question

Which of the following widely used systems has the effect of diminishing the power of American party leaders?

answer

primary elections

question

In order to win the presidency, a candidate must receive ____ of electoral college votes.

answer

a plurality

question

____ is the process of redrawing election districts and redistributing legislative representatives.

answer

Redistricting

question

____ is the apportionment of voters in districts in such a way as to give unfair advantage to one racial or ethnic group or political party.

answer

reapportionment

question

Which of the following has been most important in establishing standards such as one person, one vote in the process of drawing the boundaries of House districts?

answer

the federal courts

question

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

answer

referendum

question

The ____ is a candidate running for re-election to a position that he or she already holds.

answer

incumbent

question

The number of a state's electoral votes is determined by the

answer

number of members it has in both houses of Congress.

question

Most states hold ____ to select their delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

answer

primaries

question

Critics have referred to the process of each party's congressional caucus selecting the nominees for president as

answer

King Caucus.

question

A(n) ____ is a Democratic convention position reserved for elected party officials.

answer

superdelegate

question

When a voter must be registered with a party prior to voting that party's election, it is called a(n)

answer

closed primary.

question

The president of the United States is selected by

answer

the Electoral College.

question

A(n) ____ election allows voters an opportunity to remove state officials from office before their terms expire.

answer

recall

question

If you want to run for a seat in the House of Representatives, you need to raise at least

answer

$500,000.

question

____ voting occurs when voting is based on the past performance of a candidate.

answer

Retrospective

question

Which of the following is NOT regulated by campaign-spending restrictions imposed by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)?

answer

527 committees

question

According to the authors, which of the following is not one of the three factors that influence voters' decisions at the polls?

answer

the electoral system used to select candidates

question

During the nineteenth century, national political campaigns relied heavily on

answer

volunteers.

question

____ are organizations established by corporations, labor unions, or interest groups to channel the contributions of their members into political campaigns.

answer

political action committees

question

The ____ sets campaign contributions by individuals to no more than $2,300 to any one candidate in any single election.

answer

2002 campaign finance law

question

In ____, the Supreme Court ruled that there could be no limits placed on candidates' expenditure of their own funds, since such spending is considered free speech.

answer

Buckley v. Valeo

question

Since the passage of the 2002 Campaign Finance law, individuals may donate a maximum of ____ to any single candidate; a political action committee may donate ____ to each candidate.

answer

$2,300; $5,000

question

Midterm elections are

answer

congressional elections that do not coincide with a presidential election.

question

Primary elections are held to select

answer

a political party's candidates for the general election.

question

If no presidential candidate wins a majority of votes in the Electoral College, what happens?

answer

The names of the top three candidates are submitted to the House, where each state would be able to cast one vote.

question

Except in rare occasions, boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts in the United States are redrawn by the states every ____ years.

answer

10

question

State legislators routinely seek to influence electoral outcomes by manipulating the organization of electoral districts. This strategy is called

answer

gerrymandering.

question

The federal courts have established ____ as a critical factor in establishing the boundaries of legislative districts.

answer

equal populations

question

The _____ was promoted by Progressive reformers at the turn of the twentieth century to allow voters to have a more direct role in governing.

answer

referendum

question

Who is the incumbent?

answer

the current officeholder, running for re-election

question

The electoral college was designed to

answer

produce a nonpartisan president.

question

Party activists who are elected to vote at a party's national convention are called

answer

delegates.

question

During the earliest years of the United States, who nominated the candidates for president?

answer

Political machine bosses controlled the entire nominating process.

question

Which party has reserved slots at the national convention for elected superdelegates?

answer

Democrats

question

What is a closed primary?

answer

an election in which voters can participate in the nomination of candidates, but only of the party in which they are enrolled for a period of time prior to the Election Day

question

The electoral college is

answer

presidential electors from each state who cast ballots for president and vice president.

question

In 2003, Californians voted out governor Gray Davis. This election was unusual because

answer

he lost in a rare recall effort.

question

In most congressional elections, ____ outspend ____.

answer

incumbents, challengers

question

Prospective voting occurs when

answer

voting is based on the on the imagined future performance of a candidate.

question

Nonprofit groups that also engage in issue advocacy and are allowed to spend up to half of its revenue for political purposes are called

answer

501c(4) committees.

question

Partisanship is most likely to affect voting in which of the following elections?

answer

state legislative elections

question

While Abraham Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign spent $100,000, it also relied heavily on

answer

volunteers

question

Political Action Committees (PACs) are organizations established

answer

by corporations, labor unions, or interest groups to channel the contributions of their members into political campaigns.

question

What was the impact of the 2002 Campaign Finance Reform law?

answer

It reduced the role of parties in financing campaigns.

question

Since the passage of the 2002 Campaign Finance law, individuals may donate a maximum of ____ to any single candidate; a political action committee may donate ____ to each candidate.

answer

$2,300; $5,000

question

In the case of Buckley v Valeo, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that

answer

no limits can be placed on candidates' expenditure of their own funds, since such spending is considered free speech.

question

When a congressional election is held that does not coincide with a presidential election, it is called a

answer

midterm election.

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