gov review quiz 4

About ________ million Americans have lost their voting rights as a result of felony convictions.

5

A majority system, which is used on a limited basis in the United States, requires that a candidate must win ________ to win an election.

50 percent plus one of all votes cast

"Dark money" comes from

501(c)(4)s

A runoff election is MOST likely to occur in which kind of electoral system?

a majority system

527 committees are an important part of the American political system because they

are able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they do not coordinate their activities with a political party.

A proposed law or policy change that is placed on the ballot by citizens or interest groups for a popular vote is called a

ballot initiative

A state with a roughly equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the population is often referred to as a ________ state.

battleground

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

campaign

A ________ is a meeting of a political group's members who gather to determine strategy and select candidates.

caucus

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

closed primary

All of the following are responsibilities of a party's national committee EXCEPT

determining committee assignments for members of Congress.

A major benefit of ranked-choice voting is that it

eliminates the "spoiler" effect that occurs when votes for a third-party or minor candidate are discarded.

A major cause of political polarization in Congress is

gerrymandering.

According to political scientist John Aldrich, which of the following problems found in democratic governments do political parties help solve?

how to regulate the number of people seeking public office, how to mobilize voters, and how to achieve the majorities needed to accomplish legislative goals once in office

A serious candidate for a U.S. House of Representatives race must raise at least several ________ dollars, while a serious candidate for a U.S. Senate race must raise at least several ________ dollars.

hundred thousand; million

An individual's psychological attachment to one party or another is called a party

identification.

Accidental mobilization occurs when

individuals are exposed to political information they did not explicitly seek out.

"Packing" occurs when

legislative districts are redrawn in a way that concentrates members of a particular party in as few districts as possible, thereby limiting the overall number of seats that party might win.

"Cracking" occurs when

legislative districts are redrawn in a way that disperses members of a particular party across multiple districts, thereby reducing that party's chances of winning any seats.

A 501(c)(4)

may not spend more than half its revenue for political purposes.

An advertisement emailed only to evangelical Christian voters about a Democratic candidate's support for abortion would be an example of

micro-targeting.

African Americans represented by a black member of Congress are

more likely to vote than African Americans not represented by a black member of Congress.

A party's platform is best understood as a

negotiated agreement among the various factions in the party.

A party activist is an individual who

not only votes but also contributes time, energy, effort, and financial resources to party affairs.

A(n) ________ occurs when a voter can wait until the day of the primary to choose which party to enroll in to select candidates for the general election.

open primary

A party's ________ contains its philosophy, principles, and policy positions.

platform

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

An individual who identifies a problem as a political issue and brings a policy proposal into the political agenda is referred to as a(n)

policy entrepreneur.

A referendum is the

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

A system that allows voters to rank candidates from the most preferred to the least preferred on the ballot is called

ranked-choice voting.

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

runoff election

"Self-sorting" refers to the

tendency of individuals to segregate themselves by choosing to live in liberal or conservative geographic areas.

A major factor in John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential victory over Richard Nixon was

that Kennedy had a much stronger performance than Nixon during televised debates.

A political party is an organization

that tries to influence the government by getting its members elected to office.

"Me too" Republicanism refers to

the tendency of Republican politicians during the New Deal to support popular programs such as Social Security rather than advocate alternative policies.

"King Caucus" refers to

the use of each party's congressional caucus to nominate presidential candidates during the early nineteenth century.

America's ________ developed during the early eighteenth century.

two-party system

A candidate who received 20 percent of the overall vote could

win the election only if the election were held in a plurality system.

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