Advanced Government Study Guide
Chapters 8: Political Participation
Mr. Faulhaber
MATCHING: Match the definition with the term it best describes.
____1. Voters that are not affiliated with a party and are considered weak party voters
____2. Requirement that a voter must live in the state in which he/she casts his/her ballot
____3. An illegal voting requirement that made voters prove they could read and write
____4. The requirement that a person be an American citizen in order to vote
____5. The law that allows the federal government to protect minorities in state elections
____6. The votes cast for candidates of a single party only
a. residency requirement
b. cross-pressured voters
c. independents
d. straight party ticket
e. suffrage
f. citizenship requirement
g. Poll Tax
h. Voting Rights Act
i. grandfather clause
j. literacy test
____7. A voting requirement that required citizens to pay a fee to vote
____8. Voters caught between conflicting elements in his or her life
9. Voter turnout rates for the best-attended elections run between 50 percent and 60 percent in____.
a. neither Europe nor the United States; both have higher turnout rates
b. the United States and Italy
c. both Europe and the United States.
d. most European countries
e. the United States.
10. Compared with other Western nations, the percentage of registered voters in the United States who actually vote
is____.
a. about the same.
b. approximately the same as the number of eligible voters.
c. much higher
d. much lower
e. unknown.
11. In European countries, the burden of voter registration rests on____.
a. the government
b. political parties
c. interest groups
d. party leaders
e individual voters
12. The number of voters eligible to vote in the 1972 presidential election rose dramatically from the previous election, in
large measure because voting was extended to____.
a. women through ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
b. persons between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one
c. all blacks through passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1970
d. aliens through passage of the Alien Rights Act
e. None of these
13. One explanation given by the text for the decline in U.S. voter participation in presidential elections after 1900 is
that____.
a. the Republican party began to attempt to mobilize individuals who were least likely to vote
b. parties began functioning to mobilize mass voter turnout.
c. other forms of political participation became less accessible to citizens
d. fewer citizens were directly affected by the outcome of presidential elections
e. election fraud was rampant in the nineteenth century
14. The steady decline in U.S. voter turnout appears to be the unintentional result of____
a. literacy testing
b. strict voter registration procedures
c. the fraudulent reporting of election results
d. the poll tax
e. media campaigns
15. In the nineteenth century, voting ballots were printed by____.
a. state legislatures
b. the government
c. political parties
d. Congress
e. the courts.
16. Inactives tend to____.
a. be young
b. have little education
c. have low incomes
d. All of these
e. None of these
17. Which of Verba and Nie’s participation groups tends to be older and less educated than the others?
a. inactives
b. campaigners
c. voting specialists
d. parochial participants
e. communalists
18. Campaigners are distinguished from the general population by their____.
a. higher education levels and stronger opinions
b. lack of party identification and distaste for conflict
c. lower education levels and weaker opinions
d. lower education levels and stronger opinions
e. more education, older than thirty-five years old
19. The most powerful determinant of political participation, other than education and information, is____.
a. region
b. race
c. age
d. employment
e. gender
20. All of the following were used to keep blacks from voting EXCEPT____.
a. Segregation
b. Literacy Tests
c. Poll taxes
d. Grandfather Clause
e. Intimidation and threats
21. What is the impact of religion on political participation?
a. Religious people are less likely to vote, because they put their faith in a higher power
b. Religious people are more likely to give money to charities, but less likely to vote
c. Being active in a religious organization increases the likelihood of charitable volunteer work as well as voting
d. Being active in a religious organization increases participation in nonpolitical activities but does not increase the
likelihood of voting
e. Religion has no measurable impact on the likelihood of voting
22. All of the following are true of United States voters EXCEPT that ____.
a. they must be legal US citizens
b. they have never been convicted of a crime
c. they must live in a state for a certain period of time before they can vote
d. they must be at least 18 years of age
e. they must register in advance before the election
23. Which of the following statements about elections in the United States is CORRECT?
a. the U.S. Constitution left entirely to the states the decision of who could vote and for what offices
b. the U.S. Constitution standardized the process by which members of the House were elected
c. the U.S. Constitution called for presidential electors to be picked by voters directly rather than by state legislatures
d. the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowed all blacks to vote
e. all of the above are true
24. Which of the statements about the right to vote in the United States is CORRECT?
a. the original U.S. Constitution ensured women the right to vote
b. not every U.S. citizen of voting age is allowed to vote
c. the states originally had little to say as to who could and could not vote
d. the original U.S. Constitution specifically prohibited setting property restrictions on the right to vote
e. all of the above are true
25. A careful study of the “party of nonvoters” in the 1992 and 1996 elections found the most common demographic
feature(s) of nonvoters to be____.
