Off year and General Elections Voting and Elections Off year and General Elections

Vocabulary Suffrage 14. General Elections Electorate 15. off-Year Elections Direct primary 16. Coattail Effect Recall 17. Caucus Referendum 18. Presidential Preference Primary Initiative 19. Electoral College Political Efficacy 20. Maintaining Elections Motor Voter Law 21. Deviating Elections Primary Elections 22. Critical Elections Closed Primary 23. Split-Ticket Voting Open Primary 24. Watergate Blanket Primary 25. Freedom of Expression Runoff Primary 26. Soft Money

Participation of Political Politics Voting in elections Discussing politics and attending meetings Forming interests groups and PAC’s Contacting public officials Campaigning for a candidate or political party Contributing money to a candidate or political party Running for office Protesting government decisions Vote, vote, vote, did I say vote? Vote!

Suffrage and Electorate Suffrage – is the right to vote Electorate has changed over time through voting requirements: Elimination of religious qualifications, property ownership, and tax payments after 1800 Elimination of race disqualifications with the 15th. Elimination of gender disqualifications with the 19th Elimination of grandfather clause, white primaries, and literacy requirements (Civil Rights acts of 1965) Allowing Washington D.C. to vote 23rd Elimination of poll tax in federal elections 24th Lowering of the minimum age for voting in elections to 18 with the 26th.

Issue or policy voting A direct Primary – Allows citizens to nominate candidates A Recall – A special election initiated by petition to allow citizens to remove an official from office before term expires A referendum – Allows citizens to vote directly on issues called propositions (proposed laws or state constitutions) An Initiative – Allows voters to petition to propose issues to be decided by qualified voters

Low Voter Turnout Expansion of the electorate Failure of political parties to mobilize voters No perceived difference between the candidates or parties Mistrust of government Apathy Satisfaction with the way things are Mobility of the electorate Registration process

Who votes? Educated Occupation and income Age Race Gender Religion Martial status Union membership Community membership Party Identification Geography

Types of Elections Primary Election – voters can chose the candidate from each party to run for office Closed Primary – Only voters who are registered in the party can vote Open Primary – Voters may choose the candidate of either party, whether they belong to that party or not. Blanket Primary – Voters can vote for candidates in either party, choosing a republican for one office and the democrat for another. Runoff Primary – When no candidate wins the majority then they have a race against just one another. General Elections – Are elections where voters can choose from all candidates nominated by political parties or running as independents.

Presidential Elections Exploration – the decision to run or not Announcement – Once the decision to run an announcement is made Presidential Primaries and Caucuses Nominating conventions Campaigning and the general elections Electoral College

Partisanship in Elections Maintaining Elections – occur when the traditional majority power maintains power based on party loyalty. Deviating Elections – occur when the minority party is able to win with the support of majority-party members, independents, and new voters; however, the long-term party preferences of voters do not change. Critical Elections – indicate sharp changes in existing patterns of party loyalty due to changing social and economic conditions. Realigning Elections – As we discussed Dealigning Elections – As we discussed