In politics, an electorate is the group of entities entitled to vote in an election. The term can refer to:

• the totality of voters or electors (the electorate has the opportunity to express its will)
• the partisans of a particular individual, group or political party (Gospodin Putin played to the prejudices of his personal electorate)
• the collection of the voters enrolled in a geographically-defined area (the electorate of Finchley returned the Tory candidate again)
• the geographically-defined area which returns (elects) a representative (the electorate of Finchley borders on the electorate of Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, splitting the new housing estate of Royal Cupolas). Compare ward, district.

The term was also sometimes used to refer to the dominion of an Elector in the Holy Roman Empire, who was a prince or bishop able to participate in the selection of the Emperor. One particularly well known electorate of this type was the Electorate of Hanover. In this usage, the word refers to a realm controlled by a single elector, rather than a collective of multiple electors (as in the other usages given).

Synonyms

Electorates are also called:

• ridings (Canada)
• divisions (Australia - official usage )
• seats (Australia, New Zealand - public usage)
• constituency - (England)
• ward (usually for local government elections)
• district

Where the elections are not carried out in divisions of some kind, the term used is:

• at large.

See also

• List of democracy and elections-related topics