ELECT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

ELECTAuthored

The Law Mind • 1276 words

Definition

To elect means to choose or select among available options. In law, the term carries several distinct meanings depending on context:

1. POLITICAL ELECTION. To choose a person for public office by vote. A candidate who has won an election but not yet taken office is designated by the suffix "-elect" (e.g., President-elect, governor-elect), indicating selection but not yet assumption of duties.

2. ELECTION OF REMEDIES. A party's binding choice between two or more inconsistent legal remedies available for the same wrong. Once a party elects a remedy and acts on that choice, they are generally precluded from pursuing the alternative. This doctrine operates as a form of estoppel: having chosen a path, the electing party cannot reverse course to the other party's prejudice.

3. ELECTION BY A BENEFICIARY OR HEIR. In property and probate law, a person's choice to take under a will or legal instrument rather than against it, or vice versa. A widow, for example, may elect to take her statutory share instead of what the will provides, or accept the will's terms and waive her statutory rights.

4. ELECTION IN EQUITY. A broader equitable principle requiring a person who accepts a benefit under an instrument to also accept the instrument's burdens — one cannot take the good and reject the bad from the same document.

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Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One chosen or set apart; in theological usage, one foreordained to salvation.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Chosen; taken by preference from among two or more; chosen to an office but not yet inducted into it (bishop elect, governor elect); in Calvinist theology, chosen as an object of divine favor.

The common word "elect" maps cleanly onto the political sense of the legal term, but misses entirely the doctrine-laden uses in remedies and equity. A researcher encountering "elect" in a contracts or probate context should not assume the ordinary sense of "choose" is sufficient — the legal election carries binding, often irrevocable consequences that ordinary choice does not.

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Common Confusion

ELECT vs. WAIVE. Election and waiver are related but distinct. Waiver is the voluntary relinquishment of a known right. Election is the affirmative selection of one option from competing alternatives, which then forecloses the other. The distinction matters: a party may waive a right without having a genuine alternative to select; election presupposes two real, inconsistent options. In practice, courts sometimes treat the terms as interchangeable, which can obscure the analysis.

ELECTION OF REMEDIES vs. SPLITTING A CAUSE OF ACTION. These are separate doctrines. Election of remedies concerns choosing between inconsistent remedies for one wrong. Splitting a cause of action concerns the prohibition on dividing a single claim into multiple suits. Both can result in preclusion, but on different grounds and at different procedural stages.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

1. Election of Remedies — the contractual and tort doctrine requiring a party to choose between inconsistent remedies (e.g., rescission vs. damages for breach).
2. Testamentary Election (Election Under a Will) — a beneficiary's choice to take under the will's terms or assert an independent legal right against the estate.
3. Spousal Election (Elective Share) — a surviving spouse's statutory right to choose between the will's provisions and the statutory forced share.
4. Tax Election — a taxpayer's or entity's formal selection among permissible tax treatments, a distinct usage governed by tax codes rather than common law doctrine.

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Why It Matters in Research

The primary research trap with "elect" is context collapse: the same word triggers entirely different legal frameworks depending on the area of law. A case discussing "election" in an 1880s equity opinion almost certainly concerns property or probate; the same word in a 20th-century contracts case almost certainly concerns remedies. Anderson's citations illustrate this — the land-title cases (Gibson v. Chouteau, Holland v. Challen) involve equitable election in property disputes, a very different animal from the election-of-remedies doctrine that dominates modern contracts casebooks.

For remedies research: the election-of-remedies doctrine has softened considerably over the 20th century. Many jurisdictions now permit pleading alternative remedies simultaneously and defer the binding election until judgment or some other act of actual inconsistency. Historical sources will state the doctrine more rigidly than modern courts apply it. Researchers working with older materials should not assume that a strong historical statement of election preclusion reflects current doctrine.

For probate and property research: testamentary election and spousal elective share are now heavily codified in most U.S. jurisdictions, and the common law equitable doctrine has been largely displaced or modified by statute. The historical equitable cases remain useful for interpretive principles but should be checked against applicable probate codes.

For political/administrative research: "elect" in the suffix sense (president-elect, judge-elect) raises distinct legal questions about when official status attaches, what powers or immunities apply during the transition period, and whether election-night projections versus certified results control. These questions sit at the intersection of election law and administrative law.

Cross-corpus researchers should note that the contracts encyclopedia entries on election of remedies and the administrative law entry on election administration represent almost entirely separate bodies of law sharing only a common word.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Anderson's Dictionary of Law treats "elect" primarily in two registers: the transitive verb sense (to select, choose) and the adjectival suffix sense (chosen but not yet installed). The case citations divide along these lines. The adjectival cases — Nelson v. Triplett and Butrick v. Tilton — appear to address what legal status attaches to a person who has been chosen but has not yet assumed office, a question that recurs in election law and public employment. The remaining cases (Gibson v. Chouteau through the Wall. citations) cluster in federal equity jurisprudence of the Reconstruction and Gilded Age eras, when equitable election in land-title disputes was heavily litigated.

What Anderson omits is notable: there is no treatment of election of remedies as a standalone doctrine, and no discussion of testamentary election in the excerpt provided. This reflects the historical moment — the election-of-remedies doctrine as a formalized contracts-and-pleading rule developed more fully in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Researchers relying solely on Anderson for this doctrine will find only the seed of it, not the mature rule.

