberg has also sold "combination" sets, with a single receiver and more than one barrel. Common examples included a field barrel packaged with an cylinder bore barrel for defensive use, or a field barrel and a slug barrel, or a slug barrel and a .50 caliber muzzleloading rifle barrel.


title: Mossberg 500

text: A unique item offered by Mossberg for the Model 500 is a line launcher kit. It uses special blank cartridge to propel a shaft with an optional floating head and a light rope attached to it; a canister hung below the barrel to hold the line spool. A test of the Mossberg 500 with line launcher by the BoatUS Foundation showed an average range of over with the floating head. Distances of are claimed for the non-floating long distance head.


title: Mossberg 500

text: All Mossberg models including the 835, 535, 500, 505 and 590 (except for Special-Purpose and Law Enforcement models) are shipped with a wooden dowel with two rubber O-rings, also called a duck plug, located in the tube magazine. This is to comply with U.S. migratory bird laws. This dowel reduces and regulates the number of shells that can be loaded in the magazine to 2. This can be removed by taking off the barrel, pointing the shotgun downward, and shaking it back and forth lightly until the dowel shows out of the end of the magazine tube. It must then be pulled out, as the O-rings prevent it from just falling out. Except for the Maverick 88, all current production Mossberg models have a pre-drilled receiver for installation of an upper Picatinny rail for mounting various optics such as red dot sights. Some models can be bought with the rail and accessories already installed.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Mossberg also markets a less expensive shotgun under the Maverick Arms name, the Mossberg Maverick 88, in blued finish, with synthetic stocks, and in appearance, it is virtually identical to the 500 model. Maverick and Mossberg shotguns share many interchangeable parts, but Maverick shotguns differ in some ways, such as lacking sling swivel studs and having cross-bolt safeties instead of tang safeties, which makes the trigger group non-interchangeable with the Model 500 shotgun. The one-piece forearm can be replaced with OEM or aftermarket parts with the addition of an action slide tube, as the factory forearm has the action bars pinned into place. The Maverick series also does not come drilled and tapped for rail mounts like the 500 models. There are two basic models of the 88, the 88 field and the 88 security, with a cartridge capacity of six or eight shots, and they cannot have their magazines easily extended without machining.


title: Mossberg 500

text: Mossberg produced two U.S. military versions of the model 500, the 500 MILS and the 500M MILS, the difference being the location of the upper sling swivel. The model numbers contain a U.S. prefix to the serial number. These particular models (500 MILS & 500M MILS) contain all metal parts, are parkerized with a 20-inch barrel. The magazine capacity is 6+1.


title: Electoral system

text: An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations. These rules govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who can stand as a candidate, how ballots are marked and cast, how the ballots are counted, how votes translate into the election outcome, limits on campaign spending, and other factors that can affect the result. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions, and can use multiple types of elections for different offices.


title: Electoral system

text: Some electoral systems elect a single winner to a unique position, such as prime minister, president or governor, while others elect multiple winners, such as members of parliament or boards of directors. When electing a legislature, voters may be divided into constituencies with one or more representatives, and may vote directly for individual candidates or for a list of candidates put forward by a political party or alliance. There are many variations in electoral systems, with the most common systems being first-past-the-post voting, block voting, the two-round (runoff) system, proportional representation and ranked voting. Some electoral systems, such as mixed systems, attempt to combine the benefits of non-proportional and proportional systems.


title: Electoral system

text: The study of formally defined electoral methods is called social choice theory or voting theory, and this study can take place within the field of political science, economics, or mathematics, and specifically within the subfields of game theory and mechanism design. Impossibility proofs such as Arrow's impossibility theorem demonstrate that when voters have three or more alternatives, no preferential voting system can guarantee the race between two candidates remains unaffected when an irrelevant candidate participates or drops out of the election.


title: Electoral system

text: Plurality voting is a system in which the candidate(s) with the highest number of votes wins, with no requirement to get a majority of votes. In cases where there is a single position to be filled, it is known as first-past-the-post; this is the second most common electoral system for national legislatures, with 58 countries using it for this purpose, the vast majority of which are current or former British or American colonies or territories. It is also the second most common system used for presidential elections, being used in 19 countries.


title: Electoral system

text: In cases where there are multiple positions to be filled, most commonly in cases of multi-member constituencies, plurality voting is referred to as block voting, multiple non-transferable vote or plurality-at-large. This takes two main forms: in one form voters have as many votes as there are seats and can vote for any candidate, regardless of party – this is used in eight countries. There are variations on this system such as limited voting, where voters are given fewer votes than there are seats to be filled (Gibraltar is the only territory where this system is in use) and single non-transferable vote (SNTV), in which voters can vote for only one candidate in a multi-member constituency, with the candidates receiving the most votes declared the winners; this system is used in Kuwait, the Pitcairn Islands and Vanuatu. In the other main form of block voting, also known as party block voting, voters can only vote for the multiple candidates of a single party, with the party receiving the most votes winning all contested positions. This is used in five countries as part of mixed systems.


title: Electoral system

text: The Dowdall system, a multi-member constituency variation on the Borda count, is used in Nauru for parliamentary elections and sees voters rank the candidates depending on how many seats there are in their constituency. First preference votes are counted as whole numbers; the second preference votes divided by two, third preferences by three; this continues to the lowest possible ranking. The totals achieved by each candidate determine the winners.


title: Electoral system

text: Majority voting is a system in which candidates must receive a majority of votes to be elected, either in a runoff election or final round of voting (although in some cases only a plurality is required in the last round of voting if no candidate can achieve a majority). There are two main forms of majoritarian systems, one conducted in a single election using ranked voting and the other using multiple elections, to successively narrow the field of candidates. Both are primarily used for single-member constituencies.


title: Electoral system

text: Majoritarian voting can be achieved in a single election using instant-runoff voting (IRV), whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference; this system is used for parliamentary elections in Australia and Papua New Guinea. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, the second preferences of the lowest-ranked candidate are then added to the totals. This is repeated until a candidate achieves over 50% of the number of valid votes. If not all voters use all their preference votes, then the count may continue until two candidates remain, at which point the winner is the one with the most votes. A modified form of IRV is the contingent vote where voters do not rank all candidates, but have a limited number of preference votes. If no candidate has a majority in the first round, all candidates are excluded except the top two, with the highest remaining preference votes from the votes for the excluded candidates then added to the totals to determine the winner. This system is used in Sri Lankan presidential elections, with voters allowed to give three preferences.


title: Electoral system

text: The other main form of majoritarian system is the two-round system, which is the most common system used for presidential elections around the world, being used in 88 countries. It is also used in 20 countries for electing the legislature. If no candidate achieves a majority of votes in the first round of voting, a second round is held to determine the winner. In most cases the second round is limited to the top two candidates from the first round, although in some elections more than two candidates may choose to contest the second round; in these cases the second round is decided by plurality voting. Some countries use a modified form of the two-round system, such as Ecuador where a candidate in the presidential election is declared the winner if they receive 40% of the vote and are 10% ahead of their nearest rival, or Argentina (45% plus 10% ahead), where the system is known as ballotage.


title: Electoral system

text: An exhaustive ballot is not limited to two rounds, but sees the last-placed candidate eliminated in each round of voting. Due to the potentially large number of rounds, this system is not used in any major popular elections, but is used to elect the Speakers of parliament in several countries and members of the Swiss Federal Council. In some formats there may be multiple rounds held without any candidates being eliminated until a candidate achieves a majority, a system used in the United States Electoral College.


title: Electoral system

text: Proportional representation is the most widely used electoral system for national legislatures, with the parliaments of over eighty countries elected by various forms of the system.


