Chapter 12: Understanding Elections

a political party’s stand on important issues and the party’s general principles
e.g. the content of a candidate's platform determines who support that candidate

a small gathering of people whose response to something is used to predict the response of a larger population
e.g. Geoge discovered, based on the discussion with his focus group, that white males will most likely to support him

those states where support for each candidate in an upcoming election is about equal
e.g. Florida is one example of swing states

a standard speech that candidates give during a political campaign
e.g. standard speech help candidates share his or her views on the basic issues

attacking an opponent during a political campaign
e.g. negative campaigning have become popular nowadays

a very brief segment of a speech or statement usually broadcast on the radio or televisio
e.g. Ronald Reagan's sound bite was, "there you go again".

a population group defi ned by a specific characteristic or set of characteristics
e.g. the demographic showed the candidate who might support candidate the most

the government commission formed to enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act
e.g. the FEC was created to reduce corruption in the political campaign process

political party activities, such as voter registration drives and television ads supporting the party’s principles, that do not support specific candidates but instead promote the party
e.g. soft money can be used for party-building activities.

advertisements that support or oppose candidates’ views without specifically calling for their election or defeat
e.g. issue ads are a great influence to voters, though they don't explicitly express opinions.

political action committees that are separate from the officeholder’s campaign organization
e.g. leadership PACs takes advantage of loopholes in campaign finance law, and raise unlimited sums of money to donate to the candidates' campaigns that support their views

a tax-exempt organization created to influence an election by attempting to infl uence voters’ opinions about candidates or issues without directly calling for a candidate’s election or defeat
e.g. some 527 groups can raise and spend unlimited sums of money without revealing how they spent that money.

volunteers that a party or candidate sends to polling places to ensure that the election there is run fairly
e.g. the poll watcher checked the polling place to determine who hasn't voted and to urge them to vote.

people hired by local election officials to manage voting on election day
e.g. poll workers verifies voters' identification, compare boters' names to voter rolls, hand out ballots, and assist voters who need help voting.

the process of drawing new boundaries for legislative districts
e.g. the redistricting process can lead to gerrymandering.