Deck 11: Voting and Participation

Question 1

The perspective that greater voter participation is a risk and, thus, favors a larger role for elites is known as which of the following models of participation?

A) Australian
B) British
C) Hamiltonian
D) Jacksonian
E) Jeffersonian

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following best describes the right to vote?

A) It has been expanded since the writing of the Constitution.
B) It has not been extended to those without property.
C) It has been given to aliens as long as they are registered to vote.
D) It can never be taken away.
E) It is taken away if one doesn't vote in five elections.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

During the country's earliest years, voters in presidential elections were mostly made up of which of the following?

A) The public
B) Elite white men and women
C) Electors selected by state legislators
D) Southern property owners
E) White male war veterans

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Blacks compared to whites tend to have political participation rates today that are which of the following?

A) Far lower
B) Slightly lower
C) About the same
D) Slightly higher
E) Far higher

Question 5

Characteristics frequently associated with nonvoters include which of the following?

A) Low education, high income, and being middle-aged
B) Low education, low income, and being relatively young
C) High education, low income, and being relatively old
D) Low education, low income, and being middle-aged
E) High education, high income, and being middle-aged

Question 6

Which of the following amendments extended voting rights to African American males?

A) Thirteenth Amendment
B) Fourteenth Amendment
C) Fifteenth Amendment
D) Nineteenth Amendment
E) Twenty-First Amendment

Question 7

Women could vote in all states with the ratification of which of the following amendments in 1920?

A) Fifteenth
B) Nineteenth
C) Twentieth
D) Twenty-First
E) Twenty-Second

Question 8

In general, which of the following factors contributes to higher voting rates?

A) Greater geographic mobility
B) Higher education level
C) Minority status
D) Youth
E) Less competitive race

Question 9

Which of the following groups tends to be overrepresented in the electorate?

A) Wealthier people
B) People under the age of 65
C) Voters aged 18 to 24
D) The poor and homeless
E) Hispanics

Question 10

Which of the following is likely the primary reason that college-educated people vote?

A) They learned the importance of voting in class.
B) They were inspired by peers who voted.
C) They gained more knowledge about political policy while in college.
D) They have a greater sense of civic duty.
E) They were raised in an environment that urged them to vote.

Question 11

Which of the following qualifications for voting was virtually eliminated in all states by the 1850s?

A) Property ownership
B) Age
C) Race
D) Gender
E) Literacy requirement

Question 12

Which of the following amendments lowered the voting age to 18?

A) Eighteenth Amendment
B) Nineteenth Amendment
C) Twentieth Amendment
D) Twenty-Sixth Amendment
E) Twenty-Seventh Amendment

Question 13

What was the effect of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment that enfranchised 18- to 20-year-olds?

A) It boosted voter turnout in the United States above that of most other democratic nations.
B) It reduced the national voter turnout rate.
C) It increased the national voter turnout rate.
D) It decreased the percentage of the population that distrusts the American political system.
E) It countered the increasing social mobility of this group.

Question 14

Where did citizens not receive the right to vote in presidential elections until 1961?

A) Puerto Rico
B) District of Columbia
C) Alaska
D) Delaware
E) Wyoming

Question 15

Which of the following amendments to the Constitution prohibits states from denying the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude"?

A) Tenth
B) Fourteenth
C) Fifteenth
D) Twenty-Second
E) Eighteenth

Question 16

Which of the following statements is the most accurate regarding voting and turnout after women achieved suffrage?

A) The immediate impact of suffrage was a lower overall turnout, and the modern trend is a lower turnout among women.
B) The immediate impact of suffrage was a lower overall turnout, but the modern trend is a higher turnout among women.
C) The immediate impact of suffrage was a higher overall turnout, and the modern trend is an equal turnout among women and men.
D) The immediate impact of suffrage was a higher overall turnout, and the modern trend is a higher turnout among men.
E) The immediate impact of suffrage was a lower overall turnout, and the modern trend is an equal turnout among women and men.

Question 17

Which of the following granted women the right to vote?

A) Thirteenth Amendment
B) Fourteenth Amendment
C) Fifteenth Amendment
D) Nineteenth Amendment
E) Twenty-First Amendment

Question 18

In 1965, which of the following laws was passed by Congress that effectively ended strategies that had discriminated against African Americans at the polls?

A) Civil Rights Act
B) Equal Voting law
C) Federal Rights Act
D) Motor Voter law
E) Voting Rights Act

Question 19

Which of the following best describes the relationship between income and voting?

