He makes a choice but loses his head in voting (8)
I believe the answer is:
selector
'head in voting' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'he makes a choice but loses his' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'choice' could be 'select' (synonyms) and 'select' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'or' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for selector that I've seen before include "A chooser of electors" , "Corselet (anag.)" , "Person choosing (team)" , "One who chooses" .)