Government Chapter 17
Elections
Campaigns and Nominations
• Federal Election Commission Act (FECA)
– requires public disclosure of spending,
– bans interest group donations to campaigns
– and limits individual contributions.
• Federal Election Commission (FEC)
– Executive agency that enforces the rules established
by the FECA.
– They monitor PAC's as well
Campaigns and Nominations
• Political Action Committees (PAC's)
– Organizations formed by interest groups or businesses to
legally donate money to campaigns.
– They must register with the FEC
• Soft Money
– donations made directly to a political party for general
purposes
– It was a loophole to get around contribution limits
• campaign manager
– is responsible for the overall strategy and planning of a
presidential campaign
– Hired by candidates
Majority vs. Plurality
• Majority
– more than 50%
• Plurality
– more than anyone else
Selecting candidates
• Caucus
– a closed meeting of party leaders used to select
candidates
– Used in Iowa
• primary election
– type of election where several candidates compete to
win the party's nomination for the general election.
– Each party holds their own primaries
– It is like the playoffs before the championship game,
Selecting candidates
• open primary
– an election used to narrow candidates down to one
where anyone can vote
• closed primary
– an election used to narrow candidates down to one
where only members of a party may vote
• nominating conventions
– open meeting of delegates to select a party's
candidate
– Used to formally announce presidential candidates
General voting
• general election
– The main election in which an officeholder is
selected.
– It is like the championship game.
• Precinct
– the basic local voting unit.
– One city will contain several precincts.
• ticket
– the term for the presidential and vice-presidential
candidates
– Also refers to a ballot
• Straight-party ticket
– voters who select only their party's candidates in one
election
• strong party voter
– voters who select their party's candidates in election after
election.
– They tend to see party as more important than issues or
candidates
Selecting a President
• First candidates declare that they are running
• Caucuses and Primaries are held between
February and July
• Parties declare their candidates at their
national conventions in August
• General Election is held in November
Electoral College
• electoral college
– The system used to elect the president of the
United States.
– Set up by our founding fathers
• Electors
– representatives chosen by their state to cast
official electoral votes
Electoral College
• electoral votes
– The number of electors that each state gets based
on population.
– Electors equal the number of representatives plus
senators.
– The minimum number is 3 per state.
– California has the most with 55.
– Missouri has 10.
Electoral College
• 270
– number of electoral votes needed to win the
presidency
• 538
– total number of electoral votes.
– 535 of congress plus three from D.C.
• twenty-third amendment
– granted three electoral votes to the District of
Columbia
Voting Rights Review
Voting Rights Review
• Suffrage
– the legal right to vote
• Fifteenth Amendment
– extended suffrage to African Americans
• Nineteenth Amendment
– granted suffrage to women
• Twenty-Sixth Amendment
– Changed the voting age from 21 to 18
Voting Rights Review
• All-white primary
– attempt by southern states to limit African
American suffrage by only allowing African
Americans to vote in the general election.
• smith v. ALLWRIGHT
– Supreme Court case that outlawed ALL-WHITE
primaries
Voting Rights Review
• Grandfather Clause
– attempt by southern states to limit African
American suffrage by requiring a literacy test if
their grandfather could not vote before 1867.
• GUINN vs united states
– Supreme Court case that outlawed GRANDFATHER
clauses
Voting Rights Review
• poll tax
– attempt by southern states to limit African American
suffrage by requiring an amount of money that a
citizen had to pay before he or she could vote.
• Twenty-Fourth Amendment
– outlawed poll taxes
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
– legislation that formally ended voting discrimination
by providing federal enforcement.