Chapter 8 American National Government Final Exam Review

voter identification laws

Laws requiring citizens to show a government-issued photo ID in order to vote.

Federal elections are always held in

November

activists

People who tend to participate in all forms of politics

Which of the following statements regarding the Australian ballot is INCORRECT?

it was printed by the people

Literacy tests, poll taxes, and a grandfather clause were all devices used to

keep blacks from voting

A study, done eight years after the motor-voter law was passed, found that those who register when the process is costless are

less likely to vote

Voting-age population (VAP)

Citizens who are eligible to vote after reaching the minimum age requirement.

voting-eligible population (VEP)

Citizens who have reached the minimum age to be eligible to vote, excluding those who are not legally permitted to cast a ballot.

By 1880, only an estimated _________ of all adult males in the United States could not vote; in England in the same period, about _________ of adult males were disfranchised.

14 percent and 4o percent

Which amendment states that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude"?

15th Amendment

The first elections in which all persons between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one were able to vote were held in

1972

Which constitutional amendment extended the right to vote to those 18 years and older

26th Amendment

grandfather clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

Australian ballot

A government-printed ballot of uniform dimensions to be cast in secret that many states adopted around 1890 to reduce voting fraud associated with party-printed ballots cast in public.

poll tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote.

literacy test

A requirement that citizens show that they can read before registering to vote.

Political Participation

The many different ways that people take part in politics and government

white primary

The practice of keeping blacks from voting in the southern states' primaries through arbitrary use of registration requirements and intimidation.

Social pressure message

This message is powerful: People do not want their nonvoting revealed to their neighbors! Those who received this message were more than 8 percent more likely to turn out and vote. This may not sound like much in the abstract, but consider that an average Congressional district has approximately 700,000 citizens. Eight percent of a district's voters is more than 50,000 individuals, which could be enough to change who wins and who loses.

Cassandra likes to get involved in political efforts. She works the phones, hands out flyers for her favorite candidate, and she always votes. Cassandra is an example of a

campaigner

William does not enjoy the conflict that goes along with a senatorial campaign. He would much rather find a cause at the local level—forming and joining organizations to deal with local problems. William is an example of a

communalist

Participation in politics is driven by all of the following factors EXCEPT

diminished civic skills

The definition of a parochial participant is a person who

does not vote and stays out of campaigns and civic associations, but is willing to contact local officials about specific, personal problems

Today, voter turnout rates in America are _____________ they were for previous generations.

lower than

A voter who is considered an activist tends to be highly educated and

middle-aged

One view of the apparent decline in voter turnout suggests that the parties ceased functioning as

organizations to mobilize the mass of voters

Joining civic associations, supporting social movements, and writing to legislators, are examples of

participating in politics

During the 19th century, voting ballots were printed by

political parties

And yet, between 1860 and 1900, the percentage of eligible voters participating in presidential elections ranged between 65 percent and 80 percent.

true

If a researcher insists on using VEP statistics, as opposed to VAP statistics, in a study of voter turnout, he or she is probably concerned about

removing individuals from the data who are actually ineligible to vote

What legislation significantly increased political participation among seniors?

social security act

Although we vote at lower rates in the United States than people do abroad, the meaning of our voting is different.

true

Americans may not vote at high rates, but voting affects a far greater part of the political system here than abroad.

true

And some believe that the rise of the Internet, political blogs, and social media make traditional ideas about what constitutes political participation obsolete.

true

Arguably the most effective get-out-the-vote message is the "social pressure" message. In this message, subjects are told before the election that whether they vote in the election is a matter of public record (as it is in nearly all states), and after the election, the campaign will inform their neighbors whether or not they voted (they send a mailer indicating who voted on the block, and who did not).

true

Before 1961, residents of the District of Columbia could not vote in presidential elections; the Twenty-Third Amendment to the Constitution gave them the right.