A) The lower one's income, the more likely you are to vote.
B) The lower one's income, the more likely you are to be politically knowledgeable.
C) Income appears to have no effect on voting participation.
D) The higher one's income, the more likely you are to vote.
E) The higher one's income, the less you are expected to vote.

Question 20

Which of the following refers to the right to vote?

A) Participation
B) Efficacy
C) Filibuster
D) Suffrage
E) Turnout

Question 21

In Oregon, everyone votes by which of the following methods?

A) Telephone
B) Internet
C) Electronic devices
D) Mail
E) Raising their hand

Question 22

Voter turnout rates peak for those who are of what age?

A) 19
B) 60
C) 32
D) 75
E) 44

Question 23

The most common form of political participation is which of the following?

A) Voting
B) Blogging
C) Initiating a referendum
D) The political debate
E) Striking

Question 24

The 1993 law that requires states to allow citizens to register to vote when they apply for or renew their driver's license is commonly known as which of the following?

A) Vehicle Voter law
B) License Voter law
C) Motor Voter law
D) Get Out the Vote law
E) Common Voter law

Question 25

Abolitionists, women seeking the vote, civil rights activists, and the Tea Party all successfully used which of the following to draw attention to their cause and bring about change?

A) Letter-writing campaigns
B) The ballot box
C) Education reforms
D) Campaign contributions
E) Political protest

Question 26

Which of the following terms refers to the estimated number of people who are old enough to vote?

A) Median age population
B) Voting-age population
C) Generational replacement
D) Voter turnout
E) Voting-eligible population

Question 27

Some states, such as Oregon, have started to use which of the following where voters get ballots in the mail two weeks prior to the election, providing them a chance to research the candidates and cast their ballots?

A) Australian ballot
B) Compulsory voting
C) Graveyard voting
D) Internet voting system
E) Vote-by-mail system

Question 28

In An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957), Anthony Downs describes which of the following types of voting as a puzzle because voting is not in one's self-interest and the benefits are not clear?

A) Compulsory
B) Economic
C) Psychological
D) Gender-based
E) Rational

Question 29

Politicians are increasingly using social media such as Twitter to do which of the following?

A) Replace the traditional campaign staff
B) Communicate directly with the public
C) Eliminate the need for political advertising
D) Avoid live campaign events
E) Subvert modern media and eschew news coverage

Question 30

Which of the following groups of Americans turns out to vote at the lowest rate?

A) Voters with children
B) The wealthiest voters
C) The oldest voters
D) Middle-aged voters
E) The youngest voters

Question 31

The practice that requires citizens to vote in elections or face punitive measures such as community service, fines, or imprisonment is called what?

A) Enforced voting
B) Recommended voting
C) Compulsory voting
D) Free-will voting
E) Obfuscated voting

Question 32

Which of the following statements regarding political participation in the United States is true?

A) The number of people working in a political campaign has decreased dramatically over the past three decades.
B) Less than 9% of Americans are involved in political elections in any way.
C) Fewer than 5% of Americans contribute money to political campaigns, on average.
D) The number of people working in a political campaign has sharply increased in the past three decades.
E) About 40% of Americans can be defined as active citizens who vote and participate in some type of political activity

Question 33

Which model of voting starts with the assumption that all choices involve a calculation about self-interest that balances costs and benefits?

A) Institutional
B) Economic
C) Jacksonian
D) Jeffersonian
E) Psychological

Question 34

While voter registration laws reduced voter fraud, they had which of the following unintended consequences?

A) Disenfranchising voters
B) Increasing the power of party machines
C) Discouraging candidates
D) Decreasing voter turnout
E) Mobilizing new voters

Question 35

William Riker and Peter Ordeshook argued that Anthony Downs' theory of economic voting was incomplete because it did not calculate which of the following as a benefit of voting?

A) Civic duty
B) Collective good
C) Free rider status
D) Popularity
E) Utilitarian incentives

Question 36

Which of the following describes a person's belief that his or her participation makes an impact?

A) Suffrage
B) Ideology
C) Efficacy
D) Partisan identification
E) Theology

Question 37

Which of the following best describes the impact the 2010 Citizens United decision has had on the political campaign process?

