Definition
"Elected" carries two distinct legal meanings that must be carefully distinguished by context.
1. Public office. In its primary legal sense, "elected" describes the process by which a person is chosen to fill a public office through a vote — generally a popular vote of the electorate, though in some contexts a more restricted body of voters (such as a legislative body or an electoral college). Courts have consistently held that "elected" is not a synonym for "appointed" or for any other mode of filling a position. A constitutional or statutory provision requiring that an officer be "elected" cannot be satisfied by appointment alone. The distinction matters because the mode of selection goes to the legitimacy and validity of an officeholder's authority.
2. Contracts and remedies. "Elected" is also the past tense of the verb "elect" in the remedial sense — a party has "elected" a remedy when it has made an affirmative, binding choice between two or more inconsistent legal remedies or rights. Once a party has elected, the choice is typically final and bars the pursuit of inconsistent alternatives. This usage appears frequently in equity and in contract litigation.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Simple past and past participle of "elect" — chosen or selected, as in "she was elected president of the club."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Chosen by election; taken by preference from among alternatives; selected. Also used theologically to denote those chosen by divine favor.
The common meaning tracks the voting/selection sense reasonably well, but misses the legal precision entirely. In public law, "elected" has a technical exclusionary force: it affirmatively rules out appointment and other non-voting mechanisms. In contract law, the remedial sense of "elected" — implying an irrevocable binding choice between inconsistent rights — has no real counterpart in ordinary English usage.
Common Confusion
Two distinct legal concepts travel under the umbrella of "elected" and are frequently conflated in historical sources.
Elected (public office) vs. appointed: These are mutually exclusive modes of filling positions. Historical sources sometimes used "elected" loosely to cover selection by a legislative body or board. Modern constitutional and administrative law draws a hard line.
Elected (remedies) vs. waived: Election of remedies and waiver both result in a party losing an option, but the mechanisms differ. Waiver is typically the voluntary relinquishment of a known right; election of remedies requires a choice between inconsistent remedies, not merely the abandonment of one. A party who has "elected" a remedy has not necessarily waived any rights — the doctrine is narrower and more specific.
Why It Matters in Research
The double meaning of "elected" is a persistent research trap. Historical sources — particularly pre-20th-century cases and statutes — often use "elected" in the public-office sense without defining it, assuming the context is obvious. When reading older constitutional provisions or statutes governing officer selection, researchers must verify whether "elected" was interpreted to require a popular vote or whether courts of the era permitted appointment to satisfy the requirement.
The cases cited in Black's (2nd Ed.) — particularly Magruder v. Swann and State v. Harrison — reflect late 19th-century battles over legislative appointments versus popular elections, often triggered by post-Reconstruction constitutional reforms. Researchers working in the history of state constitutional law or officer qualification will find this line of cases significant.
For remedies research, the word "elected" in older equity opinions is shorthand for the election-of-remedies doctrine. Because that doctrine has been substantially modified or abolished in many jurisdictions (particularly following the merger of law and equity under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and equivalent state rules), older cases describing a party as having "elected" a remedy may reflect a much stricter rule than what applies today. Do not import 19th-century election-of-remedies holdings without checking current doctrine.
The corpus will show "elected" appearing across administrative law materials (officer qualification, ballot access, post-election disputes), contract and commercial law materials (election of remedies, waiver), and constitutional law materials (separation of powers, appointment and removal). Context — not just word search — is essential to determining which meaning applies.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st Ed.), Black's (2nd Ed.), and Bouvier's are in full agreement on the public-office definition: "elected" carries the idea of a vote and cannot be treated as synonymous with appointment or any other filling mechanism. All three sources cite the Nevada case (5 Nev. 121) and Magruder v. Swann for this proposition. Black's (1st Ed.) also preserves the Latin maxim — "Electio est interna libera et spontanea separatio unius rei ab alia, sine compulsione, consistens in animo et voluntate" (Election is an internal, free, and spontaneous separation of one thing from another, without compulsion, consisting in mind and will) — which signals the deeper philosophical connection between "elected" in the public-office sense and "election" in the remedies sense. Both rest on the concept of free, voluntary, binding choice.
What the historical dictionaries understate: the remedies dimension of "elected" is handled separately in these sources under the headword ELECTION OF REMEDIES rather than under ELECTED itself. Researchers who look only at the "elected" entry in Black's or Bouvier's will miss the remedies doctrine entirely. The two threads must be read together.
Jurisdictional Note
Whether "elected" in a state constitution or statute requires a direct popular vote or can be satisfied by legislative election or indirect selection varies by state and era. Some states have resolved the question by constitutional amendment; others have left it to judicial construction. Federal constitutional doctrine on appointment (Article II) governs federal officers and is distinct from state-law rules governing state and local officers.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Election Administration, Voting Technology, and Post-Election Disputes (Law Mind Administrative Law & Government Encyclopedia) — for the public-office meaning, officer qualification, and ballot disputes.
Defenses — Waiver and Election of Remedies (Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia) — for the remedies meaning and the distinction from waiver.
Remedies — Overview and Election of Remedies (Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia) — for the broader remedies framework within which the election doctrine operates.