true

But many residents of the United States who are of voting age (18 or older) are not, in fact, eligible to vote. Two such groups are noncitizens who reside in America and convicted felons who in most states are disenfranchised by state laws. Figure 8.1 Two Methods of Calculating Turnout in Presidential Elections, 1948-2012 Source: Data until 2000 from Michael P. McDonald and Samuel L. Popkin, "The Myth of the Vanishing Voter," American Political Science Review 95 (December 2001): table 1, 966. Data from 2004 forward are from Michael McDonald, United States Election Project, Voter Turnout Data, http://www.electproject.org. Another important nuance about nonvoting concerns registered versus unregistered voters. Take a look at Table 8.1. Column A compares democratic nations in terms of the average percentage of their VAP that went to the polls in dozens of post-1945 national legislative (congressional or parliamentary) elections. The United States ranks dead last with 47.7 percent voter turnout. Table 8.1 Two Ways of Calculating Voting Turnout, Here and Abroad A B Turnout as Percentage of Voting-Age Population Turnout as Percentage of Registered Voters Italy 92.0% Australia 94.5% New Zealand 86.0 Belgium 92.5 Belgium 84.8 Austria 83.1 Austria 84.4 New Zealand 90.8 Australia 84.2 Italy 89.8 Sweden 84.1 Netherlands 87.5 Netherlands 83.8 Sweden 87.1 Denmark 83.6 Denmark 85.9 Canada 82.6 Germany 85.4 Germany 80.2 Norway 80.4 Norway 79.2 United Kingdom 75.2 United Kingdom 73.8 Canada 73.9 France 67.3 France 73.8 Switzerland 51.9 United States 66.5 United States 47.7 Switzerland 56.5 Source: Rafael Lopez Pintor, Maria Gratschew, and Kate Sullivan, "Voter Turnout Rates from a Comparative Perspective," in Voter Turnout Since 1945: A Global Report (Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2002). Now, however, look at Column B. It compares the same nations in terms of percentage of registered voters (those eligible voters who have completed a registration form by a set date) who went to the polls in the same legislative elections. The United States still ranks low but looks somewhat better, with 66.5 percent registered voter turnout; and the registered voter turnout in post-1968 U.S. presidential elections is about 70 percent. Although we vote at lower rates in the United States than people do abroad, the meaning of our voting is different. For one thing, we elect far more public officials than the citizens of any other nation do. There are more than a half million elective offices in the United States, and just about every other week of the year there is an election going on somewhere in this country. A citizen of Massachusetts, for example, votes not only for the U.S. president but also for two senators, the state governor, the member of the House of Representatives for his or her district, a state representative, a state senator, the state attorney general, the state auditor, the state treasurer, the secretary of state, a county commissioner, a sheriff, and clerks of various courts, as well as (in the cities) for the mayor, the city councilor, and school committee members and (in towns) for selectmen, town-meeting members, a town moderator, library trustees, health board members, assessors, water commissioners, the town clerk, housing authority members, the tree warden, and the commissioner of the public burial ground. (There are probably others whom we have forgotten.) In many European nations, by contrast, the voters get to make just one choice once every four or five years: they can vote for or against a member of parliament. When there is only one election for one office every several years, that election is bound to assume more importance to voters than many elections for scores of offices. But one election for one office probably has less effect on how the nation is governed than many elections for thousands of offices. Americans may not vote at high rates, but voting affects a far greater part of the political system here than abroad. This suggests that the number of elections might explain why Americans turn out at lower levels than in other nations. But there are other structural reasons as well. Many Americans cannot vote because they have not registered: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 71 percent of eligible citizens are actually registered to vote. Registration is the simplest barrier to voting, but also the most profound: No matter one's interest in politics, if you are not registered, you cannot vote. Still, simply getting more people registered to vote is not a cure-all for nonvoting, for in each national election since 2006, about half of all nonvoters were registered. When registered nonvoters were asked why they did not vote, several of the most common answers were that they had scheduling conflicts (such as work or school), were uninterested in voting, had an illness or disability that prevented them from voting, or did not like the candidates who were running. In response to the most common reason why registered voters fail to vote (school, work, or other scheduling conflicts), some have proposed making Election Day a national holiday or holding national elections on weekends. Such proposals, though popular, remain only proposals. States have taken steps, however, to make voting easier for citizens. As of 2014, 27 states and the District of Columbia afforded voters the option of "no-fault" absentee voting, meaning that voters can vote absentee without having to demonstrate they are residing outside their home state or giving any other explanation. Three states—Washington, Oregon, and Colorado—conduct their elections through the mail (see the Constitutional Connections box for more information). While reformers had hoped that such reforms would dramatically increase voter turnout, the evidence suggests that their effect is very modest, on the order of a few percentage points at most. If voter turnout rates are to rise substantially in the United States, then nonregistered voters must become registered to vote in ever greater numbers. In addition to the roughly 40 million registered nonvoters, another 40 million or so voting-age citizens were not registered to vote in each of several recent national elections. In most European nations, registration is done for you—automatically—by the government. By contrast, in America, the entire burden of registering to vote falls on the individual voters: they must learn how and when and where to register; they must take the time and trouble to go somewhere and fill out a registration form; and they must register if they happen to move. It takes more effort to register to vote in this country than it does to register in other democracies; it should not be surprising that fewer people are registered here than abroad (for other differences between the U.S. and other nations, see the How We Compare box). How We Compare Laws on Voting Ratified in 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids states to deny "on account of age" the right to vote to citizens who are age 18 or older. But most states deny voting rights to voting-age citizens who have been convicted of felony crimes. Relevant state laws vary; for instance, Kentucky and Florida have largely maintained laws that disenfranchise felons for life, while Maine and Vermont have permitted certain presently incarcerated felons to vote. The legal voting age in almost all other nations is also 18. In about a dozen other countries, however, the legal voting age has been 16 (as in Brazil) or 17 (as in Indonesia); and in about 20 other nations the legal voting age is 19 (as in South Korea), 20 (as in Japan), or 21 (as in Lebanon). Some democracies (e.g., the United Kingdom) deny prisoners the right to vote, but it is far more common for democracies to permit all prisoners (save, in some nations, persons convicted of electoral fraud or related crimes) to vote. America is almost alone among democracies in the extent to which laws deny ex-prisoners the right to vote. America is also in the international minority with respect to laws on voter registration. In most other nations it is legally compulsory for voters to register; a central, regional, or local government, or, most commonly, a specialized "electoral management body," is expressly responsible for registering voters in national elections. In America, voter registration is not legally required, and under a diverse array of state laws, individual voting-age citizens remain responsible for registering to vote. Source: ACE Electoral Knowledge Network and United Nations Development Program, Data on Voter Registration and Voting Age, http://www.aceproject.org, accessed May 2010; The Sentencing Project, "Felony Disenfranchisement in the United States," September 2008. But would making it less burdensome to register necessarily result in higher percentages of Americans becoming registered voters and voting? In 1993, Congress passed a law designed to make it easier to register to vote. Known as the motor-voter law, the law allows people in all 50 states to register to vote when applying for driver's licenses and to provide registration through the mail and at some state offices that serve the disabled or provide public assistance (such as checks for eligible low-income families). As with early, mail-in, and absentee balloting (see the Constitutional Connections feature), the evidence regarding the motor-voter law's impact on voter participation remains hard to interpret definitively. In 2001, eight years after the law was enacted, millions of citizens had registered to vote via state motor vehicles bureaus or other state offices, but a study found "that those who register when the process is costless are less likely to vote." By 2012, motor-voter law-related means of registration were the single most widely used (see Figure 8.2). But between 1993 and 2012, while voter registration rates had increased somewhat, there still was no solid evidence that the law had substantially increased voter turnout. Other studies of efforts to facilitate registration have come to similar