Deck 8: Voting, Campaigns, and Elections

Question 1

Republicans often seen as better on issues like ___.

A) crime
B) employment issues
C) social welfare
D) none of the above

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The strongest influence on individual political behavior is ___.

A) party platform
B) candidate positions
C) perceptions of the candidate's character
D) party identification

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Suffrage refers to ___.

A) The right to vote
B) Voter turnout levels
C) The rights of the accused
D) All of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Voter turnout is measured as the portion of ___.

A) voting-eligible population that does not vote
B) voting-eligible population that does vote
C) voting-eligible population that is registered to vote
D) None of the above

Question 5

What did the "second important expansion" of the franchise entail and when did it happen?

A) Universal white male suffrage during the Jacksonian Democracy of the 1830s
B) The 15th Amendment's expansion of the franchise to black men in 1870
C) The 19th Amendment's expansion of suffrage to women in 1920
D) The 26th Amendment's expansion of the electorate to young people in 1971

Question 6

In both the North and the South during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries voter turnout declined partially as a result of the imposition by liberals of institutional barriers to disenfranchise certain groups by race, class, or immigrant status from voting.

A) The above statement is true
B) The above statement is false; progressives were the ones who disenfranchised elements of the electorate
C) The above statement is false; conservatives were the ones who disenfranchised elements of the electorate
D) The above statement is false; conservatives in the South and liberals in North were the ones who disenfranchised elements of the electorate

Question 7

What is one method that has been employed to increase voter registration and turnout in American elections?

A) There have been no such efforts since Americans have higher voter turnout rates than any other democracy in the world
B) Increasing levels of average education
C) Previous existing obstacles to registration and voting have been gradually removed over time
D) Both of the last two options

Question 8

According to the Let's Compare section, is compulsory voting and automatic registration a part of the United States' voting system?

Question 9

Do countries with either automatic registration systems or compulsory voting systems have higher or lower voter turnout than countries without these?

A) Higher
B) Lower
C) There are no discernible differences

Question 10

Voter registration is the process by which ___.

A) members of the non-voting age population sign up to establish their right to vote
B) members of the voting age population sign up to establish their right to vote
C) voters are disaggregated according to how they voted in the last election
D) members of Congress sign up to record their votes on pieces of legislation

Question 11

What is SES?

A) A composite measure of education, income, and occupational status
B) A composite measure of society, economy, and structure
C) A technique for increasing the number of registered voters in the electorate
D) Nothing

Question 12

What are "persuadable" voters and are they on the rise or decline within the electorate?

A) Voters open to voting for another party's candidate or an independent-they are on the rise within the electorate
B) Voters open to voting for another party's candidate or an independent-they are on the decline within the electorate
C) Voters not open to voting for another party's candidate or an independent-they are on the rise within the electorate
D) Voters not open to voting for another party's candidate or an independent-they are on the decline within the electorate

Question 13

What is an incumbent?

A) The same thing as a challenger
B) A former public office holder seeking to be elected again
C) A current public office holder seeking re-election
D) None of the above

Question 14

What is the phenomenon referred to as polarization?

A) Increasing partisanship combined with greater levels of ideology
B) Decreasing partisanship combined with lesser levels of ideology
C) Increasing partisanship combined with lessening levels of ideology
D) Decreasing partisanship combined with greater levels of ideology

Question 15

Define micro targeting.

A) Determining what issues, themes, and arguments are likely to turn away certain groups of voters from the other candidate
B) Determining what issues, themes, and arguments are likely to move certain narrowly delineated groups of voters to support a candidate
C) Emphasizing local conditions as a means to draw popular support for a candidate
D) Emphasizing state/regional issues as a means to draw popular support for a candidate

Question 16

Are primaries and caucuses used for the same party candidate selection purpose?

A) Yes, they are both party candidate nominating devices for political offices
B) No, they have nothing to do with party candidate selection
C) Yes, they are both general election devices for political offices
D) No, caucuses select party candidates and primaries select independent candidates for political office

Question 17

What kind of primary is associated with the phenomenon of frontloading?

A) Direct primary
B) Presidential primary
C) Preference primary
D) Run-off primary

Question 18

Where do the parties formally select their presidential candidates?

A) In the Iowa Caucuses
B) At the New Hampshire Primary
C) At their national party conventions
D) During "Super Tuesday"

Question 19

What did the FECA do?

A) Provided for some public regulation of campaign fundraising in presidential elections
B) Provided for increasing privatization of campaign fundraising regulation in presidential elections
C) Provided for regulation of soft money's role in political campaigns
D) None of the above

Question 20

What type of money did the BCRA (McCain-Feingold) start to regulate regarding campaign finance?

A) Hard Money
B) Soft Money
C) Spending by candidates of their own money
D) All of the above

Question 21

Which Supreme Court decision derailed much of the current campaign finance system for presidential elections as discussed in the Pro and Con section?

A) Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
B) McConnell v. F.E.C. (2003)
C) F.E.C. v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007)
D) None of the above

Question 22

Why did the major candidates for President (Obama, Clinton, and McCain) in 2008 stray from the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) system?

A) In order to maximize their campaign fundraising abilities
B) In order to minimize their campaign fundraising abilities
C) In order to maximize their campaign spending abilities
D) In order to be in compliance with the dictates of their respective political parties

Question 23

Elections in America are divided into two parts, with the last being the selection for office. What is the first?

A) The selection of party
B) The nomination of the candidates by the general electorate
C) The nomination of the candidates by the primary and caucus electorates
D) There is only a single part to American elections

Question 24

Partisanship is only a single indicator of how voters make up their minds in elections. What are two others?

A) Candidate attributes
B) Issue positions of candidates
C) Both of the above
D) None of the above

Question 25

During the time of Jackson, what phenomenon was associated with the franchise?

A) Universal suffrage
B) Universal white male suffrage
C) Women's suffrage
D) African-American enfranchisement

Question 26

What was the last constitutional amendment passed and ratified that was associated with expanding the right to vote in this country?

A) 15th
B) 19th
C) 23rd
D) 26th

Question 27

Do voters have a consistent response regarding their evaluations of candidate attributes?

Question 28

Amongst what group of voters is most of the decline in turnout occurring: the privileged or the less privileged?

A) Neither; voter turnout is up, not down
B) The privileged, as their needs are always met no matter what, so they have little incentive to actively participate in elections
C) The less privileged
D) Turnout has declined equally amongst both the privileged and less privileged

Question 29

In addition to greater name recognition, how else do we account for the congressional incumbency advantage?

A) Better opportunities for advertising and fundraising
B) We don't. Challengers, not incumbents, have the advantage in congressional elections.
C) Name recognition is the only significant cause of incumbency advantage
D) Incumbency is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage in congressional elections; it is only a factor in presidential contests

Question 30

Independents have increased in numbers in recent decades. Can we then infer that partisanship is no longer much of a determinative factor in American elections?

A) Yes we can but we do not know why
B) No, because declining turnout and negative campaigning have actually increased the polarization of the partisans left in the electorate
C) No, we cannot because declining turnout and negative campaigning have decreased the polarization of the partisans left in the electorate promoting opportunities for bipartisanship across the board
D) The question cannot be evaluated on its own terms; therefore we cannot answer it

Question 31

In recent presidential elections, which party tends to have the advantage among the electorate with regard to economic interests and the common person?

A) Republicans
B) Democrats
C) Minor parties
D) None of the above, because in fact no party has an advantage over the others with regard to economic interests and the common person

Question 32

In 2016, Hillary Clinton ran on a platform of protecting and building upon which of the following Obama administration successes?

A) Economic recovery
B) Wall Street reform
C) Obamacare
D) All of the above

Question 33

In 2016, Donald Trump, a first-time candidate, ran on a platform of which of the following promises?

A) to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants
B) to ban Muslim immigrants
C) to return jobs lost to overseas competition
D) All of the above

Question 34

In the 2016 presidential campaign, voters generally rated Hillary Clinton as ___.

A) experienced but neither empathetic nor trustworthy
B) experienced, empathetic and trustworthy
C) lacking experience but neither empathetic nor trustworthy
D) lacking experience but empathetic and trustworthy

Question 35

In has 2016 campaign for president, which of these achievements were attributed to Donald Trump?

A) a successful real estate billionaire
B) a reality television star
C) a New York society and tabloid fixture
D) All of the above

Question 36

The Gilded Age refers to the Age of ___.

A) Golden Creativity
B) Barren Reefs
C) Robber Barons
D) Barometric Pressure

Question 37

Political scientists Arthur Lupia and Mathew McCubbins note that information of value to voters is generated by competition between ___.

A) candidates for election
B) news organizations
C) interest groups
D) All of the above

Question 38

What year was the last presidential election in which the outcome of the Electoral College differed from that of the popular vote?

A) 2012
B) 2016
C) 2020
D) None of the above, since the outcomes of both the Electoral College and the popular vote have historically always been the same

Question 39

During the presidential campaign of 2016, Russian hackers broke into the ___.

A) Democratic National Committee
B) Rubio campaign
C) computers of 21 state voting systems
D) All of the above

Question 40

The intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was to insure the personhood of ___.

A) corporations
B) blacks
C) women
D) immigrants

Question 41

Over the past six decades, incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives running for reelection won more than _______percent of the time.

A) 63
B) 73
C) 83
D) 93

Question 42

Over the past six decades, incumbents in the U.S. Senate running for reelection won more than _______percent of the time.