a. residential mobility
b. conservatism
c. Protestantism
d. youth
e. both a and d
26. Which of the following gave the right to vote in state elections to eighteen year olds?
a. an act of congress
b. concerted action on the part of the states
c. a Constitutional amendment
d. a federal court ruling
e. an Executive order
27. What was the impact of the Motor Voter law of 1993?
a. it increased voter turnout significantly, especially in the 18 to 21 year old age group
b. it increased voter registration but did not significantly increase voter turnout
c. it was widely evaded, especially in southern states
d. it had no significant impact on either voter registration or voter turnout
e. it increased voter registration and voter turnout in all age categories
28. Which of the following persons is most likely to vote?
a. an 18 year old white high school graduate
b. a 65 year old retired union member
c. a 40 year old soccer mom with an associate’s degree
d. a 55 year old African American attorney who works for the federal government
e. a 21 year old married father of two
29. Direct election of members of the House of Representatives was required by____.
a. the original U.S. Constitution
b. an amendment to the U.S. Constitution
c. decisions of the individual states
d. a Supreme Court ruling
e. an Executive order
30. Federal voter registrars and poll watchers can be sent into area where____.
a. vote fraud has been documented in two or more previous elections
b. less than 50 percent of the population votes in a presidential election
c. both parties petition the government for their presence
d. a literacy test or poll tax was in use prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
e. a party gathers more than 70 percent of the vote
31. Surveys that ask individuals whether they voted in a given election are hampered by the fact that____.
a. most people regard voting as a private matter
b. some 10 percent will report voting when in fact they did not
c. the individuals sampled are frequently unrepresentative of the larger population
d. most people cannot remember whether they voted
e. federal law prohibits questioning voters within forty-eight hours of an election
32. Which of the following regarding the political participation of blacks is correct?
a. blacks participate more than whites across the board
b. blacks participate more than whites of the same socioeconomic status
c. blacks participate less than whites across the board
d. blacks participate more heavily than whites in protest movements, riots and demonstrations
e. blacks participate only at certain times, such as during the civil rights movement of the 1960s
33. The text suggests that one reason religious involvement increases political participation is because____.
a. it leads to social correctness and increase awareness of larger issues
b. politics is a more simplistic form of ideology
c. the church provides a forum for differing viewpoints
d. a belief in God helps people make political decisions
e. it leads to inwardness and thus more political insight
34. Which section of the country has the lowest voter turnout?
a. the South
b. the Northeast
c. the Midwest
d. the West
e. the Southwest
35. Which of the following statements is true about the effect of ethnic groups on voter choice?
a. Cubans tend to vote Democratic
b. Northern Protestants tend to vote Democratic
c. Jews tend to vote Democratic
d. the religious right tends to vote Democratic
e. Born-again Christians tend to vote Democratic
36. The Motor Voter Act signed by President Clinton makes it easier than ever to vote. All of the following provisions
accomplish the goals of the act AXCEPT____.
a. it provides for automatic registration of eligible citizens when they fill out and application for a driver’s license
b. it requires that states periodically review their voter lists for accuracy
c. it authorizes $50 million to cover implementation costs
d. it purges people from voter rolls because they didn’t vote in the previous election
e. it provides for automatic registration of eligible voters as a result of license renewal
37. When studying voting behavior, all the recent conclusions have been found to be true EXCEPT____.
a. voting is a class-based activity
b. young people have the highest voter turnout
c. whites vote with greater frequency than members of minority groups
d. Southerners do less voting than Northerners
e. women voters tend to support candidates with views of their own regardless of whether the candidate is a man or a
woman
38. All of the following statements explain why people vote EXCEPT____.
a. people vote because of their religious views
b. people vote as a result of political socialization
c. people vote as a result of gender politics
d. people vote because of issues raised in the campaign
e. people vote because they are given surveys by a polling organization
39. Mr. Freeman doesn’t vote and doesn’t belong to any civic associations, but he often sends letters to his congressman
about the empty houses on his street. According to Verba and Nie, Mr. Freeman is a ____?
a. campaigner
b. complainer
c. parochial participant
d. communalist
e. activist
ESSAYS:
1. Voter participation is often linked to education, income, race, ethnicity, and age. Examine how each of these
factors will influence who will vote.
2. Over time, voting rights have been expanded to include groups previously excluded from the formal political process.
For EACH of the groups below, explain how voting rights have been expanded and discuss the impact of these groups on
the political process.
Women
African-Americans
Voters aged eighteen to twenty-one