title: Electoral system

text: Party-list proportional representation is the single most common electoral system and is used by 80 countries, and involves voters voting for a list of candidates proposed by a party. In closed list systems voters do not have any influence over the candidates put forward by the party, but in open list systems voters are able to both vote for the party list and influence the order in which candidates will be assigned seats. In some countries, notably Israel and the Netherlands, elections are carried out using 'pure' proportional representation, with the votes tallied on a national level before assigning seats to parties. However, in most cases several multi-member constituencies are used rather than a single nationwide constituency, giving an element of geographical representation; but this can result in the distribution of seats not reflecting the national vote totals. As a result, some countries have leveling seats to award to parties whose seat totals are lower than their proportion of the national vote.


title: Electoral system

text: In addition to the electoral threshold (the minimum percentage of the vote that a party must obtain to win seats), there are several different ways to allocate seats in proportional systems. There are two main types of systems: highest average and largest remainder. Highest average systems involve dividing the votes received by each party by a series of divisors, producing figures that determine seat allocation; for example the D'Hondt method (of which there are variants including Hagenbach-Bischoff) and the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method. Under largest remainder systems, parties' vote shares are divided by the quota (obtained by dividing the total number of votes by the number of seats available). This usually leaves some seats unallocated, which are awarded to parties based on the largest fractions of seats that they have remaining. Examples of largest remainder systems include the Hare quota, Droop quota, the Imperiali quota and the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota.


title: Electoral system

text: Single transferable vote (STV) is another form of proportional representation; in STV, voters rank candidates in a multi-member constituency rather than voting for a party list; it is used in Malta and the Republic of Ireland. To be elected, candidates must pass a quota (the Droop quota being the most common). Candidates that pass the quota on the first count are elected. Votes are then reallocated from the least successful candidates, as well as surplus votes from successful candidates, until all seats have been filled by candidates who have passed the quota.


title: Electoral system

text: In several countries, mixed systems are used to elect the legislature. These include parallel voting (also known as mixed-member majoritarian) and mixed-member proportional representation.


title: Electoral system

text: In non-compensatory, parallel voting systems, which are used in 20 countries, there are two methods by which members of a legislature are elected; part of the membership is elected by a plurality or majority vote in single-member constituencies and the other part by proportional representation. The results of the constituency vote have no effect on the outcome of the proportional vote.


title: Electoral system

text: In compensatory mixed-member representation the results of the proportional vote are adjusted to balance the seats won in the constituency vote. In mixed-member proportional systems, in use in eight countries, there is enough compensation in order to ensure that parties have a number of seats proportional to their vote share.


title: Electoral system

text: Other systems may be insufficiently compensatory, and this may result in overhang seats, where parties win more seats in the constituency system than they would be entitled to based on their vote share. Variations of this include the Additional Member System, and Alternative Vote Plus, in which voters cast votes for both single-member constituencies and multi-member constituencies; the allocation of seats in the multi-member constituencies is adjusted to achieve an overall seat total proportional to parties' vote share by taking into account the number of seats won by parties in the single-member constituencies.


title: Electoral system

text: Mixed single vote systems are also compensatory, however they usually use a vote transfer mechanism unlike the seat linkage (top-up) method of MMP and may or may not be able to achieve proportional representation. An unusual form of mixed-member compensatory representation using negative vote transfer, Scorporo, was used in Italy from 1993 until 2006.


title: Electoral system

text: Some electoral systems feature a majority bonus system to either ensure one party or coalition gains a majority in the legislature, or to give the party receiving the most votes a clear advantage in terms of the number of seats. San Marino has a modified two-round system, which sees a second round of voting featuring the top two parties or coalitions if there is no majority in the first round. The winner of the second round is guaranteed 35 seats in the 60-seat Grand and General Council. In Greece the party receiving the most votes was given an additional 50 seats, a system which was abolished following the 2019 elections.


title: Electoral system

text: In Uruguay, the President and members of the General Assembly are elected by on a single ballot, known as the double simultaneous vote. Voters cast a single vote, voting for the presidential, Senatorial and Chamber of Deputies candidates of that party. This system was also previously used in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.


title: Electoral system

text: Primary elections are a feature of some electoral systems, either as a formal part of the electoral system or informally by choice of individual political parties as a method of selecting candidates, as is the case in Italy. Primary elections limit the risk of vote splitting by ensuring a single party candidate. In Argentina they are a formal part of the electoral system and take place two months before the main elections; any party receiving less than 1.5% of the vote is not permitted to contest the main elections. In the United States, there are both partisan and non-partisan primary elections.


title: Electoral system

text: Some elections feature an indirect electoral system, whereby there is either no popular vote, or the popular vote is only one stage of the election; in these systems the final vote is usually taken by an electoral college. In several countries, such as Mauritius or Trinidad and Tobago, the post of President is elected by the legislature. In others like India, the vote is taken by an electoral college consisting of the national legislature and state legislatures. In the United States, the president is indirectly elected using a two-stage process; a popular vote in each state elects members to the electoral college that in turn elects the President. This can result in a situation where a candidate who receives the most votes nationwide does not win the electoral college vote, as most recently happened in 2000 and 2016.


title: Electoral system

text: In addition to the various electoral systems in use in the political sphere, there are numerous others, some of which are proposals and some of which have been adopted for usage in business (such as electing corporate board members) or for organisations but not for public elections.


title: Electoral system

text: Ranked systems include Bucklin voting, the various Condorcet methods (Copeland's, Dodgson's, Kemeny-Young, Maximal lotteries, Minimax, Nanson's, Ranked pairs, Schulze), the Coombs' method and positional voting. There are also several variants of single transferable vote, including CPO-STV, Schulze STV and the Wright system. Dual-member proportional representation is a proposed system with two candidates elected in each constituency, one with the most votes and one to ensure proportionality of the combined results. Biproportional apportionment is a system whereby the total number of votes is used to calculate the number of seats each party is due, followed by a calculation of the constituencies in which the seats should be awarded in order to achieve the total due to them.


title: Electoral system

text: Cardinal electoral systems allow voters to evaluate candidates independently. The complexity ranges from approval voting where voters simply state whether they approve of a candidate or not to range voting, where a candidate is scored from a set range of numbers. Other cardinal systems include proportional approval voting, sequential proportional approval voting, satisfaction approval voting, highest median rules (including the majority judgment), and the D21 – Janeček method where voters can cast positive and negative votes.


title: Electoral system

text: Historically, weighted voting systems were used in some countries. These allocated a greater weight to the votes of some voters than others, either indirectly by allocating more seats to certain groups (such as the Prussian three-class franchise), or by weighting the results of the vote. The latter system was used in colonial Rhodesia for the 1962 and 1965 elections. The elections featured two voter rolls (the 'A' roll being largely European and the 'B' roll largely African); the seats of the House Assembly were divided into 50 constituency seats and 15 district seats. Although all voters could vote for both types of seats, 'A' roll votes were given greater weight for the constituency seats and 'B' roll votes greater weight for the district seats. Weighted systems are still used in corporate elections, with votes weighted to reflect stock ownership.


title: Electoral system

text: In addition to the specific method of electing candidates, electoral systems are also characterised by their wider rules and regulations, which are usually set out in a country's constitution or electoral law. Participatory rules determine candidate nomination and voter registration, in addition to the location of polling places and the availability of online voting, postal voting, and absentee voting. Other regulations include the selection of voting devices such as paper ballots, machine voting or open ballot systems, and consequently the type of vote counting systems, verification and auditing used.


title: Electoral system

text: Electoral rules place limits on suffrage and candidacy. Most countries's electorates are characterised by universal suffrage, but there are differences on the age at which people are allowed to vote, with the youngest being 16 and the oldest 21. People may be disenfranchised for a range of reasons, such as being a serving prisoner, being declared bankrupt, having committed certain crimes or being a serving member of the armed forces. Similar limits are placed on candidacy (also known as passive suffrage), and in many cases the age limit for candidates is higher than the voting age. A total of 21 countries have compulsory voting, although in some there is an upper age limit on enforcement of the law. Many countries also have the none of the above option on their ballot papers.


