A
The candidate in an election who already occupies the office
What is an incumbent?
An organized effort to persuade and mobilize voters to support or oppose a party or candidate
What are campaigns?
The selection of persons to hold public office by means of a vote
what are elections?
Fee requirements for voting that were typically used to keep Black people from voting in southern states; outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965
What are poll taxes?
Election for a party's nominee in which only those registered as party members can vote
What is a closed primary?
Legal restrictions on the maximum time a person can hold a specific office
What are term limits?
In-person voting that takes place before Election Day
What is early voting?
Election in which voters select the candidate that will run for the party in the general election
What are primary elections?
Questions that purported to measure citizens' ability to read and understand English but really were used to prevent Black people from voting in southern states; these were suspended by federal legislation, beginning with the Voting Rights Act (1965)
What are literacy tests?
Election for the parties' nominees in which registrants are allowed to vote in any primary they choose (but only in one)
What is an open primary?
The notion that candidates never stop campaigning because of the constant need to raise money for the next election cycle
What is the permanent campaign?
The process by which citizens who cannot vote in person on Election Day request that ballots be mailed to their homes and then vote by mailing those ballots to election official
What is absentee voting?
Process of determining the number of U.S. House representatives allotted to each state after the decennial census count
What is reapportionment?
Drawing district lines to maximize some political interest
What is gerrymandering?
Election for a party's nominee in which party registrants and those unaffiliated with any party are allowed to vote
What is a semi-closed primary?
The regulatory agency that enforces the laws governing federal elections
What is the Federal Election Commission (FEC)?
When jurisdictions conduct elections using ballots that are automatically mailed to voters
What is vote-by-mail?
Drawing new state legislative and U.S. House district lines after the decennial census count
What is redistricting?
Single-member, simple plurality election systems tend to produce two major political parties
What is Duverger's Law?
1976 Supreme Court decision overturning the Federal Election Campaign Act's limits on spending by federal candidates as a violation of the First Amendment
What was Buckley v. Valeo?
PACs that can collect unlimited amounts of donations as a consequence of a 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC; they are required to disclose their donors
What are super PACs?
Methods of voting that do not involve actually casting a ballot at a polling place on Election Day, such as absentee, early, or mail voting conducted before Election Day
What is convenience voting?
Any significant differences in the number of citizens across districts
What is malapportionment?
Congressional legislation designed to end discriminatory practices disenfranchising Black people, especially in the South
What is the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA)?
2010 Supreme Court decision holding that under the First Amendment, corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited
What was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission?