Mandates are rarely won on election night. They are earned after Inauguration Day by leaders who spend their political capital wisely, taking advantage of events without overreaching. – Ron Fournier
I will not say the fact that there are no European Union observers at an election means that it will not be fair and free. – Olusegun Obasanjo
Consider this: The United States held its first presidential election in 1789. It marked the first peaceful transfer of executive power between parties in the fourth presidential election in 1801, and it took another 200 years’ worth of presidential elections before the courts had to settle an election. – Sam Brownback
The Reagan Administration, generally regarded as having conducted the most successful Transition of modern times, had managed during the election campaign to build bridges to the Democrats in some areas, notably foreign and national security policy. – Richard V. Allen
We have seven months before the election. Our top priority as fiscal conservatives is to make sure President Obama retires. – Ron Johnson
The presidency made John Adams an old man long before there was television. As early as the nation’s first contested presidential election, with Adams and Jefferson running to succeed Washington, you had a brutal, ugly, vicious campaign that was divisive and as partisan as anything we’re experiencing today. – R. J. Cutler
The monitors indicated that it was a credible election, I think, in an overall sense, it apparently is a free and fair election, so it’s a real milestone and one of the things we can take some little confidence in. – Warren Christopher
Presidential election results in 2008 and 2012 clarified that talk radio was not, in fact, running the country. – Timothy Noah
Pressure for the most part comes from this overarching concern that if I head into the election season without sufficient resources, then any outside group, any individual, any super PAC may choose to come in to my district and overwhelm it and take over the airwaves and control the debate. – Ted Deutch
I’ve often heard the complaint from both Democrat and Republican voters alike that they hate the fact that politicians get into office and they – and they’re fearful, they’re fearful to make tough decisions because they think more about the next election than they do about the next-generation. – Scott Walker
I don’t for the life of me understand how anybody could contemplate the results of the 2000 election in the US and say that electoral politics doesn’t matter any more, and that Ralph Nader was right when he said there is no difference between the two parties. – Todd Gitlin
If a leader comes to office in a seemingly fair election and tolerates dissent, he or she qualifies for our seal of approval. – Stephen Kinzer
Hamas, the opponents of Arafat, the opponents of peace, urged a boycott of the election, and yet there was an 85 percent turnout where Hamas is supposed to be strong. Isn’t that really quite incredible? – Warren Christopher
I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. – Stephanie Tubbs Jones
These people have elevated audacity to symphonic and operatic levels. The Florida Supreme Court relied on new law to resolve the election dispute down there. – Vincent Bugliosi
I’ve voted in every election – not always for the same political party and never with any degree of enthusiasm. – Tom Stoppard
I don’t know much about Americanism, but it’s a damn good word with which to carry an election. – Warren G. Harding
The Florida Jewish community is incredibly important in the primary and will be that important in the general election as well. – Ted Deutch
We have just been working hard to have people to come out to vote and to make sure people understand how important the election is. – Ted Deutch
In the 2000 election, George W. Bush, who had shirked military service, succeeded in presenting himself as more reliable on national security than Al Gore. – Samantha Power
We can only undo the election if the behavior meets the constitutional standard of subverting and threatening our system of government. – Zoe Lofgren
The weak economy, widening income inequality, gridlock in Congress and a presidential election: Those were perhaps the dominant economic and political themes of 2012. – Steven Rattner
Election Day outside of big cities is different. For one thing, there are so few people in my town that each individual vote really does matter, and several local races have been decided by as many votes as you can count on one hand. – Susan Orlean
And on election night I’d go down to city hall in El Paso, Texas and cover the election. In those days, of course, we didn’t have exit polls. You didn’t know who had won the election until they actually counted the votes. I thought that was exciting too. – Sam Donaldson
I come from election, I come from the people. I owe gratitude to our people. I do everything for the good of the country and the people. – Thaksin Shinawatra
There are two chief responsibilities of the Secretary’s office. One is to run the elections in the State of Connecticut to make sure they run fairly and efficiently because the Secretary is the chief election official. The Secretary of the State is also the chief business registrar for the State of Connecticut. – Susan Bysiewicz