electoral division
Constituencies drawn to elect someone to a body above, redrawn as population shifts.
An electoral division is a division whose areas exist to elect representatives to a body above them. Electoral law sets the boundaries, and equal population per area is the binding requirement.
Because the requirement is numerical, the areas are redrawn whenever population shifts far enough, and a redrawing may split a quarter that nobody thinks of as divided. The area has no administration and nothing is decided for it; it decides who sits elsewhere.
A political division differs in that its areas have a council of their own with matters to settle. An electoral area with an official name, published boundaries and a sitting representative is still electoral, and that combination is what most often causes it to be mistaken for a district.
Related definitions
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administrative division
Official named areas a municipality maintains, without a council of their own. -
cadastral division
Land-register areas holding the parcels, usually the pre-merger village boundaries. -
ecclesiastical division
Parishes and church districts, drawn by a religious body for its own congregations. -
judicial division
Areas assigning a place to the court competent for it, so a matter is heard in the right one. -
military division
Areas under military authority, such as a garrison, training ground or closed zone. -
natural division
Areas set by the terrain itself, such as a valley, a basin, a range or an island group. -
planning division
Areas a plan or program applies to, lasting only as long as the program does. -
political division
Areas with an elected council or representative of their own, set by the municipality. -
postal division
Delivery areas of a postal operator, cut for routes rather than for places. -
protected division
Conservation areas where what may be done with the land is restricted by law. -
school division
Catchment areas assigning an address to the school it is entitled to attend. -
service division
Supply and response areas of a utility or emergency service, cut by network and driving time. -
statistical division
Areas cut for counting, kept stable over time, often named after the quarter they contain. -
tenure division
Areas a use right runs over, such as a hunting, forestry or fishing ground. -
traditional division
Territories held under customary law, recognized by those who live under it. -
vernacular division
Names people use for parts of a place, with edges nobody has ever fixed by an authority.