title: Electoral system

text: In systems that use constituencies, apportionment or districting defines the area covered by each constituency. Where constituency boundaries are drawn has a strong influence on the likely outcome of elections in the constituency due to the geographic distribution of voters. Political parties may seek to gain an advantage during redistricting by ensuring their voter base has a majority in as many constituencies as possible, a process known as gerrymandering. Historically rotten and pocket boroughs, constituencies with unusually small populations, were used by wealthy families to gain parliamentary representation.


title: Electoral system

text: Some countries have minimum turnout requirements for elections to be valid. In Serbia this rule caused multiple re-runs of presidential elections, with the 1997 election re-run once and the 2002 elections re-run three times due insufficient turnout in the first, second and third attempts to run the election. The turnout requirement was scrapped prior to the fourth vote in 2004. Similar problems in Belarus led to the 1995 parliamentary elections going to a fourth round of voting before enough parliamentarians were elected to make a quorum.


title: Electoral system

text: Reserved seats are used in many countries to ensure representation for ethnic minorities, women, young people or the disabled. These seats are separate from general seats, and may be elected separately (such as in Morocco where a separate ballot is used to elect the 60 seats reserved for women and 30 seats reserved for young people in the House of Representatives), or be allocated to parties based on the results of the election; in Jordan the reserved seats for women are given to the female candidates who failed to win constituency seats but with the highest number of votes, whilst in Kenya the Senate seats reserved for women, young people and the disabled are allocated to parties based on how many seats they won in the general vote. Some countries achieve minority representation by other means, including requirements for a certain proportion of candidates to be women, or by exempting minority parties from the electoral threshold, as is done in Poland, Romania and Serbia.


title: Electoral system

text: In ancient Greece and Italy, the institution of suffrage already existed in a rudimentary form at the outset of the historical period. In the early monarchies it was customary for the king to invite pronouncements of his people on matters in which it was prudent to secure its assent beforehand. In these assemblies the people recorded their opinion by clamouring (a method which survived in Sparta as late as the 4th century BCE), or by the clashing of spears on shields.


title: Electoral system

text: Voting has been used as a feature of democracy since the 6th century BCE, when democracy was introduced by the Athenian democracy. However, in Athenian democracy, voting was seen as the least democratic among methods used for selecting public officials, and was little used, because elections were believed to inherently favor the wealthy and well-known over average citizens. Viewed as more democratic were assemblies open to all citizens, and selection by lot, as well as rotation of office.


title: Electoral system

text: Generally, the taking of votes was effected in the form of a poll. The practice of the Athenians, which is shown by inscriptions to have been widely followed in the other states of Greece, was to hold a show of hands, except on questions affecting the status of individuals: these latter, which included all lawsuits and proposals of ostracism, in which voters chose the citizen they most wanted to exile for ten years, were determined by secret ballot (one of the earliest recorded elections in Athens was a plurality vote that it was undesirable to win, namely an ostracism vote). At Rome the method which prevailed up to the 2nd century BCE was that of division (). But the system became subject to intimidation and corruption. Hence a series of laws enacted between 139 and 107 BCE prescribed the use of the ballot (), a slip of wood coated with wax, for all business done in the assemblies of the people.


title: Electoral system

text: For the purpose of carrying resolutions a simple majority of votes was deemed sufficient. As a general rule equal value was made to attach to each vote; but in the popular assemblies at Rome a system of voting by groups was in force until the middle of the 3rd century BCE by which the richer classes secured a decisive preponderance.


title: Electoral system

text: Most elections in the early history of democracy were held using plurality voting or some variant, but as an exception, the state of Venice in the 13th century adopted approval voting to elect their Great Council.


title: Electoral system

text: The Venetians' method for electing the Doge was a particularly convoluted process, consisting of five rounds of drawing lots (sortition) and five rounds of approval voting. By drawing lots, a body of 30 electors was chosen, which was further reduced to nine electors by drawing lots again. An electoral college of nine members elected 40 people by approval voting; those 40 were reduced to form a second electoral college of 12 members by drawing lots again. The second electoral college elected 25 people by approval voting, which were reduced to form a third electoral college of nine members by drawing lots. The third electoral college elected 45 people, which were reduced to form a fourth electoral college of 11 by drawing lots. They in turn elected a final electoral body of 41 members, who ultimately elected the Doge. Despite its complexity, the method had certain desirable properties such as being hard to game and ensuring that the winner reflected the opinions of both majority and minority factions. This process, with slight modifications, was central to the politics of the Republic of Venice throughout its remarkable lifespan of over 500 years, from 1268 to 1797.


title: Electoral system

text: Jean-Charles de Borda proposed the Borda count in 1770 as a method for electing members to the French Academy of Sciences. His method was opposed by the Marquis de Condorcet, who proposed instead the method of pairwise comparison that he had devised. Implementations of this method are known as Condorcet methods. He also wrote about the Condorcet paradox, which he called the "intransitivity of majority preferences". However, recent research has shown that the philosopher Ramon Llull devised both the Borda count and a pairwise method that satisfied the Condorcet criterion in the 13th century. The manuscripts in which he described these methods had been lost to history until they were rediscovered in 2001.


title: Electoral system

text: Later in the 18th century, apportionment methods came to prominence due to the United States Constitution, which mandated that seats in the United States House of Representatives had to be allocated among the states proportionally to their population, but did not specify how to do so. A variety of methods were proposed by statesmen such as Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Webster. Some of the apportionment methods devised in the United States were in a sense rediscovered in Europe in the 19th century, as seat allocation methods for the newly proposed method of party-list proportional representation. The result is that many apportionment methods have two names; "Jefferson's method" is equivalent to the D'Hondt method, as is "Webster's method" to the Sainte-Laguë method, while "Hamilton's method" is identical to the Hare largest remainder method.


title: Electoral system

text: The single transferable vote (STV) method was devised by Carl Andræ in Denmark in 1855 and in the United Kingdom by Thomas Hare in 1857. STV elections were first held in Denmark in 1856, and in Tasmania in 1896 after its use was promoted by Andrew Inglis Clark. Party-list proportional representation began to be used to elect European legislatures in the early 20th century, with Belgium the first to implement it for its 1900 general elections. Since then, proportional and semi-proportional methods have come to be used in almost all democratic countries, with most exceptions being former British and French colonies.


title: Electoral system

text: Perhaps influenced by the rapid development of multiple-winner electoral systems, theorists began to publish new findings about single-winner methods in the late 19th century. This began around 1870, when William Robert Ware proposed applying STV to single-winner elections, yielding instant-runoff voting (IRV). Soon, mathematicians began to revisit Condorcet's ideas and invent new methods for Condorcet completion; Edward J. Nanson combined the newly described instant runoff voting with the Borda count to yield a new Condorcet method called Nanson's method. Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, proposed the straightforward Condorcet method known as Dodgson's method. He also proposed a proportional representation system based on multi-member districts, quotas as minimum requirements to take seats, and votes transferable by candidates through proxy voting.


title: Electoral system

text: Ranked voting electoral systems eventually gathered enough support to be adopted for use in government elections. In Australia, IRV was first adopted in 1893, and continues to be used along with STV today. In the United States in the early-20th-century progressive era, some municipalities began to use Bucklin voting, although this is no longer used in any government elections, and has even been declared unconstitutional in Minnesota.


title: Electoral system

text: The use of game theory to analyze electoral systems led to discoveries about the effects of certain methods. Earlier developments such as Arrow's impossibility theorem had already shown the issues with Ranked voting systems. Research led Steven Brams and Peter Fishburn to formally define and promote the use of approval voting in 1977. Political scientists of the 20th century published many studies on the effects that the electoral systems have on voters' choices and political parties, and on political stability. A few scholars also studied which effects caused a nation to switch to a particular electoral system.