A) 50
B) 60
C) 70
D) 80

Question 43

In the Republican primaries during the presidential campaign of 2020, President Trump faced _______candidates who opposed him.

A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four

Question 44

"Faithless electors" declare themselves unwilling to vote for ___.

A) ballot propositions permitting prayers in public schools
B) the presidential candidate who won their state
C) Republican candidates who believe in God
D) increasing funding for city police in municipal budgets

Question 45

In 2002 Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which provided funding for the _______and the ___.

A) training of election workers
B) assurance of a paper trail
C) replacement of outdated voting equipment
D) printing of government-issued photo IDs

Question 46

When Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, _______and the _______were NOT addressed.

A) training of election workers
B) handicapped accessibility
C) replacement of outdated voting equipment
D) dependability of electronic voting equipment

Question 47

In 2013, federal courts in North Carolina and Texas _______strict Voter ID laws and the Supreme Court _______their findings.

A) upheld
B) refused to consider
C) returned to the state courts
D) struck down

Question 48

A recent study of congressional elections estimated that being the _______in a political campaign was worth about _______in additional contributions.

A) 500000
B) incumbent
C) 5000000
D) challenger

Question 49

Trump's rocky first year and _______approval ratings brought forward unprecedented numbers of Democrats, many of them ___, to challenge Republican incumbents in 2018.

A) women
B) high
C) men
D) low

Question 50

In the presidential election of 2016, Hillary Clinton won the ___, and Donald Trump won the ___.

A) popular vote
B) strawpoll vote
C) Electoral College vote
D) absentee vote

Question 51

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact refers to a method that would ensure that the popular vote elects the new president of the United States by _______to ___.

A) bypass the Electoral College
B) amending the Constitution
C) new state laws that award their electoral votes to the winner of the national majority popular vote
D) remove the Electoral College

Question 52

In 2020, _______states used primary elections to choose their convention delegates while _______used caucuses.

A) thirty-seven
B) forty-seven
C) three states and four territories
D) thirteen states and four territories

Question 53

Motor voter (the nickname for the National Voter Registration in 1993) allows citizens to register to vote while getting their driver's license.

Question 54

In the last twenty years, women have turned out to vote in larger numbers than men.

Question 55

There is a strong relationship between education levels and voter turnout.

Question 56

Corporations cannot make campaign contributions in national elections.

Question 57

Soft money contributions are strictly limited.

Question 58

One reason for the decline in turnout within the electorate was that with the extension of the franchise to women in 1920, the potential electorate's size doubled overnight and, like previous expansions, these new voters took time to become engaged in the process. Thus voter turnout levels dropped initially but would recover by the mid-1930s.

Question 59

In each presidential election since 1940, no less than 50 percent and no more than 70 percent of the voting age population has turned out to vote.

Question 60

The United States fails to employ mandatory voting for its citizens.

Question 61

In the 2016 presidential election process, Donald Trump executed a hostile take-over of the Republican Party.

Question 62

Political scientists Arthur Lupia and Mathew McCubbins note that voters have to go looking for information, because it does not come to them.

Question 63

Today, virtually all citizens over the age of eighteen, except the formally institutionalized and about 3.25 million former felons, are eligible to vote.

Question 64

Today, all states maintain lifetime prohibition on the suffrage rights of former felons.

Question 65

Voters generally respond in a positive way to candidates whom they think are like themselves.

Question 66

Since 1944 a majority of Americans have favored doing away with the Electoral College and replacing it with a straight popular vote.

Question 67

During the 2020 presidential primaries, the Republican Party nomination was seriously in doubt.

Question 68

What are the potential drawbacks of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision (2012)?

Question 69

What are the key milestones in the expansion of voting rights in the United States?

Question 70

What are the merits and drawbacks of laws requiring government-issued photo IDs?

Question 71

Why do incumbents have an advantage over challengers in elections?

Question 72

Why do people vote the way they do and for whom do they tend to vote?

Question 73

Discuss the most recent presidential campaign cycle, including commentary on the roles of money, primaries/caucuses, the national nominating convention, and of course the general election. Make sure that you employ evidence gathered from the text to support your positive and negative critiques of the last presidential election.

Question 74

Discuss the relationship between SES and voting and include which one is most important as a determinant in the likelihood of voting.

Question 75

Discuss the Electoral College and assess whether it is a democratic device for presidential selection. Be sure to include commentary on its historical development in your answer.

Question 76

Is low voter turnout a negative or positive attribute about the American electoral system? Make sure that you use evidence from the text to inform your answer.

Question 77

What were the major events regarding the expansion of the franchise and corresponding patterns of voting in the twentieth century?

Question 78

Differentiate a caucus from a primary.

Question 79

Discuss the expansion of the franchise during the nineteenth century.

Question 80

Discuss the impact of soft money in American presidential elections.