Elections

Question 1

Electoral College (how does it work?)
Can you explain the 12th amendment?

Answer 1

electoral college is 538 electors with 270 to win. Whichever candidate wins the state (plurality winner) wins the electors.

the 12th amendment, adopted in 1804, specifies the separate election of the president and vice president by the electoral college. if no clear majority, house chooses president and senate chooses vice president. Each state gets one vote in that instance.

Question 2

what are faithless presidential electors

Answer 2

a term used for someone who does not vote for their party’s candidate in the election

Question 3

what are the effects of winner take all electoral systems

why do nearly all states use winner take all presidential elections

Answer 3

look at moodle

Question 4

gerrymandering-cracking

Answer 4

where you divide the districts up into small ones to separate your opponents’ supporting constituents so you can win easier.

Question 5

gerrymandering-packing

Answer 5

where you pack all of your supporters into one district to consolidate your winnings there

Question 6

The difference between the median voter theory and a mobilize-your-base approach to winning elections

Answer 6

the median voter theory states that in the effort to win the decisive median voters, candidates must present themselves as median candidates and move to the center. Radicalism is not allowed.

the mobilize your base approach, made popular by Karl Rove, is a theory that suggests that moving to the center is for suckers. The goal is to pump up your base more effectively than the other candidate. Candidates who do this also often engage in dog-whistle messaging (saying messages and using rhetoric that only their party will recognize) while not antagonizing the other side.

Question 7

What does the median voter theory predict about voters’ choices and candidates’ ideological positioning?

Answer 7

the median voter theory predicts that voters will choose a candidate that is not radical.
it also predicts that in order to win votes, candidates will move towards the center.

Question 8

Why is it more useful to think about voting as a collective (group identity) act rather than as an
individual act? What do measures of social connectedness have to do with this?

Answer 8

because most people vote by their party ID and find identity in that

measures of social connectedness help voter turnout (“People like me have to vote”

Question 9

The Australian ballot (how does it differ from party-specific ballots of the late-19th century?)

Answer 9

in the Australian ballot, all the candidates are on a single, nondescript ballot

Question 10

Why do we care about the one-person-one-vote principle?

Answer 10

So that everyone has an equal influence over government, that elites cannot manipulate outcomes (or so we hope)

Question 11

Open versus closed primary elections – what’s the difference?

Answer 11

Open primaries are those primaries that everyone gets the whole ballot

Closed primaries are those where voters can only vote under their party label (republicans get republican, etc.)

Question 12

Winner-take-all electoral systems – what are the effects of winner-take-all elections? Why do
nearly all states use winner-take-all presidential elections?

Answer 12

winner-take-all electoral systems don’t allow for third party canidates.

to give it to one candidate??
dc with Shaw

Question 13

Duverger’s law. What are its two expectations?

Answer 13

winner take all: 2 party system competition, US set up this way

proportional winnings: multiple party competition: UK is set up this way

Question 14

Define plurality, simple majority and super majority

Answer 14

Plurality (voting), or relative majority, when a given candidate receives more votes than any other but still fewer than half of the total. Plurality voting, system in which each voter votes for one candidate and the candidate with a plurality is elected.

Simple majority 2/3

Super majority 3/4

Question 15

Generally speaking, what can we say about political independents’ levels of political knowledge
and likelihood to vote in the contemporary era?

Answer 15

political independents don’t have a great level of knowledge and are not likely to vote in the contemporary era

Question 16

Social connectedness as a way of explaining voter turnout

Answer 16

if people see other people like them voting, it will drive them to vote because “people like me have to vote”

Question 17

The three faces of political parties (as organizations, in government, in the electorate). What do
parties do under each of these roles?

Answer 17

parties as organizations: professional staff who are on the job all year do these: recruit candidates (in primaries), organize presidential nominating conventions, write party platforms, raise money, conduct public education

parties in government: majority party gets to: appoint leadership, pick committee chairs, 9 members of majority party on rules committee, party unity votes

parties in the electorate: exit polls, party ID

Question 18

how is party ID a perceptual screen

Answer 18

it fosters selective perception of messages (eg. Fox news is lying)

Question 19

Divided versus unified government

Answer 19

Divided government occurs when one or more houses of the legislature are controlled by the party in opposition to the executive. Unified government occurs when the same party controls the executive and the legislature entirely.

Question 20

proportional representation
how does it work
what are it’s effects

Answer 20

an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.

effects: more party competition, greater chance for third party candidates to do something