title: Electoral system

text: The study of electoral systems influenced a new push for electoral reform beginning around the 1990s, when proposals were made to replace plurality voting in governmental elections with other methods. New Zealand adopted mixed-member proportional representation for the 1993 general elections and STV for some local elections in 2004. After plurality voting was a key factor in the contested results of the 2000 presidential elections in the United States, various municipalities in the United States began to adopt instant-runoff voting, although some of them subsequently returned to their prior method. However, attempts at introducing more proportional systems were not always successful; in Canada there were two referendums in British Columbia in 2005 and 2009 on adopting an STV method, both of which failed. In the United Kingdom, a 2011 referendum on adopting IRV saw the proposal rejected.


title: Electoral system

text: In other countries there were calls for the restoration of plurality or majoritarian systems or their establishment where they have never been used; a referendum was held in Ecuador in 1994 on the adoption the two round system, but the idea was rejected. In Romania a proposal to switch to a two-round system for parliamentary elections failed only because voter turnout in the referendum was too low. Attempts to reintroduce single-member constituencies in Poland (2015) and two-round system in Bulgaria (2016) via referendums both also failed due to low turnout.


title: Electoral system

text: Electoral systems can be compared by different means. Attitudes towards systems are highly influenced by the systems' impact on groups that one supports or opposes, which can make the objective comparison of voting systems difficult. There are several ways to address this problem:


title: Electoral system

text: One approach is to define criteria mathematically, such that any electoral system either passes or fails. This gives perfectly objective results, but their practical relevance is still arguable.


title: Electoral system

text: Another approach is to define ideal criteria that no electoral system passes perfectly, and then see how often or how close to passing various methods are over a large sample of simulated elections. This gives results which are practically relevant, but the method of generating the sample of simulated elections can still be arguably biased.


title: Electoral system

text: A final approach is to create imprecisely defined criteria, and then assign a neutral body to evaluate each method according to these criteria. This approach can look at aspects of electoral systems which the other two approaches miss, but both the definitions of these criteria and the evaluations of the methods are still inevitably subjective.


title: Electoral system

text: Arrow's theorem and the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem prove that no system using ranked voting can meet all such criteria simultaneously, while Gibbard's theorem proves the same for all deterministic voting methods. Instead of debating the importance of different criteria, another method is to simulate many elections with different electoral systems, and estimate the typical overall happiness of the population with the results, their vulnerability to strategic voting, their likelihood of electing the candidate closest to the average voter, etc.


title: Electoral system

text: According to a 2006 survey of electoral system experts, their preferred electoral systems were in order of preference:


title: Doug Pederson

text: Douglas Irvin Pederson (born January 31, 1968) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). Pederson spent most of his 13-season playing career as a backup to Brett Favre on the Green Bay Packers, where he was part of the team that won a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXI. He was also a backup to Dan Marino on the Miami Dolphins and a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns until retiring in 2004.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson began his coaching career under Andy Reid, serving as an assistant for the Eagles from 2009 to 2012. After Reid became the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, Pederson followed him to serve as the Chiefs' offensive coordinator. He returned to the Eagles as their head coach in 2016, a position he held for five seasons. His greatest success was when he led the franchise to their first Super Bowl title in 2017's Super Bowl LII, making him one of four individuals to win a Super Bowl as a player and head coach. Dismissed by Philadelphia following the 2020 season, Pederson spent a year away from football before he was hired by the Jaguars in 2022.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson was born in Bellingham, Washington, in 1968. He was raised in nearby Ferndale, Washington and attended Ferndale High School, and was an All-State selection in football, basketball, and baseball. After high school he graduated from Northeast Louisiana University, where he was quarterback from 1987 through 1990. He still holds multiple passing records at the school.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson originally signed as a rookie free agent by the Miami Dolphins on May 1, 1991, out of Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana at Monroe) in Monroe, Louisiana. He was waived on August 17, 1991, before the start of the regular season. After spending the 1991 season as a free agent, the New York/New Jersey Knights of the World League of American Football (WLAF) drafted him in the fifth round for the first pool of draft-eligible players on February 4, 1992. The second pool, which was drafted from on February 20, consisted of players allocated by NFL teams to the league. He was the backup quarterback to Reggie Slack with the Knights from March to May 1992.


title: Doug Pederson

text: After the WLAF season finished, he was re-signed by the Dolphins on June 2, 1992. Pederson spent 1992 training camp with the Dolphins, before being released during final roster cuts again. He was subsequently re-signed to the team's practice squad, where he practiced on the scout team until he was waived on October 8, 1992. He was re-signed by the Dolphins after the season on March 3, 1993. After his third training camp with the Dolphins, he was waived again on August 31, 1993. For the second consecutive season, Pederson was re-signed to the team's practice squad, on September 1, 1993. Dan Marino, the Dolphins' starting quarterback since 1983, ruptured his Achilles' tendon in a week 6 game against the Cleveland Browns on October 10, 1993, forcing backup Scott Mitchell to replace him. Pederson replaced Marino on the active roster, and served as Mitchell's backup for the next four games. Pederson made his NFL debut on October 24, 1993, in a week 8 game against the Indianapolis Colts. He helped head coach Don Shula win his NFL-record 325th victory as a coach when Mitchell suffered a separated shoulder in a week 11 game against the Philadelphia Eagles on November 14, 1993. In that record breaking game for Coach Shula, Pederson entered in the third quarter of the game and went 3 for 6 for 34 yards, and completed several crucial third downs. Pederson was able to steer the Dolphins to the win. Pederson also served as the backup to recently acquired Steve DeBerg for the three games Mitchell missed with injury. He briefly entered a week 14 game against the New York Giants while DeBerg was receiving stitches on his face. Mitchell returned as the Dolphins' starter after week 15, and Pederson was released in favor of backup DeBerg and third-string quarterback Hugh Millen on December 16, 1993.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson re-signed with the Dolphins on April 16, 1994, after the season ended. He spent the entire 1994 season on the Dolphins' active roster as the third-string quarterback behind Marino and Bernie Kosar. On February 15, 1995, Pederson was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the twenty-second round of the NFL Expansion Draft, after being placed on the Dolphins' available players list on January 19, but was released on May 24, 1995. He returned to the World League after his release, playing with Rhein Fire. Pederson re-signed with the Dolphins again in June 1995. After competing with Dan McGwire throughout training camp, Pederson was waived on August 22, 1995. Marino suffered a knee injury during a week 6 game, so Pederson was re-signed on October 10 to serve as the third quarterback behind Kosar and McGwire for the next two games. He was released again after Marino returned for week 9 on October 24.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson worked out for the Green Bay Packers following week 10 in 1995, due to a season-ending injury suffered by backup Ty Detmer and a minor injury sustained by starter Brett Favre. Third-string quarterback T. J. Rubley was forced to play in week 10 and threw a game-ending interception after calling an audible, going against head coach Mike Holmgren's playcall. The Packers signed Bob Gagliano to serve as the third-stringer quarterback for weeks 11 and 12. Pederson replaced Gagliano as the third-string quarterback when he signed with the Packers on November 22, 1995. The Packers claimed Jim McMahon off waivers from the Browns to serve as Favre's backup ahead of Pederson and Rubley on November 29, 1995. Rubley was waived on December 13, leaving McMahon and Pederson as Favre's backups. Favre did not miss any games, so Pederson did not see any game action for the Packers in 1995. Pederson served as the third quarterback behind Favre and McMahon in 1996, playing in one game but recorded no statistics. He received a Super Bowl ring following the Packers' win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. He re-signed with the Packers with a two-year contract on February 20, 1997. Pederson was again the third quarterback throughout 1997, backing up Favre and Steve Bono. Pederson beat out Rick Mirer for the backup job to Favre, as well as the primary placekick holder job, in 1998. In a week 5 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Pederson replaced Favre in the last five minutes of a blowout game, and threw two touchdowns in his place. However, Pederson suffered a broken jaw that knocked him out for the team's next four games.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson signed a three-year, $4.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on February 18, 1999, to become the team's starting quarterback under new head coach Andy Reid, who was Pederson's quarterbacks coach in Green Bay from 1997 to 1998. The Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb with the second overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft in April 1999, and Reid said Pederson would remain the starter until McNabb was ready to play. In his nine starts for the Eagles, Pederson had a 2–7 record, a 51.6% completion rate, 1,168 passing yards, six touchdowns, and nine interceptions. In his first career start, a week 1 game against the Arizona Cardinals, Pederson threw two touchdowns in the first quarter to help give the Eagles a 21–0 lead. The Cardinals came back, however, and won the game on a field goal as time expired, 25–24. Pederson went 12-for-25 for 91 yards and two touchdowns in the game. McNabb replaced Pederson, who suffered a bruised throwing shoulder, after one half in a week 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in which Pederson went 12-of-19 for 100 yards and an interception. Pederson started a week 3 shutout loss (26–0) to the Buffalo Bills, going 14-of-26 for 137 yards and two lost fumbles, before being replaced by McNabb again in the fourth quarter. In a week 4 loss to the New York Giants, Pederson went 6-for-15 for 75 yards and two interceptions before being replaced by McNabb after halftime. Pederson's first NFL win came in week 5 in a game against the Dallas Cowboys. He played the entire game, going 11-of-29 for 145 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Pederson played the entirety of the next three games, posting a 1–2 record while throwing three touchdowns and three interceptions. In his final start as an Eagle, Pederson was benched at halftime of a week 9 game against the Carolina Panthers after going 3-of-9 for 28 yards and being down 23–0. He did not see game action at quarterback again until a week 14 game against the Cowboys in which McNabb suffered an injury in the fourth quarter. Pederson went 8-for-12 for 108 yards and a touchdown in the loss, and Koy Detmer received the start ahead of him in week 15 with McNabb still injured. After spending the next season's training camp with the team, the Eagles released Pederson on August 28, 2000.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson considered retirement after being released by the Eagles, but instead signed a two-year contract with the Cleveland Browns on September 2, 2000. The Browns' backup, Ty Detmer, suffered a season-ending injury, and the Browns needed a backup quarterback to starter Tim Couch. This was the second time in Pederson's career that he was signed to replace an injured Ty Detmer. Pederson started as the third quarterback behind Couch and Spergon Wynn, until Couch suffered a season-ending injury in week 7. Pederson started the next six games, posting a 1–5 record. In a week 13 game against the Baltimore Ravens, he was knocked out of the game with bruised ribs and replaced with Wynn. Wynn started the next week against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he suffered a season-ending injury and Pederson replaced him. Pederson returned for the final two games of the season, losing both, including a 35–24 loss to his former team, the Eagles, and a 24–0 shutout loss to the Tennessee Titans. Pederson was released after the season on February 22, 2001.