A) Allowing corporate entities to directly coordinate candidate or campaign events
B) Opening the door to negative campaigning on a national level
C) Allowing corporate entities to contribute unlimited amounts to support or oppose candidates
D) Closing the door to Super PAC involvement in political campaigns
E) Restricting the contributions of corporate or international donors

Question 38

In the Hill v. Colorado case, the Supreme Court ruled that Colorado law legally restricted which of the following?

A) Free expression
B) Free exercise
C) Self-incrimination
D) Voting
E) Establishment

Question 39

Which of the following is a reason that Australia has a higher voter turnout than the United States?

A) Poll tax
B) Mail-in ballots
C) Compulsory voting
D) No political parties
E) No negative advertising

Question 40

Compared to other democracies, voter turnout in the United States is which of the following?

A) About the same
B) Rising rapidly
C) Extremely high
D) Moderate
E) Low

Question 41

Analyze the Constitution, identifying parts that align with Madison's view of suffrage.

Question 42

How has the 2010 Citizens United decision impacted the political campaign process?

A) Allowing corporate entities to directly coordinate candidate or campaign events
B) Opening the door to negative campaigning on a national level
C) Allowing corporate entities to contribute unlimited amounts to support or oppose candidates
D) Closing the door to Super PAC involvement in political campaigns
E) Restricting the contributions of corporate or international donors

Question 43

Review the restrictions placed on voting throughout American history. Explain how these restrictions have been eliminated.

Question 44

Discuss voter turnout among racial minorities, and use at least one other demographic factor to better explain this phenomenon.

Question 45

Discuss the effects of voter identification laws, and argue whether these laws are a benefit or a harm to U.S. elections.

Question 46

Why was the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter law) enacted?

Question 47

Why is the voting-eligible population measure more reliable in calculating the rate of voter participation?

Question 48

Speculate as to what steps a state would need to take to shift from to a Hamiltonian model.

Question 49

How does socioeconomic status affect voter turnout? Why?

Question 50

Explain how the Hamiltonian model held up to scrutiny after being applied to African American participation.

Question 51

Discuss the history of the struggle to obtain suffrage by African Americans.

Question 52

Evaluate the extent to which Hamilton's views on suffrage would be embraced by the electorate today.

Question 53

Discuss differences in the ways that various demographic groups have voted.

Question 54

Compare and contrast the Hamiltonian model with the Jeffersonian model of participation.

Question 55

Describe how Americans can get involved in political campaigns.

Question 56

How does socioeconomic status affect voter turnout?

Question 57

How has the right to vote been expanded since the Constitution was written?

Question 58

Summarize the expansion of voting rights by describing federal government actions that granted the franchise to those who had been denied suffrage.

Question 59

Discuss the path that led to women's suffrage.

Question 60

Provide a detailed discussion of how suffrage was expanded from the 1790s to 1870. Explain which groups gained ground and which groups lost ground during this time period.

Question 61

Should the United States make voter registration automatic? Explain.

Question 62

How did the reforms called for by the Progressives affect voter participation?

Question 63

Evaluate the extent to which protests impact U.S. politics.

Question 64

Predict which methods used by other countries to increase voter turnout would work in the United States.

Question 65

Based on the institutional model of voting, what policies should a state enact to increase voter turnout?

Question 66

Evaluate the extent to which the economic model of voting explains voter turnout.

Question 67

Discuss the factors that influence voter turnout in the United States. Which groups are most likely to vote? Least likely?

Question 68

Describe why people with a higher socioeconomic status engage in conventional political participation.

Question 69

Should states adopt vote-by-mail? Why or why not? Predict the impact of vote-by-mail on voter participation. Speculate as to which political party might benefit the most from vote-by-mail.

Question 70

Evaluate the extent to which the psychological model of voting explains voter turnout.

Question 71

How did the Citizens United decision affect campaign funding? Do you believe this was a change for the better? Explain your response.

Question 72

Evaluate the impact of e-participation.

Question 73

Should states adopt same-day voter registration? Why or why not? Predict the impact of same-day registration on voter turnout.

Question 74

Predict whether compulsory voting would be well received by U.S. citizens.

Question 75

Based on the psychological model of voting, what policies should a state enact to increase voter turnout?

Question 76

Discuss how Americans compare in terms of voter turnout with citizens of other democracies, and give one reason your text offers for why this difference may exist.

Question 77

Predict what automatic voter registration would do to voter turnout.

Question 78

Should the United States adopt compulsory voting? Explain.

Question 79

Based on the economic model of voting, what policies should a state enact to increase voter turnout?