conclusions: increasing registration only very modestly increases turnout. Whether current efforts to decrease the cost of registration—such as Oregon's law automatically registering all citizens who have a driver's license or state ID unless they opt out—will increase turnout remain to be seen. Figure 8.2 Method of Voter Registration, 2012 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Voting and Registration in the Election of 2012," May 2013. In recent years, campaigns have begun to invest more heavily in old-fashioned get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drives to boost voter turnout. Many careful studies have found that such efforts do increase participation, though the exact amount depends on many different factors, including the type of message used, how the campaign makes contact with the voter (i.e., through a mailer, a phone call, or an in-person visit from the canvasser), the salience of the election, and so forth. Arguably the most effective get-out-the-vote message is the "social pressure" message. In this message, subjects are told before the election that whether they vote in the election is a matter of public record (as it is in nearly all states), and after the election, the campaign will inform their neighbors whether or not they voted (they send a mailer indicating who voted on the block, and who did not). This message is powerful: People do not want their nonvoting revealed to their neighbors! Those who received this message were more than 8 percent more likely to turn out and vote. This may not sound like much in the abstract, but consider that an average Congressional district has approximately 700,000 citizens. Eight percent of a district's voters is more than 50,000 individuals, which could be enough to change who wins and who loses. Such efforts, replicated on a large scale, can help to reshape the electorate. For example, in 2008 and 2012, the Obama campaign conducted a massive get-out-the-vote effort. The Obama campaign organized 2.2 million volunteers to have 24 million conversations with Americans and register 1.8 million additional voters. While Republican operations were not quite as large, they too were impressive. One estimate suggests that the 2012 Romney and Obama campaigns together generated over 400 million voter contacts (obviously contacting many voters multiple times), with a net increase of almost 2.6 million voters as a result. Perhaps even more importantly, these studies find that being involved in such activities helps to bring many new people into the political process, integrating them into their communities more fully, illustrating that the effects of get-out-the-vote efforts extend beyond the ballot box. But such efforts are not a panacea. While Obama's effort was especially successful, it is unclear whether future efforts will achieve such considerable success. Furthermore, more generally, political scientists have shown that get-out-the-vote efforts often heighten participatory inequalities by targeting those who are already most likely to vote, rather than those who are more marginal. While there have been particular efforts targeted at more marginal voters to increase their participation, such efforts are relatively rare. This suggests that while get-out-the-vote drives can help to reshape the electorate, they are not a full solution to the lack of voter participation in America. Of course, voting is only one way of participating in politics. It is important—we could hardly be considered a democracy if nobody voted—but it is not all-important. Joining civic associations, supporting social movements, writing to legislators, fighting city hall—all these and other activities are ways of participating in politics. It is possible that, by these measures, Americans participate in politics more than most Europeans—or anybody else, for that matter. Moreover, it is possible that low rates of registration indicate that people are reasonably well satisfied with how the country is governed. If 100 percent of all adult Americans registered and voted (especially under a system that makes registering relatively difficult), it could mean that people were deeply upset about how things were run. In short, it is not at all clear whether low voter turnout is a symptom of political disease or a sign of political good health. The important question about participation is not how much participation there is but how different kinds of participation affect the kind of government we get. This question cannot be answered just by looking at voter turnout, the subject of this chapter; it also requires us to look at the composition and activities of political parties, interest groups, and the media (the subjects of later chapters). Nonetheless, voting is important. To understand why participation in American elections takes the form that it does, we must first understand how laws have determined who shall vote and under what circumstances. Add Bookmark to this Page Change font size A small font A medium font A large font help ?

true

But no matter how they define it, most academics who study political participation pay close attention to voting and begin with a puzzle: Despite successive legal and other changes that might be expected to increase electoral participation

true

But one election for one office probably has less effect on how the nation is governed than many elections for thousands of offices.

true

By comparison, over the last several decades, the percentage of eligible voters participating in presidential elections has dipped as low as 50 percent: half of eligible voters do not vote.

true

For one thing, we elect far more public officials than the citizens of any other nation do. There are more than a half million elective offices in the United States, and just about every other week of the year there is an election going on somewhere in this country.

true

In 1993, Congress passed a law designed to make it easier to register to vote. Known as the motor-voter law, the law allows people in all 50 states to register to vote when applying for driver's licenses and to provide registration through the mail and at some state offices that serve the disabled or provide public assistance (such as checks for eligible low-income families).

true

In 2006, the Democrats took majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then in 2010, the Republicans won the House majority back from the Democrats; but in each of these two recent, power-shifting midterm national elections, about 80 million U.S. residents age 18 or older did not vote.

true

In areas where many non-English speakers live, election authorities must supply ballots written in their own language.

true

In many European nations, by contrast, the voters get to make just one choice once every four or five years: they can vote for or against a member of parliament.

true

In most states, well into the 19th century, only property-owning white males could vote. After the Civil War and into the mid-20th century, many states used all manner of stratagems to keep blacks from voting.

true

In recent years, campaigns have begun to invest more heavily in old-fashioned get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drives to boost voter turnout. Many careful studies have found that such efforts do increase participation, though the exact amount depends on many different factors, including the type of message used, how the campaign makes contact with the voter (i.e., through a mailer, a phone call, or an in-person visit from the canvasser), the salience of the election, and so forth.

true

In the 2014 midterm elections, participation was at its lowest level in 70 years.

true

Many Americans cannot vote because they have not registered: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 71 percent of eligible citizens are actually registered to vote.

true

Many states also now permit people to register on the same day that they vote.

true

National laws extend voter eligibility to all persons age 18 or older (courtesy of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution ratified in 1971).

true

No state may restrict voting based on discriminatory tests, taxes, or residency requirements.

true

Of course, voting is only one way of participating in politics. It is important—we could hardly be considered a democracy if nobody voted—but it is not all-important. Joining civic associations, supporting social movements, writing to legislators, fighting city hall—all these and other activities are ways of participating in politics. It is possible that, by these measures, Americans participate in politics more than most Europeans—or anybody else, for that matter.

true

Over the last half-century, formal education levels have risen among all groups, and news, information, and opinions about politics and government are just about everywhere one turns (or clicks).

true

Over the same period, voter turnout in midterm national elections has averaged well below 50 percent.

true

People in all 50 states can register to vote when applying for a driver's license, and most states now allow voters to vote by absentee ballot prior to Election Day even if they are not residing outside their home state.

true

Registration is the simplest barrier to voting, but also the most profound: No matter one's interest in politics, if you are not registered, you cannot vote.

true

This suggests that the number of elections might explain why Americans turn out at lower levels than in other nations.

true

When there is only one election for one office every several years, that election is bound to assume more importance to voters than many elections for scores of offices.

true

Women did not receive the right to vote until 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified.

true

Young voters, despite averaging more years of formal education, facing fewer legal barriers, and enjoying more access to information than any previous generation could have imagined, are nonetheless mostly nonvoters; for example, in the five midterm national elections since 1998, barely one in five 18- to 24-year-olds cast a ballot.

true

into the 1960s, most whites had only limited formal education; women and many minority groups faced legal, social, and other barriers or disincentives to voting; and there was nothing resembling today's steady stream of political news via multiple media outlets.

true

A __________________________ requires citizens to show a government-issued photo ID in order to vote

voter identification law

Studies have shown that today's young citizens are LEAST likely to participate in which of the following political activities?

voting

The most common form of political participation is

voting

examples of political participation

voting or trying to influence others to vote, joining a political party or giving money to a candidate for office, keeping informed about government or debating political issues with others, signing a petition, protesting a policy, advocating for a new law, or just writing a letter to an elected leader. Some scholars of the subject argue that, in addition to these activities, almost any form of civic engagement, such as helping out at a local homeless shelter or attending a school board meeting, should also count as political participation.

The ___________________________________ suspended the use of literacy tests and provided criminal penalties for interfering with the right to vote

voting-rights act

The grandfather clause was implemented to give voting rights to

whites who were illiterate or poor