Elections Quiz 2 voting

The advantages of incumbency in congressional elections include which of the following? 1.Incumbents receive more campaign contributions than do challengers. 2.Incumbents are able to provide important services for individual voters. 3.The government provides campaign funds for incumbents. 4.The President usually endorses incumbents for reelection. 5. Most American voters believe Congress does a good job.

1 and 2

Political parties serve which of the following functions in the United States? 1.Informing the public about political issues 2.Mobilizing voters and getting them to the polls 3.Organizing diverse interests within society 4. Establishing the rules governing financial contributions to political candidates

1,2,3

Which of the following scenarios is most closely related to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) ?

A labor union spends millions of dollars to independently run negative advertisements about a presidential candidate shortly before the election.

Which of the following is NOT a way in which the federal government regulates campaigns?

By prohibitions on negative advertising

Which of the following statements about voting behavior in the United States is correct?

College graduates are more likely to vote than are those who have at most a high school diploma.

A chief executive officer (CEO) of a corporation believes that the Republican candidate for president will enact policies that are more beneficial to her business. The CEO donated the maximum amount allowed by law directly to the candidate's campaign fund. To increase the candidate's chances for election, the CEO also directed her corporation to donate funds to an independent political action committee to create ads criticizing the opposing candidate. According to the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which provision of the Constitution protects her actions?

Freedom of speech in first amendment

All of the following contribute to the success of incumbent members of Congress in election campaigns EXCEPT:

Incumbents tend to understand national issues better than do their challengers.

Which of the following factors best accounts for the rise of interest groups and the decline of political parties in recent years?

Interest groups are better able to articulate specific policy positions than are political parties.

Which of the following is true of the electoral college system

It encourages candidates to concentrate their campaigns in competitive, populous states.

Which of the following best describes the difference between an open and closed primary?

Only voters who register as members of a political party may vote in that party's closed primary, while independents and others may be eligible to vote in open primaries.

Which of the following is the most important influence on the choice made by voters in presidential elections?

Partisan identification

Senator Hoffman is campaigning for reelection in her state. Her campaign message emphasizes how the policies she has supported have benefited her constituents. She has spotlighted job creation and an overall improvement in the standard of living in the state in the past six years. Senator Hoffman is hoping to appeal to which of the following voting behavior models?

Retrospective voting

Which of the following statements about voting behavior in national elections is most accurate?

Senior citizens are more likely to vote than are college students.

A state has 11 electoral votes. In a presidential election, the Democratic candidate receives 48 percent of that state's popular vote, the Republican candidate receives 40 percent of the vote, and an independent candidate receives 12 percent of the vote.

The Democratic candidate will receive all 11 electoral votes.

How is a president chosen when none of the candidates receives a majority of the electoral college vote?

The House chooses a new president by a majority vote of its state delegations.

Which of the following best explains why the winner of a presidential election usually claims to have a mandate from voters?

The allocation of electoral votes in the winner-take-all system exaggerates the margin of victory.

If voters are acting according to the retrospective model of voting, which of the following will be the most important consideration in their decision?

The effect of recent economic conditions on the voters

Which of the following best describes the relationship between socioeconomic status and participation in politics

The higher ones socioeconomic status, the greater the probability of active involvement in the political process.

Considering all elections at all levels of government, which of the following best describes electoral behavior in the United States?

The majority of the electorate does not vote in most elections.

Which of the following is LEAST characteristic of the history of political parties in the United States during the twentieth century?

The splitting of the two major parties into a multiparty system

Which of the following is most directly related to the large amount of money spent by outside groups in the 2012 election?

The use of super PACs as a mechanism to raise money and influence elections

Critics of the winner-take-all aspect of the electoral college are most likely to make which of the following arguments?

The winner-take-all system of the electoral college encourages presidential candidates to focus their time and effort disproportionately on battleground states with larger populations.

Of the following groups of eligible voters, which is LEAST likely to vote?

The youth with low education levels

Of the following, which best predicts the likelihood that citizens will vote?

Their education

A primary election in which voters are required to identify a party preference before the election and are not allowed to split their ticket is called

a closed primary

When party members meet to nominate a candidate for office, they participate in which of the following?

caucus

Which of the following is a type of primary election that requires registration as a party affiliate to vote?

closed

n 1987 the cooperation among the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defeat Robert Bork's nomination to the United States Supreme Court was an example of

coaliation building

Typically, presidential candidates implement their campaign strategies by

focusing on larger, competitive states, because they might tip the balance of the electoral college

The main intent of "motor voter" laws is to

increase voter registration

In the last thirty years, the single most important variable in determining the outcome of an election for a member of the House of Representatives has been,

incumbency

When contributing to congressional campaigns, political action committees (PACs) are most likely to contribute to

incumbents of both major parties

In response to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold Act), the United States Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), ruled that

independent campaign expenditures by corporations and unions are protected by the First Amendment

Interest groups and political parties both promote United States democracy by

linking citizens to the political process

Citizens who believe that their votes will have no effect on the outcome of an election have a

low level of political efficacy

The concept of "critical elections" is most closely associated with

part reilgnment

he most common criterion that people use when voting for a presidential candidate is the candidate's

party identification

A person votes for Democratic candidates based on the belief that the policies of the Democratic Party will be personally beneficial. This type of voting matches which of the following voting behavior models?

prospective voting

Interest groups use political action committees (PACs) to

raise and spend money on eleection campaigns

An election in which there is a significant shift in the bases of electoral support from one political party to another is called a

realigning election

The concept of realignment refers to changes in

the social bases of the parties' voting support

The process known as front-loading refers to

the tendency of states to choose an early date on the primary calendar

When people vote for some candidates from one party and other candidates from another party, it is called

ticket splitting

Critical elections in the United States typically have occurred

when groups of voters have changed their traditional patterns of party loyalties