Voting

From the Old Danish stæm(m)æ (noun) and stemmelse, stemming, stemning (verbal nouns). Both seem to go back to the Middle Low German stemme, stemne, stimme, and stemmen, though the noun is widely attested in Germanic languages. The base, lexical meaning in Danish is voice, as in “letting your voice ring out,” “be heard.” Qualified, it means voicing one’s opinion, making one’s views known, giving one’s consent. It is related to the Danish bestemme, decide or determine, and most likely to Stævne as well (Old Danish, stefnæ, Old Norse, stefna) which means gathering, negotiation meeting. Ballotation simply means a ballot and comes from the French balloter, which refers to the procedure of using black and white balls to decide a vote. Votum means a ballot or election too, or the written or oral statement meant to influence people to cast their vote in a certain way. It is a loanword from Latin where it had clear religious overtones, meaning solemnly swear, or take an oath.1