Chap.  10, Elections

  

Chap 10 Elections Vocabulary

  • Winner-take-all.

  • Plurality.

  • Primary election.

  • General Election.

  • Caucus.

  • Party base.

  • Stump speech.

  • Coattail effect.

10.2 Advance of Suffrage

  • Andrew Jackson-universal male suffrage

  • 15th Amendment. Race

  • 19th, 1920. Women

  • 24th, 1964 Banned poll tax

  • 26th, 1971.  18 year olds.

  • Now-easier voter registration, MotorVoter

  • BUT, the problem of voter turnout

10.3 Nominating

  • Primaries: Closed, Open (raiding)

  • Caucus.

  • War chest, campaign strategy, slogans

  • Retail politics. Direct, personal contact

  • Wholesale politics. Large scale media

  • National conventions.

10.4

  • Presidential Election: 1st Mon after 1st Tu in Nov, in even years

  • 3 types of general election:

  • 1.Presidential

  • 2.Midterm

  • 3.Off-year, local

 Building a winning coalition: motivate the base and move to the center…

 

10.4 Electoral College

  • Winner take all

  • Battleground states

  • Proportional Representation

  • Formula=# inCongress

  • 270 (of 538)

  • Reform of Electoral College?

  • It’s undemocratic. 1876, 1888, 2000

Proposals to Change the Electoral College:

  1. Simply use the popular vote. (Const. Amend. needed)

  2. Count vote by congressional district

  3. States vote to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote (no C Amend. Needed)

  4. Strategies in light of Electoral College

10.5 Financing Campaigns

  • Shift from parties to indiv candidates

  • $-500,000 House of Rep-5 million Senate

  • Two strategies people use in giving

  • Electoral

  • Access

  • Limits on giving

  • Indiv 2300

  • PAC 5000

  • $ources of financing campaigns:

  • Individuals, Candidate, Party, PAC

•10.5 Financing Campaigns

  • Campaign Finance Reform Act, 2002 (McCain-Feingold Act)

  • Two problems it tried to solve:

  • 1. Soft $ donated to a Political Party

  • 2. Issue ads from interest groups.

  • “I approved this ad..”

 

10.6 Voter Behavior

  • Who votes: Age, education, income

  • Vocab:

  • Incumbent

  • Swing voters (independents, vote on issues)

  • Views of nonvoting:

  • 1. Has negative effects-they can be ignored, they have no representation

  • 2. Nonvoting represents a basic satisfaction

  • Should voting be mandatory?