Webster's 1913 adds the theological dimension (Calvinist election, the elect as the saved) and the suffix usage, both of which align with Anderson and with modern usage. Neither historical source captures the technical precision the term carries in modern remedies law.

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Jurisdictional Note

The election-of-remedies doctrine varies significantly by jurisdiction. Some states have effectively abolished it as an independent pleading bar, permitting alternative and inconsistent pleadings through judgment. Others retain a more classical version. The spousal elective share is now statutory in virtually all U.S. jurisdictions but the fraction and eligibility rules differ substantially — researchers should identify the controlling probate code rather than rely on common law formulations.

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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Defenses — Waiver and Election of Remedies (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)
Remedies — Overview and Election of Remedies (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia)
Election Administration, Voting Technology, and Post-Election Disputes (The Law Mind Administrative Law & Government Encyclopedia)

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ELECTmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

To select, choose; also, selected, chosen, elected: as, a judge-elect, the President-elect. 1 Nelson v. Triplett, 81 Va. 237 (1885), cases; Butrick v. Tilton, 141 Mass. 96 (1886); Mitchell v. Lines, 36 Kan. 380 (1887). 2 See Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 102 (1871); Foster v. Mora, 98 U. S. 428 (1878); Equator Co. v. Hall, 106 id. 87 (1882); Holland v. Challen, 110 id. 19 (1883); 112 id. 535; 116 id. 692; 18 Fla. 52; 55 Vt. 569; 76 Va. 288; 107 U. S. 392; Bouvier. 3 Deitzer v. Mishler, 37 Pa. 86 (1860); 7 id. 158; 14 id. 145, 249; 22 id. 225; 87 id. 286; 1 T. & H. § 36; 2 id. § 1838. 4 Killian v. Ebbinghaus, 110 U. S. 568, 572 (1883). See United States v. Buffalo Park, 16 Blatch. 190 (1879); Reiche v. Smythe, 13 Wall. 165 (1871); Narramore v. Clark, 63 N. H. 167 (1884), cases; Lynchburg v. Norfolk, &c. R. Co., 80 Va. 248-50 (1885), cases; 54 Conn. 467; 8 Pick. 14; 9 Metc. 258; 122 Mass. 575. • Bathurst v. Errington, 2 Ap. Cas. 698 (1877); 20 Moak, 203, 213. L. eligere, to pick out. See ELIGIBLE. election, within an election district or precinct, or place of known and fixed boundaries, on an appointed election day and between certain election hours, with a prescribed mode for certifying the election returns, and all in conformity with the election laws; followed, too, in cases, by an election contest between opposing candidates. The doctrine at the foundation of popular government is, that in elections the will of the majority controls; mere irregularities or informalities in the conduct of an election are impotent to thwart the expressed will of the majority. All fraudulent acts affecting the purity and safety of elections are offenses at common law.. But illegal votes will make void an election only when they affect the result.7 A statute which, in addition to the requirements of the constitution, provides that "no person hereafter naturalized shall be entitled to be registered as a voter within thirty days therefrom," is unconstitutional. 1 Littleton, § 243. 2 Police Commissioners v. Louisville, 3 Bush, 602 (1868), William, J. 3 Commonwealth v. Kirk, 4 B. Mon. 2 (1843), Ewing, C. J. See also 54 Ala. 205; 13 Cal. 144; 23 Mich. 341; 5 Nev. 121. 4 See 2 Dill. 219; 41 Pa. 403; 30 Conn. 591; 44 N. H. 643. Prohibitory-Amendment Cases, 24 Kan. 720 (1881). See Commonwealth v. Smith, 132 Mass. 295 (1882). • Commonwealth v. Hoxey, 16 Mass. 385 (1820); Commonwealth v. McHale, 97 Pa. 408 (1881); 91 Pa. 503. Tarbox v. Sughrue, 36 Kan. 230, 232 (1887), cases. On conducting elections, see 24 Cent. Law J. 487 (1887), cases. 8 Kinneen v. Wells, 144 Mass. 497 (1887), cases. See also State v. Conner, Sup. Ct. Neb. (1887), cases.

ELECTa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Chosen; taken by preference from among two or more. "Colors quaint elect." Spenser. Chosen as the object of mercy or divine favor; set apart to eternal life. "The elect angels." 1 Tim. v. 21. Chosen to an office, but not yet actually inducted into it; as, bishop elect; governor or mayor elect.

ELECTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

One chosen or set apart. Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. Is. xlii. 1. Those who are chosen for salvation. Shall not God avenge his won elect Luke xviii. 7.

ELECTv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To pick out; to select; to choose. The deputy elected by the Lord. Shak. To select or take for an office; to select by vote; as, to elect a representative, a president, or a governor. To designate, choose, or select, as an object of mercy or favor.

electnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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One chosen or set apart. | In Calvinist theology, one foreordained to Heaven. In other Christian theologies, someone chosen by God for salvation.

electadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office. | Chosen; taken by preference from among two or more.

electverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To choose or make a decision (to do something). | To choose (a candidate) in an election.

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