Definition of "special election" []

• An election scheduled at other than the usual date for a specific purpose, often to fill an office that has become vacant before the incumbent has completed the term. (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "We were going to do a breakfast for his cousin, Fife Symington, who was running in a special election for governor."
• "But still, in their present state, we consider them not otherwise changeable than by the authority of the people, on a special election of representatives for that purpose expressly: they are until then the lex legum."
• "A bill to provide for a special election in the town of Marion in the county of Smyth; which was, on motion of Mr. SHANNON, read the first and second times, and ordered to be engrossed and read the third time; and being forthwith engrossed, two-thirds concurring, was read the third time and passed."