US Chapter Ten

Approximately ________ is needed for a candidate to have a reasonable chance of winning a seat in the House of Representatives.

$1 million

A citizen can currently give no more than ________ per candidate for federal office per election in a given two-year election cycle.

$2,700

Suppose more and more states wish to increase their political influence by holding their nominating processes earlier and earlier. This causes the process for nominating the president to become

front-loaded.

Which of the following is the best example of direct democracy in the United States?

initiative

The Supreme Court's decision in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) was significant because it

introduced the idea that money counts as "speech" under the First Amendment.

Which of the following statements about primary elections is accurate?

The United States is one of the few nations in the world to hold primary elections.

Which of the following statements about campaign finance is most accurate?

Unlike the United States, most democratic countries provide public financing for their elections.

Partisan loyalty is likely to be highest in the election of

a state legislator.

A referendum is the

the practice of referring a proposed law passed by a legislature to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection

An election where the winner is the person who receives the most votes, regardless of the percentage of votes received, is called a ________ system

plurality

In order for a political party to select a candidate to run in the general election, it holds a(n)

primary election.

In a ________ election, voters choose the nominees for their parties. In a ________ election, voters choose who they want to be officeholders.

primary; general

A "second-round" election in which voters choose between the top two candidates from the first round is called a

runoff election.

The idea behind micro-targeting is to

send different campaign messages to different demographic groups of voters

The principle of "one person, one vote" was established by the Supreme Court in the

1960s.

Which of the following politicians was successfully recalled from office?

California governor Gray Davis (2003)

In ________, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not restrict independent expenditures by corporations or unions in support of candidates.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

The original gerrymander is attributed to

Elbridge Gerry

________ involves purposefully drawing district boundaries to unfairly advantage one group or party.

Gerrymandering

The first caucus in the presidential primary campaign is held in ________, while the first primary election in the presidential primary campaign is held in ________.

Iowa; New Hampshire

In ________, the Supreme Court determined that purposefully creating majority-minority districts, that is to say, electoral districts in which the majority of voters were members of a single racial or ethnic minority group, was unlawful.

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

Super PACs were made possible in part by the

Supreme Court's decisions in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and SpeechNow v. FEC.

In the so-called top-two primary system

candidates from all parties run against one another and the top two face each other in the general election.

A ________ is an effort by political candidates and their staffs to win backing and support by voters in the quest for political office

campaign

Both 527 committees and 501(c)(4)s

can spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy as long as their efforts are not coordinated with those of any candidate's campaign.

A(n) ________ occurs when a voter must be registered with a party prior to voting in that party's election.

closed primary

Plurality and majority systems tend to

decrease the number political parties.

Though traditional party conventions were ________, contemporary party conventions are ________.

deliberative assemblies to determine nominations; simple ratifications of nominations that have already been determined

If a citizen votes for a Republican for president and a Democrat for senator, he or she has engaged in

split-ticket voting.

Party elites who are not bound to the voting results in their state primaries and can vote as they wish are called

superdelegates.

When the Consumer Confidence Index is greater than 100 prior to an election, Americans tend to

vote for the incumbent party's presidential candidate.

Politicians attempt to "balance the ticket" with members of many important groups because

voters tend to prefer candidates who are closer to themselves in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, geography, and social background.