1. Off year and General Elections
Voting and Elections
Off year and General Elections

2. Vocabulary Suffrage 14. General Elections
Electorate 15. off-Year Elections
Direct primary 16. Coattail Effect
Recall 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

3. 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!

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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