Ancient elections

[Epictetus]

Mary Beard has had a couple posts about ancient elections recently. In Roman Election Gaffs she mentions her favourite election blunder:

It's the one about Scipio Nasica who was standing for the Aedileship in the very late third or early second century BC, and canvassing eagerly and shaking the hands of potential voters. He shook the hand of a peasant farmer, which was very horny. "What" said the toff, "do you walk on these".

It was taken as an insult to the honest Roman peasant and he lost the election.

Then she had another about ostracism in ancient Athens.

I had no idea that this was where the term “ostracism” comes from.

Every year from the beginning of the fifth century BC, the Athenians were asked if they wanted to hold an ostracism. If they voted yes, then another vote followed in which people scratched the name of the politician they wanted to get rid of on a piece of pottery (an "ostrakon").