Qualifications
At what age does an American have to be in order to be President?
35
Today, party voters can vote for who they wanted to represent them in the general elections through the primary process. Before that, who chose the presidential nominees?
Party elites (bosses)
Definition: Primaries in which the participants must be registered as members of one party and can only vote for a candidate in that party (i.e. a registered Democrat can only vote for Democrat candidates)
Closed primaries
President Washington started a precedent when he gave a speech at his swearing in. This is now known as what?
Inaugural address
An elector who does not vote for the presidential or vice-presidential candidate they pledged to support is called what?
Faithless elector
To be president, you must be a natural born citizen, meaning you must be born in the U.S. or ....
Born outside of the United States to U.S. citizens
States that do not use the presidential primary system use the __________ system. With this system, candidate supporters and party leaders get support for their candidate by influencing delegates.
Caucus
What is the name for the day where the greatest number of states hold primary elections and caucuses on the same day?
Super Tuesday
What is an exit poll?
News media surveys voters for who they voted for as they leave the polling places
They then use this data to start making projections on who will win that state.
for what two reasons did the Founding Fathers choose an indirect way of electing presidents instead of using popular vote?
1) To give the smaller and less populated states an equal say in who will lead the country, 2) to prevent tyranny of the majority
There are 2 ways people have access to be president, prior political experience or military careers. All presidents had at least one of these experiences, except for who?
Donald Trump
Although presidential primaries increased popular participation (voting), it has two big negatives. One is that voters will wholeheartedly support one candidate over another. If their candidate loses, it will lead to division. This can create a _______ ________ so they can still run in the general election.
3rd party or splinter party
Although presidential primaries increased popular participation (voting), it has two big negatives. One is that party leaders lose the ability to pick a ___________ candidate because vocal party member choose an extreme candidate that most likely can't win the General election.
Moderate
With televised debates, what else matters just as much as what and how a candidate speaks?
(hint: we watched a video on this in class)
Body landuage
How are the number of delegates decided for each state in the Electoral College?
# of seats that state has in the HoR + # of senators.
(example: Florida has 28 seats in HoR + 2 Senators = 30 electoral delegates)
A qualification to be president is that you must be a resident of the U.S. for at least ____ years.
14
The biggest negative to open primaries that politicians fear the most is ___________. This is when voters of another party cross over to vote for a weaker candidate in hopes that a stronger one does not win.
Raiding
A party's platform (a formal statement of the party's positions) is drafted and voted on every ___ years during the ___________.
4 years; convention
Two powers vested to the president is given to him through the Constitution, executive orders and pardons. Explain both.
EO: presidential directives that have the effect and force of law
Pardon: Releasing a convicted person from the remained of their sentence.
In the electoral college, there are a total # of ____ delegates, with ___ needed to win.
Total 538; 270 to win
(435 seats in HoR + 100 senators + 3 for D.C. = 538)
In the Constitution, where can the qualifications to be president be found at?
Article II, Section 1
Which two states are the most important in the primaries where they weed out candidates for their respective parties? Be sure to also say which of the two is a caucus and holds elections.
Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries
For the Democratic Party today, superdelegates cannot do what?
(Hint: this changed after 2016, Hillary Clinton v. Bernie Sanders)
They cannot cast determining votes during the nomination process at the convention.
What day is inauguration day that we have used since FDR first took office in 1937?
January 20th
All states are winner takes all states in the Electoral College, except for Maine and Nebraska. They use the Congressional district method instead. Explain this method.
Each Congressional District has 1 electoral vote. Then the 2 votes representing # of senators are based on popular vote for the entire state.
EX: Nebraska has 3 Congressional Districts and 2 senators, a total of 5 electoral votes. 2 districts vote Republican and 1 for Democrats. State popular vote goes to Republicans. Reps = 4 votes, Dems = 1