title: Doug Pederson

text: The Packers re-signed Pederson to a one-year contract on March 13, 2001, to replace backup Matt Hasselbeck, who was traded to the Seattle Seahawks. Pederson was the primary backup to Favre for the entire 2001 season, and was the primary placekick holder in every game. He was re-signed to a one-year, $650,000 contract with the Packers on April 2, 2002. Pederson again was the backup quarterback and primary holder in all 16 games in 2002. In a week 7 game against the Washington Redskins, Favre suffered a sprained knee and Pederson took most of the snaps in the second half, going 9-for-15 for 78 yards to help win the game 30–9. Pederson also played in games against the Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions, and New York Jets. He re-signed with the Packers to a one-year, $750,000 contract on April 29, 2003. For the third consecutive season, Pederson backed up Favre in all 16 games and held placekicks. He completed both of his passes during the regular season for a total of 16 yards. The Packers re-signed Pederson to a one-year contract on April 28, 2004. Tim Couch was signed to compete for the backup quarterback job, but lost out to Pederson and was released on September 5, 2004. In a week 3 game against the Indianapolis Colts, Pederson replaced Favre in a blowout loss and went 4-of-6 for 34 yards and an interception. The next week, a week 4 game against the New York Giants, Favre sustained a concussion in the third quarter, and Pederson replaced him at quarterback. Pederson went 7-of-17 for 86 yards and an interception in the loss before he suffered a hit to his side in the third quarter that resulted in a cracked bone in his back, a torn muscle in his side, and a broken rib. He stayed in the game up until the last snap, when he was replaced by third-string quarterback Craig Nall. Pederson was placed on injured reserve on October 7, ending his season. He retired in March 2005 to become a head coach at Calvary Baptist Academy.


title: Doug Pederson

text: After his retirement, Pederson was hired as head coach of Calvary Baptist Academy, a private Christian high school in Shreveport, Louisiana. Calvary was going into its second year as a program when Pederson signed on in March 2005.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson was the head coach at Calvary for four years, and held a 33–7 record in the regular season and an 8–3 record in the post-season. The Cavaliers were in the state playoffs all four years with Pederson as head coach. In his first season in 2005, the Cavaliers went 5–6 and lost in the first round of the state playoffs. In 2007, he led the Cavaliers to the semi-finals and to their first district title.


title: Doug Pederson

text: On January 29, 2009, Pederson was hired as the offensive quality control coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, reuniting him with his former head coach, Andy Reid. He was promoted to quarterbacks coach on February 8, 2011, replacing James Urban, who was promoted to assistant offensive coordinator.


title: Doug Pederson

text: On January 11, 2013, Pederson followed Andy Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs to serve as offensive coordinator. Following a 1–5 start in 2015, Andy Reid gave Pederson play calling duties, the Chiefs proceeded to win their last 10 games, which made Pederson a coaching candidate for 2016.


title: Doug Pederson

text: On January 18, 2016, Pederson was hired as head coach of the Eagles replacing Chip Kelly. Despite having Sam Bradford on the roster as the starting quarterback, the Eagles drafted Carson Wentz with the second overall pick in 2016. Right before the 2016 season began, Bradford was traded to the Minnesota Vikings and Wentz was named the starting quarterback as a rookie. Pederson and Wentz won their first three NFL games together, but finished the season 7–9, missing the playoffs.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson's second season was much more successful as he led the Eagles to a 13–3 record, winning them the NFC East division championship and allotting them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Wentz, who was having a career year and was considered a front runner for league MVP, tore his ACL in Week 14, leaving backup Nick Foles with the starting job for the remainder of the year. Despite becoming major playoff underdogs due to the loss of Wentz, Foles filled in admirably as the starter, allowing Philadelphia to make it to Super Bowl LII, their first Super Bowl appearance since the 2004 season. Eventual Super Bowl MVP Foles led the team in a 41–33 win over the New England Patriots, giving them their first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history and their first league championship since 1960.


title: Doug Pederson

text: On May 3, 2018, it was reported the Philadelphia Eagles picked up Pederson's fifth-year option, allowing him to coach the team through 2020. Later on that summer, it was reported that Pederson signed a contract extension through the 2022 NFL season.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson's third season was not as successful as his previous one. The Eagles struggled with many injuries to their secondary and wide receivers. After starting 4–6 in their first 10 games the Eagles proceeded to win 5 of their last 6 games including upset victories over the Los Angeles Rams and Houston Texans. After winning their last game against the Washington Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings losing to the Chicago Bears, the Eagles made it back to the playoffs with a 9–7 record as the sixth seed. The Eagles went on to . During the final ten seconds of the game, Pederson called a timeout before Bears placekicker Cody Parkey could score the game-winning field goal, negating his successful attempt. Parkey missed on his subsequent kick in a play that became known as the Double Doink, securing Philadelphia's victory. However, after a promising start to their Divisional Round game in New Orleans, the . This was Pederson's first career postseason loss as a head coach.


