| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Who do electoral college members typically vote for? | electoral college members typically vote for the candidate of the party that elected them to be members.] |
| Does the public opinion have to match the electoral college? | does not have to match electoral college, but only 4 times in history has public opinion and electoral college vote not matched] |
| Who supports the electoral college, who is against it? | People who are pro state rights have issues with the electoral college, and people who are more national in terms of government like the electoral college] |
| How many votes must the president have among the electoral college to win the presidency? | 270] |
| Why did our founders give us the electoral college system? | political parties were not part of the original plan for the US government, they were trying to prevent a majority from taking over, prevent a monarchy from forming again. Electoral officials were supposed to know better than voters to think twice and elect the best candidate rather than voting in the name of a monopolizing power. ] |
| How did the electoral college give way to the formation of political parties? | after washington left office, the system broke down and the electoral vote became a party issue. it became rep vs dem, so there were two majorities.] |
| what happens if there are not 270 votes majority for one candidate? | then the top three candidates go to the house of reps for a vote. each state gets one vote. majority of votes wins] |
| What happens when a candidate runs for president? | a candidate campaigns by: picking areas that benefit them the most ex. swing states, candidates construct a national method to win] |
| What areas of the U.S. could potentially benefit a presidential candidate the most? | larger states with greater popular votes, larger states with more electoral votes, ] |
| What techniques do candidates use to construct a national method to win? | pamphlets, media, commercials] |
| What will the trends be in the voting atmosphere in 2008? | there will be a strong run to the center. McCain and Obama originially tried being very polarized according to their parties, but that doesn't work well to attract the most voters, like the middle ground voters. They now run close to the middle ground, since they have already won their primaries] |
| How do you get a lot of voters in running for the presidency? | you appeal to the middle] |
| What do primaries do? | simplify and organize the balance of party politics (instead of 130 people on the ballot, it whittles the choices down to one candidate nominated per party] |
| How do we decide who wins electoral votes? | three systems: majority, plurality, proportional] |
| majority system | the candidate must recieve a majority vote, winner takes all] |
| plurality system | you must win 50% plus one in order to win] |
| proportional representation system | you have to win the proportion of the value of your vote.if sue represented 15 percent of the people, she would win the 15 percent of the seats, and would have to work with others who won their seats to make decisions] |
| How do we make money in politics, why does it matter? | running for elections cost an incredible amount of money, the last presidential elections cost well over 100-200 million, fund raisers/campaign donations bring in alot of money. campaign ads cost a lot of money] |
| What was the former policy governing campaign finance in the U.S. | candidates could collect and spend money however much money they wanted, and they could spend it anyway they wanted, they were not accountable to the people. anyone could give them any amount, and no one would get to know] |
| What is the status of campaign finance today? | govt has limitations on how it can collect and spend election funds. now, candidates are accountable to the people. they have to ask each person for a certain amount of money, and each persons contribution must be made public] |
| Hard money | money donated towards federal candidates. heavily regulated and policed, publicly reported. restricted in amount that can be collected, spent, and on how it can be spent] |
| Soft money | money donated to political parties. was not regulated. must not be used to tell people who to vote for. can only be used to educate people about candidates. donations are considered to be for 'party building'. this was a loophole for money to be used for candidates.] |
| What act limited the amount of money that could be given to candidates to 1000 per candidate to up to 230 candidates? | Federal Election Campaign Act, FECA] |
| Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) | if you want to give money to a candidate, you can only give a maximum of 1000 to each candidate, up to 230] |
| why does it matter if you give so much to one candidate and so much to another | each campaign has to report each donation, amount and source of donations determine eligibility for public funding] |
| What does it take to qualify for public funding, and what is the purpose of these measures? | if you collected 5000 in contributions of less than 250 from 25 states, you qualify for public funds (to run), you have to appeal to a large base (25 states), this criteria that makes it matter, donations have to be in small amounts to make sure that even the low income can contribute] |
| What is one source of public funds? | you can click a button on your online tax form to donate $3 from the taxes you're already paying, and candidates can access that money as public funds] |
| What are the three factors in American history that shaped campaign finance reform to be what it is today? | FECA, Buckley V Valeo (1976), BCRA (2002)] |
| In what order, and a little about how, did FECA, Buckley V Valeo, and BCRA affect modern campaign finance reform in the US? | FECA - limited campaign contributions to 1000 a candidate up to 230, Buckley V Valeo delimited personal campaign contributions as a matter of free speech, BCRA limited contributions once again to 2000 up to 95,000 total every two years, eliminated soft money] |
| Why was the Federal Election Campaign Act get established? | to keep the presidency from being able to be bought] |
| What loophole developed to help people and parties get around FECA restrictions on campaign finance? | soft money] |
| Buckley VS Valeo (1976) | supreme court case that determined that you cannot limit how much someone can give to their own campaign because it is a matter of free speech.] |
| What campaign finance reform eliminated the use of soft money in campaigns? | Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act or BCRA] |
| What effect did FECA have on people's campaign donations? | putting all these restrictions on campaign funds caused people to give money to political parties. called 'soft money'] |
| Why is soft money a loophole? | political parties (democratic/republican national committee) do not necessarily endorse a specific candidate, so they could collect as much money as they wanted and use it as they liked] |
| McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act | McCain lost the republican primary because George Bush outspent him, McCain created the bill in 2002 to eliminate soft money campaign finance to avoid that happening again, act said no more soft money from parties, upheld by the supreme court. also restricted hard money contributions to 2000 per candidate, including to self, up to 95000 per 2 years] |
| What is another name for the MCCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act? | the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act BCRA] |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace
!