Elections + campaigns vocab Flashcards
Politcal participation
the different ways in which people take action to shape laws + policies of gov
Linkage Institution
channels that connect people with gov, including elections, political parties, interest groups, and media
Social Movement
large groups of citizens organizing for political change
Political action committee
an organization that raises money to elect + defeat candidates + and can donate money directly to a candidates campaign, subject to limits
Franchise (suffrage)
the right to vote in political elections
Twenty-Sixth Amendment
allows eighteen year olds and older to vote
Twenty-Fourth Amendment
prohibits Congress + states from imposing poll taxes as condition for voting in federal elections
Poll tax
tax a person is required to pay before he/she is allowed to vote.
Voter Turnout
the number of eligible voters who participate in an election as a percentage of the total number of eligible voters
Demographic Characteristics
measurable characteristics of a population, such as economic status, education, age, race or ethnicity, gender, partisan attachment.
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
a measure of a person’s wealth, income, occupation, and educational attachment.
Political Efficacy
a person’s belief that he/she can make effective political change
Political Mobilization
efforts by political parties to encourage their members to vote.
Registration Requirements
the set of rules that govern who can vote and how, when, where they vote
Absentee Ballots
voting completed + submitted by a voter before the day of an election
Rational Choice Voting
voting based on what a citizen believes is in his/her best interest
Retrospective Voting
voting based on an assessment of an incumbent’s past performance
Prospective Voting
casting a ballot for a candidate who promises to enact policies favored by the voter in the future
Party-Line Voting
voting for candidates who belong only to one political party of all of the offices on the ballot
Electoral College
a constitutionally required process for selecting the president through slates of electros chosen in each states, who are pledged to vote for a nominee in the presidential election.
Winner-Take-All System
a system of elections in which the candidate who wins the plurality of votes within a states receives all of the state’s vote in the Electoral college
Battleground State
a state where the polls show a close contest between the Republican + Democratic candidate in presidential elections
Get Out The Vote (GOTV)
people who participate in this register voters for both primary and general elections, they also provide absentee ballots, and they remind people to vote through the phoning or knocking on the door
Swing State
US state where the two major political parties have similar levels of support among voters, viewed as important in determining the overall result of a presidential election. (same thing as battleground state)
SuperPAC
an organization that may spend an unlimited amount of money on a political campaign, as long as the spending is not coordinated with the campaign.
Campaign Strategy
the blueprint for the campaign, including a budget and fund-raising plan, advertising strategy, and staffing plan
Invisible Primary
The period between candidates declaring an intention to run for the presidency and the 1st primaries and caucuses to gain recognition, money, and time to organize campaign.
Caucus
a process through which a state’s eligible voters meet to select delegates to represent their preferences in the nomination process
Presidential Primaries
A state wide primary election of delegates to a political party’s national convention, held to determine a party’s presidental nominee.
Frontloading
a decision by a state to push it’s primary or caucus to a dates as early in the election season as possible to gain more influence in the presidential nomination process
