Made one's mark in an election (5)
I believe the answer is:
voted
'made one's mark' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with social activities as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'an election' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'election' could be 'vote' (vote can mean an election or poll) and 'vote' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'd' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for voted that I've seen before include "Picked" , "Went to the polls" , "Suggested" , "Chose" , "Elected" .)