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GOVT - Ch 9
Campaigns and Elections
Term | Definition |
---|---|
general election | A regularly scheduled election to choose the US president, vice president, and senators and representatives in Congress. |
special election | An election that is held at the state or local level when the voters must decide an issue before the next general election or when vacancies occur by reason of death or resignation. |
Australian ballot | A secret ballot that is prepared, distributed, and counted by government officials at public expense; used by all states in the US since 1888. |
party-column ballot (Indiana ballot) | A ballot that lists all of a party's candidates under the party label. |
office-block ballot (Massachusetts ballot) | A ballot that lists together all of the candidates for each office. |
poll watcher | A representative from one of the political parties who is allowed to monitor a polling place to make sure that the election is run fairly and to avoid fraud. |
elector | A member of the electoral college. |
electoral college | The group of electors who are selected by the voters in each state to elect officially the president and vice president (number in each state equal to that state's number of representatives in both chambers). |
winner-take-all system | A system in which the candidate who receives the most votes wins (proportional allocates votes to multiple winners). |
caucus | A meeting held to choose political candidates or delegates. |
nominating convention | An official meeting of a political party to choose its candidates (local and state levels also select delegates for higher-levels). |
delegate | A person selected to represent the people of one geographic area at a party convention. |
primary election | An election in which voters choose the candidates of their party, who will then run in the general election. |
direct primary | An election held within each of the two major parties to choose the party's candidates for the general election (directly not through delegates). |
closed primary | A primary in which only party members can vote to choose that party's candidates. |
open primary | A primary in which voters can vote for a party's candidates regardless of whether they belong to the party. |
Credentials Committee | A committee of each national political party that evaluates the claims of national party convention delegates to be the legitimate representatives of their states. |
political consultant | A professional political adviser who, for a fee, works on an area of a candidate's campaign. |
campaign strategy | The comprehensive plan developed by a candidate and his or her advisers for winning an election. |
loophole | A legitimate way of evading a certain legal requirement. |
soft money | Campaign contributions not regulated by federal law, such as some contributions that are made to political parties instead of to particular candidates. |
independent expenditure | An expenditure for activities that are independent from (not coordinated with) those of a political candidate or a political party. |