Campaigns
This was banned by the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 (also known as BRCA or Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act).
What is soft money?
These are the legal framework and steps required for citizens to register to vote in elections.
What are Voter Registration Laws?
What type of election takes place in the United States to elect a President every 4 years?
What is Electoral College?
This large gathering is organized by a political party to nominate candidates for public office, especially presidential candidates, and communicate a party platform.
What is a Party Convention?
AllSides, an example of this kind of organization, seeks to distinguish between left-leaning, right-leaning, and neutral news sources.
What is media?
This provision of FECA (the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971) required candidates to file quarterly reports of their donations and expenses.
What is the Disclosure Rule?
This Amendment to the Constitution gave voting rights to African Americans.
What is the 15th Amendment?
In this kind of election, citizens vote directly for their federal legislators.
What is a General Election?
This describes the advantage that current officeholders have over challengers (both challengers from their own political parties in primaries and challengers from other political parties in general elections), making it easier for current officeholders to win reelection.
What is Incumbency Advantage?
This problem in politics arises when interest groups advocate for and help put policies in place that help individuals benefit from a government resource, good, or service without also paying for that public good.
What is a Free-Rider?
Express advocacy is political advertising that expressly supports a specific electoral outcome (the election or defeat of a specific political candidate), while this term describes political advertising that focuses on broad political issues rather than specific political candidates.
What is issue advocacy?
These are controversial laws that some people believe are necessary to ensure our election integrity and other people believe are used to exclude people from voting.
What are Voter ID Laws that require ID documentation in order to register to vote?
In this kind of election, citizens vote for which candidate will represent a political party on the ballot.
What is a Primary Election?
Linkage institutions are structures that connect the American public to their government, such as Media informing the public about political issues, Interest Groups representing specific causes, and these organizations which represent ideologies, facilitate the electoral process, and mobilize voters.
What are Political Parties?
This type of organization is expected to remain nonpartisan and enforce professional standards of neutrality during elections, but has come under criticism recently for bias in its political coverage.
What is media?
The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971's limitations on individual spending by federal candidates were struck down based on the First Amendment in this Supreme Court ruling.
What is Buckley vs. Valeo?
This legislation outlawed literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.
What is the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
This is the number of electoral votes required to elect the President of the United States.
What is 270 out of 538?
This is the often highly-partisan policy-making relationship (that creates policy and passes legislation that affects our country) between congressional committees, government agencies, and interest groups.
What is the Iron Triangle?
The AMA (American Medical Association), an example of this kind of organization, advocates on behalf of its members (doctors and other medical industry professionals).
What is an interest group?
This landmark 2010 Supreme Court case ruled that laws restricting political spending by corporations and unions violates the First Amendment.
What is Citizens United vs. FEC?
This 1993 legislation mandates that each state must designate a chief election official to oversee federal elections in that state.
What is the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)?
This is a type of election in which the candidate who receives the majority of the votes wins all the seats or representation.
What is Winner-Take-All?
In Presidential elections, states that usually lean towards a single political party are known as Safe States, while states where either major political party (Republican or Democrat) has a good chance of winning are known by this term.
What is a Swing State (or Battleground State)?
This kind of media reporting focuses on polls and how candidates are different, rather than focusing on the candidates' political policies.
What is horse race journalism?