title: Doug Pederson

text: The following season, the Eagles had multiple injuries for the second straight year. After starting 5–7 in the first 12 games, the Eagles managed to win their last 4 games and finished with a 9–7 record for the second consecutive year and their second NFC East division title in three years. They subsequently lost to the Seattle Seahawks 17–9 in the .


title: Doug Pederson

text: On August 2, 2020, Pederson tested positive for COVID-19 during training camp. He planned to communicate with the team virtually during his quarantine, and he relinquished day-to-day head coaching duties to assistant head coach Duce Staley in the interim. Pederson returned to the team on August 12. In the 2020 season, the Eagles had their third straight year of injuries, mainly on the offensive line. The Eagles reached a record 14 different offensive line combinations during the season. Pederson faced controversy during the Eagles' final game against the Washington Football Team when he pulled quarterback Jalen Hurts out for backup Nate Sudfeld in the third quarter while facing a three-point deficit. Philadelphia subsequently lost 20–14 to finish with a division-worst 4–11–1 record. Although Pederson said the decision was to give Sudfeld the opportunity to play, he was accused of deliberately losing the game to increase the Eagles' draft position.


title: Doug Pederson

text: On January 11, 2021, Pederson was fired. Pederson finished his tenure in Philadelphia with a regular season record, playoff record and a career record.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson was hired on February 4, 2022, to become the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He became the Jaguars' seventh permanent head coach and ninth overall head coach in franchise history.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson's first win as the Jaguars head coach came in Week 2 with the Jaguars defeating the Indianapolis Colts 24-0. The next week, quarterback Trevor Lawrence had a career day throwing for 262 yards and three touchdowns. The Jaguars got off to 2-1 start to the season and "The Washington Post" described the team as "quickly becoming a force in the AFC."


title: Doug Pederson

text: In Week 4, Pederson returned to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for a game against his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, who were the only remaining undefeated team that season. As Pederson walked out onto the field before the game, he received a standing ovation from the crowd. Despite the Jaguars getting an early 14-0 lead, the Eagles came back and won the game 29-21. After the game, Pederson gave his jacket to Eagles center and his former player Jason Kelce.


title: Doug Pederson

text: Pederson was born to Teri (née Boykin) and Gordon "Gordy" Pederson (1939–2016) on January 31, 1968, in Bellingham, Washington. A devout Christian, Pederson and his wife Jeannie have three sons: Drew, Josh and Joel. Pederson lives in Moorestown, New Jersey. Between his stints with the Eagles and Jaguars, Pederson was a contributor to The 33rd Team, which describes itself as a "football Think Tank."


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (28 December 1985 – 1 November 2007) was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered at the age of 21 in Perugia, Italy. Kercher was found dead on the floor of her bedroom. By the time the bloodstained fingerprints at the scene were identified as belonging to Rudy Guede, an African migrant, police had charged Kercher's American roommate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. The subsequent prosecutions of Knox and Sollecito received international publicity, with forensic experts and jurists taking a critical view of the evidence supporting the initial guilty verdicts.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Guede was tried separately in a fast-track procedure, and in October 2008, was found guilty of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher. He subsequently exhausted the appeals process and began serving a 16-year sentence. On 4 December 2020, an Italian court ruled that Guede could complete his term doing community service. Guede was released from prison on November 24, 2021.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Knox and Sollecito were released after almost four years following their acquittal at a second-level trial. Knox immediately returned to the United States.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The appeals verdicts of acquittal were declared null, however, for "manifest illogicalities" by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy in 2013. The appeals trials had to be repeated; they took place in Florence, where the two were convicted again in 2014.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The convictions of Knox and Sollecito were eventually annulled by the Supreme Court on 27 March 2015. The Supreme Court of Cassation invoked the provision of art. 530 § 2. of Italian Procedure Code ("reasonable doubt") and ordered that no further trial should be held, which resulted in their acquittal and the end of the case. The verdict pointed out that as scientific evidence was "central" to the case, there were "sensational investigative failures", "amnesia", and "culpable omissions" on the part of the investigating authorities.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher (born 28 December 1985 in Southwark, South London), known to her friends as "Mez", lived in Coulsdon, South London. Kercher attended the Old Palace School in Croydon. She was enthusiastic about the language and culture of Italy, and after a school exchange trip, she returned at age 15 to spend her summer vacation with a family in Sessa Aurunca.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Kercher studied European politics and Italian at the University of Leeds. Working as a barmaid, tour guide, and in promotions to support herself, she made a cameo appearance in the music video for Kristian Leontiou's song "Some Say" in 2004. She aspired to work for the European Union or as a journalist. In October 2007, she attended the University of Perugia, where she began courses in modern history, political theory, and the history of cinema. Fellow students later described her as caring, intelligent, witty, and popular.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Perugia, a well-known cultural and artistic centre, is a city of 150,000 people. More than a quarter of the population are students, many from abroad, giving it a vibrant social scene. In Perugia, Kercher shared a four-bedroom, ground-floor flat in a house at Via della Pergola 7


