Unit 2 Plano Terms Part 1 Flashcards
Absentee voting
Provisions of state laws or constitutions that enable qualified voters to cast their ballots in an election without going to the polls on election day. Person who expects to be unable to vote on election day obtains the ballot with a specified period preceding the election, marks it, and returns the sealed ballot to the proper official
Fraudulent use continues to be a difficult problem in administrating absentee voting
Australian ballot
Secret ballot prepared, distributed, and tabulated by government officials at public expense. Voting machines or mechanical adaptions of the Australian ballot
Baby boomers
Name used to describe the many millions of babies born between 1946 in 1964
“Make love, not war”
The Beatles
Disfranchise
Taking away the right to vote. People may be deprived of their franchise or vote if they lose their citizenship, if they failed to register when required, or if they’re convicted of certain crimes. Many people are disfranchised temporarily when they move, either within the state or from state to state, until they established new residence. Voters may also be wholly or partially disfranchise indirectly as a result of dishonesty in ballot counts or through political manipulation, such as gerrymandering.
Elite
People who exercise a majority influence on, or control the making of, political, economic, and social decisions. Elites achieve their power position through wealth, family status, caste systems, or intellectual superiority. Elites constitute the “power structure” or “establishment” of local and national communities.
An elite group may hold power openly and officially or may exercise control over those in authority
Independent
A voter who disregards party affiliation of candidates running for elective office and cast a ballot for the “best person” or on the basis of issues
Ross Perot
Key election factors: class
Classification of people into various socioeconomic and political group for the purpose of analysis and evaluation
Key election factors: Ethnic politics
Political activity carried on by people who belong to the same cultural, racial, religious, national origin, or linguistic group.
Substantial impact on political outcomes
Key election factors: gender politics
The role of men and women, especially women, and developing positions as a group on political issues, candidates, and other forms of political activity. Polls tend to demonstrate the differences between men and women in things political. Women have been an active political force since they successfully agitated for the right to vote and achieved the adoption of the 19th amendment in 1920. As a result, men also became an identifiable political force, with some radical individuals agitating against women’s rights.
Key election factors: generational politics
The determination of an individual’s political orientation because of his or her age. Generational politics involves similar attitudes and actions in the political milieu by covert groups of youths, middle agers, and the elderly.
Key election factors: population/powershifts
Profound changes in political power that have occurred as substantial segments of the population have shifted from the North and the East to the coastal and southwestern states. Three states-California, Texas, and Florida-Have benefitted most politically from these population movements
Key election factors: race
The impact of race in making voting decisions and in determining the outcome of elections. For blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and other minority racial groups, voting is largely a group experience. Although blacks are the largest minority group, Hispanics, or Chicanos, are increasing at a faster rate and, early in the 21st-century, will likely pass Blacks on potential voting strength. The rapid rate of increase is the result of a high birth rate and a continuing immigration, both legal and illegal.
Mass media
The technical means of communication with millions of people, exemplified by television, radio, newspapers, motion pictures, magazines, periodicals, and Internet sources. Television, in particular, is used with increasing impact to build on “image campaign” in which special techniques (contrived situations, spot announcements, editing a video tapes, and the like) are used to achieve short-term shifts in voter behavior
Poll
An attempt to determine public opinion concerning issues or to forecast election
Poll sample
A selected representative portion of a larger population for the purpose of determining through extrapolation the views, actions, or intentions of that population. Random samples, in which each person who is a member of the population being surveyed has an equal chance of being selected for the samples, regarded as the best scientific approach. Random sampling is used in most public opinion polling.
