      an election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office."election (political science)," encyclpoedia britanica online. retrieved 18 august 2009 elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. this process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations. the universal use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient athens. as the elections were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot. electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems. psephology is the study of results and other statistics relating to elections (especially with a view to predicting future results). to elect means "to choose or make a decision"wiktionary â elect and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in the united states.  ==history==   elections were used as early in history as ancient greece and ancient rome, and throughout the medieval period to select rulers such as the holy roman emperor and the pope. in medieval india, around 920 ad, in tamil nadu, palm leaves were used for village assembly elections. the leaves, with candidate names written on them, were put inside a mud pot for counting. this was known as the kudavolai system.{{cite web |url=http://tnsec.tn.nic.in/historical/pre%20i
Decision_theory Elections Preparation_for_the_future