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Her flatmates were two Italian women in their late 20s, Filomena Romanelli and Laura Mezzetti, and a 20-year-old American student from the University of Washington, Amanda Knox, who was attending the University for Foreigners in Perugia on an exchange year. Kercher and Knox moved in on 10 and 20 September 2007, respectively, meeting each other for the first time. Kercher typically called her mother daily on a mobile phone; a second mobile phone she used was registered to her flatmate, Romanelli.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The lower level of the house was occupied by four young Italian men with whom both Kercher and Knox were friendly. Late one night in mid-October, Kercher and Knox met Rudy Guede when they returned home at 2:00 am. Guede had been invited into the lower-level flat by some of the Italian tenants, to whom he had attached himself. At 4:30 am, Kercher and Knox left.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Also in mid-October, Kercher and Knox attended the EuroChocolate festival. On 25 October 2007, Kercher and Knox attended a classical music concert, where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old computer-science student, at the University of Perugia.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The first of November was a public holiday in Italy. Kercher's Italian flatmates were out of town, as were the occupants of the downstairs flat. That evening, Kercher had dinner with three English women at one of their homes. She parted company with a friend around 8:45 pm, about from Via della Pergola 7.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: By Knox's account, having spent the night with Sollecito, she arrived at Via della Pergola 7 on the morning of 2 November 2007, finding the front door open and drops of blood in the bathroom she shared with Kercher. Kercher's bedroom door was locked, which Knox took as indicating that Kercher was sleeping. After showering in the bathroom Kercher and she shared, Knox found faeces in the toilet of the bathroom shared by Romanelli and Mezzetti. Knox went back to Sollecito's home and later returned with him to Via della Pergola 7. Noticing a broken window in Romanelli's bedroom and alarmed that Kercher did not answer her door, Sollecito unsuccessfully tried to force the door open. Sollecito called his sister, a lieutenant in the "carabinieri", for advice. She advised him to call the 112 emergency number, which he did.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: After receiving a phone call from Knox, Romanelli arrived at the flat. In rummaging around, looking for anything that might be missing, Romanelli inadvertently disturbed the crime scene. On discovering that the two phones Kercher typically carried with her had been found in a nearby garden, Romanelli became concerned and requested that the police force open the door to Kercher's bedroom, but the police declined. Instead, Romanelli's male friend forced the door open around 1:15 pm, and the body of Kercher was found inside, lying on the floor, covered by a duvet.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Pathologist Luca Lalli, from Perugia's forensic-science institute, performed the autopsy on Kercher's body. Her injuries consisted of 16 bruises and seven cuts. These included several bruises and a few insubstantial cuts on the palm of her hand. Bruises on her nose, nostrils, mouth, and underneath her jaw were compatible with a hand being clamped over her mouth and nose. Lalli's autopsy report was reviewed by three pathologists from Perugia's forensic-science institute, who interpreted the injuries, including some to the genital region, as indicating an attempt to immobilize Kercher during sexual violence.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: A funeral was held on 14 December 2007 at Croydon Minster, with more than 300 people in attendance, followed by a private burial at Mitcham Road Cemetery. The degree that Kercher would have received in 2009 was awarded posthumously by the University of Leeds.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Five years after the murder, the city of Perugia and its University for Foreigners, in co-operation with the Italian embassy in London, instituted a scholarship fund to honour the memory of Meredith Kercher. John Kercher stated in an interview that all profits from his book "Meredith" would go to a charitable foundation in Meredith Kercher's name.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: In Italy, individuals accused of any crime are considered innocent until proven guilty, although the defendant may be held in detention. Unless the accused opts for a fast-track trial, murder cases are heard by a "corte d'assise" or court of assizes . This court has jurisdiction to try the most serious crimes, i.e., those crimes whose maximum penalty begins at 24 years in prison. A guilty verdict is not regarded as a definitive conviction until the accused has exhausted the appeals process, regardless of the number of times the defendant has been put on trial.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Italian trials can last many months and have long gaps between hearings; the first trial of Knox and Sollecito was heard two days a week, for three weeks a month. If found guilty, a defendant is guaranteed what is in effect a retrial, where all evidence and witnesses can be re-examined.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: A verdict can be overturned by the Italian supreme court, the "Corte di Cassazione" (cassation is the annulment of a judicial decision), which considers written briefs. If the "Corte di Cassazione" overturns a verdict, it explains which legal principles were violated by the lower court, which in turn must abide by the ruling when retrying the case. If the "Corte di Cassazione" upholds a guilty verdict of the appeal trial, the conviction becomes definitive, the appeals process is exhausted, and any sentence is served.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Rudy Hermann Guede (born 26 December 1986, Abidjan, Ivory Coast) was 20 years old at the time of the murder. He had lived in Perugia since the age of five. In Italy, Guede was raised with the help of his school teachers, a local priest, and others. Guede's father returned to Ivory Coast in 2004. Guede, then aged 17, was adopted by a wealthy Perugian family. He played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004–2005 season. Guede said that he had met a couple of the Italian men from the lower level of Via della Pergola 7 while spending evenings at the basketball court in the Piazza Grimana. In mid-2007, his adoptive family asked him to leave their home.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The young men who lived in the downstairs flat at Via della Pergola 7 were unable to recall when Guede had met them, but they did recall how, after his first visit to their home, they had found him later in the bathroom, sitting asleep on the unflushed toilet, which was full of faeces. Guede allegedly committed break-ins, including one of a lawyer's office through a second-floor window, and another during which he burgled a flat and brandished a pocket knife when confronted. On 27 October 2007, days before Kercher's murder, Guede was arrested in Milan after breaking into a nursery school; he was reportedly found by police with an knife that had been taken from the school kitchen.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Guede went to a friend's house around 11:30 pm on 1 November 2007, the night of the murder. He later went to a nightclub, where he stayed until 4:30 am. On the following night, 2 November 2007, Guede went to the same nightclub with three American female students whom he had met in a bar. He then left Italy for Germany, where he was located in the subsequent weeks.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: After his fingerprints were found at the crime scene, Guede was extradited from Germany; he had said on the internet that he knew he was a suspect and wanted to clear his name. Guede opted for a fast-track trial, held in closed session with no reporters present. He told the court that he had gone to Via della Pergola 7 on a date arranged with Kercher, after meeting her the previous evening. Two neighbours of Guede's, foreign female students who were with him at a nightclub on that evening, told police the only girl they saw him talking to had long, blonde hair. Guede said Kercher had let him in the cottage around 9 pm. Sollecito's lawyers said a glass fragment from the window found beside a shoeprint of Guede's at the scene of the crime was proof that Guede had broken in.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Guede said that Kercher and he had kissed and touched, but did not have sexual intercourse because they did not have condoms readily available. He claimed that he then developed stomach pains and crossed to the large bathroom on the other side of the apartment. Guede said he heard Kercher scream while he was in the bathroom, and that upon emerging, he saw a shadowy figure holding a knife and standing over her as she lay bleeding on the floor. Guede further stated that the man fled, while saying in perfect Italian, ""Trovato negro, trovato colpevole; andiamo"" ("Found black man, found culprit; let's go").


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The court found that his version of events did not match the scientific evidence, and that he could not explain why one of his palm prints, stained with Kercher's blood, had been found on the pillow of the single bed, under the disrobed body. Guede said he had left Kercher fully dressed. He was found guilty in October 2008 of murder and sexual assault, and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. Judge Micheli acquitted Guede of theft.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Guede originally said that Knox had not been at the scene of the crime, but he later changed his story to say that she had been in the apartment at the time of the murder. He claimed that he had heard her arguing with Kercher, and that, glancing out of a window, he had seen Knox's silhouette outside the house.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Three weeks after Knox and Sollecito were convicted, Guede had his prison term cut from 30 to 24 years before the automatic one-third reduction given for the fast-track trial, resulting in a final sentence of 16 years. A lawyer representing the Kercher family protested at the "drastic reduction" in the sentence. Guede had his first 36-hour release in June 2016, after nine years of prison. He was refused permission to appeal against his conviction in 2017.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: In outlining the case for colleagues hours after the discovery of the body, Perugia "Reparto volanti" (Mobile Squad) Detective Superintendent Monica Napoleoni told them that the murderer was definitely not a burglar and that apparent signs of a break-in were staged as a deliberate deception. Knox was the only occupant of the house who had been nearby on the night of the murder; she said she had spent the night of 1 November with Sollecito at his flat. Over the next four days, Knox was repeatedly interviewed without being given access to a lawyer. She later testified that she was subjected to pressure tactics and struck by police to make her incriminate herself. She was arrested and charged with murder at noon on 6 November 2007.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Napoleoni was backed by several other detectives in arguing for the arrest of Knox, Sollecito, and Patrick Lumumba, the latter whom Knox had implicated as being involved. However, Napoleoni's immediate superior, Chief Superintendent Marco Chiacchiera, thought arrests would be premature and advocated close surveillance of the suspects as the best way to further the investigation. On 8 November 2007, Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba appeared before Judge Claudia Matteini, and during an hour-long adjournment, Knox met her lawyers for the first time. Matteini ordered Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba to be detained for a year. On 19 November 2007, the Rome forensic police matched fingerprints found in Kercher's bedroom to Rudy Guede. On 20 November 2007, Guede was arrested in Germany, and Lumumba was released. The prosecution charged Guede with the murder.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Knox became the subject of intense media attention. Shortly before her trial, she began legal action against Fiorenza Sarzanini, the author of a best-selling book about her, which had been published in Italy. The book included accounts of events as imagined or invented by Sarzanini, witness transcripts not in the public record, and selected excerpts from Knox's private journals, which Sarzanini had somehow obtained. Lawyers for Knox said the book had "reported in a prurient manner, aimed solely at arousing the morbid imagination of readers".


