The history of the elections goes back to ancient Greece and ancient rome.in ancient greece they used election to chose pope and in anciend rome they used it to choose roman emperor.
In most democratic systems we have different types of elections such as presidencial election ,general election,parliament election,or referendum and etc.
The elections mostly works like this which some people gets nominated to be chosen by the vote called candidate and other people gets to vote them called voters or electors….after a period the government or the organization which held the election counts the votes and the candidate which gets more votes wins…in fact there are some other rules for the counting system….for example when the results ties the election goes to second round and starts a new election.
A polling station or polling place is where voters can vote.in some countries voter must write their vote on some paper called ballot and throw in balot box in front of witness but in some modern countries voting system is online and voters instead of ballot must use computer to vote.by this way it’s easier to count and the risk of cheating is lower than the ballot system.
In many countries with weak rule of law the elections is not free and fair.the government held election under pressure to remain in power although popular opinion is something else or removal of it.like recent election in Iraq or afghanistan which held under al-quades presure.some countries in other hand do not held election under pressure but they cheat in the result to remain in power.this case is very hard for people to belive and be calm so it will bring demonstration and chaos in country.for example the recent election in Iran