Chapter 12 Flashcards
Who ran the first real presidential campaign in 1796?
John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson
What were front porch campaigns?
Receiving supporters at home/to the press
True or False: Donald J. Trump won the election despite airing less than one-third of the ads that Hilary Clinton did.
True
How do elections benefit the people?q
They allow us to hold political leaders accountable and keep them attentive to public preferences
When is election day every year?
The first Monday in November
Electorate
citizens eligible to vote
Popular Sovereignty
Political power derives from the consent of the governed
What do regular free elections guarantee?
Mass political action, enable citizens to influence the actions of government, confer legitimacy on the government
How can states control elections?
They have a lot of administrative power, they can set the date, type of elections, determine the eligibility requirements for candidates and voters, and tabulate results.
What are the two stages of the electoral process?
Primary and general elections
What happens during primary elections?
Voters decide which candidates will represent a party in general elections.
What is a closed primary?
Only the party’s registered voters can cast a ballot
What is an open primary?
Independents and sometimes members of the other party are allowed to participate.
True or False? Open primaries are healthier for the party system
False. Closed primaries are considered healthier because they prevent members of one party from influencing the opposite party.
What is crossover voting and how often does it occur?
Participation in the primary of a party with which the voter is not affiliated. It occurs a lot, and there are not many attempts by voters of one party to influence the results of another
What is a runoff primary?
A second primary election between the two candidates receiving the greatest number of votes in the first primary
How many states have runoff primaries?
11 states
When do General Elections happen?
After parties have selected their candidates
What happens during a general election?
Voters decide which candidates will fill the public offices.
What is the difference between a primary and a general election?
Primaries are contests between candidates within each party while general elections are contests between the candidates of opposing parties.
What are the initiative and referendum known as?
Ballot measures
What do initiative and referendum allow voters to do?
Enact public policy
True or False: Initiative and Referendum are used at the national level
False. State and local governments. Only 26 states offer initiative and referendum rights
What is an initiative?
Citizens propose legislation or amendments by submitting them to the electorate for popular vote.
How do citizens get their ideas onto the ballot?
They must have signed petitions or signatures supporting their idea for it to be considered.
What is referendum?
The state legislature submits proposed legislation or amendments to the voters for approval.
What is a popular referendum?
A measure to approve or repeal an act of the legislature that appears on the ballot as a result of a voter petition drive
What do ballot measures do?
They give citizens more direct control over policy making
What do recall elections allow voters to do?
Remove an incumbent from office prior to the next scheduled election
True or false: 65 percent of all recalls of state legislatures have taken place in the past 30 years
True
Winner take all primary
The candidate who wins the most votes in a state secures the whole state’s delegates. Democrats don’t like it because they view it as less representatives than a proportional system.
Proportional representation primary
Candidates who secure a threshold percentage of votes are awarded delegates in proportion to the number of popular votes. Democrats use this system and it is probably the fairest way of allocating delegates to candidates.
What is a downside to proportional representaion primary?
It renders majorities more difficult to accumulate and can lengthen the presidential nomination contest
Caucus
The oldest way of choosing delegates. It was a closed meeting of a party activists. Today, they are more open.
What do people do at a caucus?
They spend hours learning about politics and the party. Listen to speeches, receive advice.
Primaries are better because
they are more accessible to voter
What is the goal of campaigning for the presidential election?
Winning a majority of the electoral college
What is the Electoral College?
Representatives of each state who cast the final ballots that actually elect a president
How many total votes are cast in the Electoral College?
538
How many electoral votes do you need to win the presidency?
270
Reapportionment
They rethink the number of seats in the House of Representatives after each 10 years
How did the Electoral College come to be?
Framers wanted selection by direct popular election. The system was constructed to work without political parties, cover both phases of the presidential elections, produce a nonpartisan president.
What was the Electoral College initially created to do?
Elect the president and vice president, the one who received the most votes would be the president and the other vice president.
Which amendment attempted to remedy the confusion between the selections of presidents and vice presidents?
The Twelfth Amendment provides for separate elections for each office.
What is a huge battle for local office holders?
Establishing a name identification in the electorate
What is the incumbency advatage?
People in office tend to remain in office
How many aides can the House of Representatives hire to work in their Washington and district offices?
Eighteen permanent and four non permanent
Why might an incumbent lose?
Redistricting, scandals presidential coattails and midterm elections
What is the Federal Election Commission’s job?
To monitor campaign activity
What do campaign consultants do?
Provide people with the technologies and the strategies they need to get elected
Who are pollsters?
A campaign consultant who conducts public opinion surveys
GOTV
get out the vote, push at the end of a political campaign to encourage supporters to go to the polls
What are conventions?
They formally nominate the parties’ candidates for president and vice president. They energize them for the campaign
Do debates alter the results of an election?
No, they increase knowledge about the candidates and their personalities, reinforcing their existing beliefs.
When was the Federal Eleciton Campaign Act passed?
1971
What is the Federal Election Campaign Act?
The law that regulates political campaign spending and fundraising. It focuses on disclosing the contributions for federal campaigns
When was the Federal Election Commission founded?
1975
What did the Federal Election Commission do?
Regulates campaign finances
What is the BCRA?
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
When was the BCRA passed
2002, it ended the use of soft money for activity affecting federal elections
What is soft money?
Money raised outside the limits of a campaign
What did Citizens UNITED V FEC do?
Provided corporations and unions with the same political speech rights as individuals. The government may not prohibit corporations or unions from using their general treasury funds to support or denounce political candidates.
McCutcheon v. FEC
Declared section 441 of the FECA unconsstitutional. IT imposed limits on any individuals total political contribution
Buckley v Valeo
no limit could be placed on the amount of money candidates can spend from their own families’ resources
PAC
fundraising organizations that are allowed to make contributions directly to candidates campaigns.
527 political committees
organizations that are supposed to influence electoral outcomes. The term is typically applied to freestanding interest groups that do not explicitly advocate for the election of a candidate.
Who monitors the contributions by 527 committees>
FEC
Are there limits set on how much an individual or other organization may contribute?
NO
501 (C)
Interest groups whose primary purpose is not electoral politics. They focus on raising awareness of candidates’ positions on issues of interest to the group. They do not have to disclose the source of their donations.
Super Pacs
established to advocate on behalf of the candidates and they cannot give money directly to them
Independent Expenditures
Spending that is not coordinated with a candidate’s campaign. They must disclose the sources of their contributions.
Public Funds
donations from general tax revenues to the campaigns of qualifying presidential candidates
Who is eligible to receive public funds?
Presidential candidates
Matching Funds
Every dollar raised under 251 dollars is matched by the federal treasury
Conventional political participation
letter writing, voting
unconventional political participation
protesting, looting, rioting, etc.
turnout
the proportion of the voting age that casts a ballot
retrospective judgement
evaluation of the past
prospective judgement
evaluation of the future
frontloading
the tendency of states to choose an early date on the nomination calendar
HAVA
Help America Vote Act, a law passed in 2002 to address issues of voting systems and voting access.