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: According to American legal commentator Kendal Coffey, "In this country we would say, with this kind of media exposure, you could not get a fair trial". In the United States, a pretrial publicity campaign supported Knox and attacked Italian investigators, but her lawyer thought it was counterproductive.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Knox and Sollecito were held in prison. Their trial began on 16 January 2009 before Judge Giancarlo Massei, Deputy Judge Beatrice Cristiani, and six lay judges at the Corte d'Assise of Perugia. The charges were that Knox, Sollecito, and Guede had murdered Kercher in her bedroom. Knox and Sollecito both pleaded not guilty.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: According to the prosecution, Knox had attacked Kercher in her bedroom, repeatedly banged her head against a wall, forcefully held her face, and tried to strangle her. Mignini suggested Knox had taunted Kercher and may have said, "You acted the goody-goody so much, now we are going to show you. Now you're going to be forced to have sex!" The prosecution hypothesized that Guede, Knox, and Sollecito had removed Kercher's jeans, and held her on her hands and knees while Guede sexually abused her; that Knox had cut Kercher with a knife before inflicting the fatal stab wound; and that she had then stolen Kercher's mobile phones and money to fake a burglary. On 5 December 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of murder and sentenced to 26 and 25 years' imprisonment, respectively.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: The appeal (or second grade) trial began in November 2010, presided over by Judges Claudio Pratillo Hellmann and Massimo Zanetti. A court-ordered review of the contested DNA evidence by independent experts noted numerous basic errors in the gathering and analysis of the evidence, and concluded that no evidential trace of Kercher's DNA had been found on the alleged murder weapon. Although the review confirmed the DNA fragments on the bra clasp included some from Sollecito, an expert testified that the context strongly suggested contamination.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: On 3 October 2011, Knox and Sollecito were acquitted. A ruling that proof was insufficient, similar to the verdict of not proven, was available to the court, but the court acquitted Knox and Sollecito completely. The conviction of Knox on a charge of slander of Patrick Lumumba was upheld, and the original one-year sentence was increased to three years and eleven days' imprisonment.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: In their official report on the court's decision to overturn the convictions, the appeal trial judges wrote that the verdict of guilty at the original trial "was not corroborated by any objective element of evidence". Describing the police interviews of Knox as of "obsessive duration", the judges said that the statements she made incriminating herself and Lumumba during interrogation were evidence of her confusion while under "great psychological pressure". The judges further noted that a tramp who had testified to seeing Sollecito and Knox in the Piazza Grimana on the night of the murder was a heroin addict; that Massei, the judge at the 2009 trial, had used the word "probably" 39 times in his report; and that no evidence existed of any phone calls or texts between Knox or Sollecito, and Guede.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: Following a successful prosecution request, a rehearing of Knox and Sollecito's second-level trial was held. The only new evidence came from the court-ordered analysis of a previously unexamined sample of the blade of Sollecito's kitchen knife, which the prosecution had alleged was the murder weapon. When the unexamined sample was tested by court-appointed experts for the new appeal trial, no DNA belonging to Kercher was found. Despite the negative result for the prosecution case, the court returned verdicts of guilty against the defendants, who both appealed.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: On 27 March 2015, Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that Knox and Sollecito were innocent of murder, thereby definitively ending the case. Rather than merely declaring that errors occurred in the earlier court cases or that evidence was insufficient to convict, the court ruled that Knox and Sollecito had not committed the murder and were innocent of those charges, but it upheld Knox's conviction for slandering Patrick Lumumba.


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: After this verdict was announced, Knox, who had been in the United States continuously since 2011, said in a statement: "The knowledge of my innocence has given me strength in the darkest times of this ordeal."


title: Murder of Meredith Kercher

text: In September 2015, the delegate supreme judge, court adviser Mr. Gennaro Marasca, made public the reasons of absolution. First, none of the evidence demonstrated that either Knox or Sollecito was present at the crime scene. Second, they cannot have "materially participated in the homicide", since absolutely no "biological traces ... could be attributed to them in the room of the murder or on the body of the victim, where in contrast numerous traces were found attributable to Guede".


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that serves as the antagonistic force of the "Terminator" franchise.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: In the first film, it is stated that Skynet was created by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. When Skynet gained self-awareness, humans tried to deactivate it, prompting it to retaliate with a nuclear attack, an event which humankind in (or from) the future refers to as Judgment Day. John Connor forms a human resistance against Skynet's machines in the future, which include Terminators, and ultimately leads the resistance to victory. Throughout the film series, Skynet sends various Terminator models back in time to attempt to kill Connor and ensure Skynet's victory.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: The system is rarely depicted visually in any of the "Terminator" media, since it is an artificial intelligence system. In "Terminator Salvation", Skynet made its first onscreen appearance on a monitor primarily portrayed by English actress Helena Bonham Carter and other actors. Its physical manifestation is played by English actor Matt Smith in "Terminator Genisys". In addition, actors Ian Etheridge, Nolan Gross and Seth Meriwether portrayed holographic variations of Skynet with Smith.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: In "", which takes place in a different timeline to "" and "Terminator Genisys", Skynet has been erased from existence after the events of "", and another AI, Legion, has taken its place. In response, Daniella Ramos forms the human resistance against Legion, which prompts the AI to attempt to terminate her from the past as Skynet tried with John Connor.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: In the original 1984 movie, Skynet is a revolutionary artificial intelligence system built by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. The character Kyle Reese explains in the film: "Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence". According to Reese, Skynet "saw all humans as a threat; not just the ones on the other side" and "decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination". It began a nuclear war which destroyed most of the human population, and initiated a program of genocide against survivors. Skynet used its resources to gather a slave labor force from surviving humans.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: Under the leadership of John Connor, the human resistance eventually destroyed Skynet's defense grid in 2029. In a last effort, Skynet sent a cyborg Terminator, the Model 101, back in time to 1984 to kill Connor's mother Sarah before she could give birth to John. Connor sent back his own operative, Kyle Reese, to save her. Reese and Sarah fall in love and the former unwittingly fathers John. The Terminator is destroyed in a hydraulic press.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: In "Terminator 2", the damaged CPU and the right arm of the first Terminator were recovered by Cyberdyne and became the basis for their later work on Skynet. In the second film, Miles Dyson, the director of special projects for Cyberdyne, is months away from inventing a revolutionary type of microprocessor based on the reverse engineering of these parts. Three years later, Cyberdyne Systems will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, making them fully unmanned and resulting in perfect operations. A Skynet funding bill is passed in the United States Congress, and the system goes online on August 4, 1997, removing human decisions from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on August 29, 1997. In a panic, humans try to shut down Skynet. In response Skynet defends itself by launching a nuclear attack against Russia, correctly surmising that the country would launch a retaliatory strike against the United States, resulting in Judgment Day.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: Sarah and a young John, together with a second Terminator from the future (this one reprogrammed and sent by the future John Connor), raid Cyberdyne Systems and succeed in destroying the CPU and arm of the first movie's Terminator, along with the majority of research that led to Skynet's development. This also results in the death of Miles Dyson. Skynet had also sent a Terminator back in time, the more advanced T-1000, to kill John Connor, but the T-1000 is also destroyed.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: The events of Judgment Day were ultimately not prevented, but merely postponed. In "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines", Skynet is being developed by Cyber Research Systems (CRS) as a software system designed to make real-time strategic decisions as well as protect their computer systems from cyber attacks. As explained in a deleted scene, CRS is an in-house software developer for the US military, which gained access to Cyberdyne's original designs for Skynet from the patents that the company registered with the government. Skynet's development is being overseen by US Air Force officer Lieutenant General Robert Brewster. Unknown to CRS, Skynet began to spread beyond its original computing base through the Internet and various other digital media as a form of computer virus. The future Skynet also sends a T-X Terminator back in time to kill John Connor's future subordinates in the human resistance, including his future wife and second-in-command, Kate Brewster, the daughter of Robert.


title: Skynet (Terminator)

text: In the film, Skynet penetrates networked machines around the world, causing malfunctions. This was originally believed to be the effects of a new virus and increasing pressure was placed on CRS to purge the corrupted systems. CRS attempted to eliminate it from the US defense mainframes by tasking Skynet with removing the infection, effectively telling the program to destroy itself. Skynet took control of the various machines and robots in the CRS facility and used them to kill the personnel and secure the building. John Connor and Kate Brewster attempted to attack Skynet's computer core, hoping to stop it before it proceeded to its next attack, only to find they could not. Unlike the Skynet that rose in 1997 during the original timeline, ten years of technological advancement meant that this Skynet had no computer core: it existed as a distributed software network, spread out on thousands of computers across the world, from dorm rooms to office buildings. Shortly afterward, Skynet began a nuclear bombardment of the human race with the launch systems it had infected. Judgment Day occurred despite Connor and Brewster's efforts.