Vote n.
 1. An ardent wish or desire; a vow; a prayer.  [Obs.]
 2. A wish, choice, or opinion, of a person or a body of persons, expressed in some received and authorized way; the expression of a wish, desire, will, preference, or choice, in regard to any measure proposed, in which the person voting has an interest in common with others, either in electing a person to office, or in passing laws, rules, regulations, etc.; suffrage.
 3. That by means of which will or preference is expressed in elections, or in deciding propositions; voice; a ballot; a ticket; as, a written vote.
 The freeman casting with unpurchased hand
 The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.   --Holmes.
 4. Expression of judgment or will by a majority; legal decision by some expression of the minds of a number; as, the vote was unanimous; a vote of confidence.
 5. Votes, collectively; as, the Tory vote; the labor vote.
 Casting vote, Cumulative vote, etc.  See under Casting, Cumulative, etc.


 Cu·mu·la·tive a.
 1. Composed of parts in a heap; forming a mass; aggregated. “As for knowledge which man receiveth by teaching, it is cumulative, not original.”
 2. Augmenting, gaining, or giving force, by successive additions; as, a cumulative argument, i. e., one whose force increases as the statement proceeds.
    The argument . . . is in very truth not logical and single, but moral and cumulative.   --Trench.
 3. Law (a) Tending to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered; -- said of evidence. (b) Given by same testator to the same legatee; -- said of a legacy.
 Cumulative action Med., that action of certain drugs, by virtue of which they produce, when administered in small doses repeated at considerable intervals, the same effect as if given in a single large dose.
 Cumulative poison, a poison the action of which is cumulative.
 Cumulative vote or Cumulative system of voting Politics, that system which allows to each voter as many votes as there are persons to be voted for, and permits him to accumulate these votes upon one person, or to distribute them among the candidates as he pleases.

 ◄ ►


 cumulative vote
      n : an election in which each person has as many votes as there
          are positions to be filled and they can all be cast for
          one candidate or can be distributed in any manner