AP GOPO CHAPTER 9 READING GUIDE 1. Have levels of political participation increased in recent years? 2. Remember what grassroots is. It s come up once or twice before in class. 3. What is a primary? Are most primaries contested? Which ones are? 4. So after the primaries, they nominate a candidate, and then something else occurs. What is it? 5. Which of the following factors determine whether a general election will be competitive? a. What is the age of the person? b. Is someone already in office? (incumbent is present) c. Is the person is office well liked or strongly backed ($)? d. Is the person a minority? e. Is the person a male or female? f. What level of office is being voted on? 6. What is the only thing we can say with 100% certainty about state primaries and who gets to vote? 7. Primaries are a lot like general elections in the sense that when you vote in a primary, once again, you aren t actually voting for a candidate. You are voting for a (who is locally-selected) to attend the nomination convention and then cast a vote. 8. So in 1968, there was a huge riot in Chicago from Democratic voters who wanted to have a say in who the candidate to represent them was going to be. The Party Elite (famous and influential Democrats) wanted, the current Vice President. The Democratic voters, however, wanted to nominate. After the smoke had cleared, what reforms were put in place to make the voters happier with the process of choosing candidates? Were Democrats the only ones to accept these changes?
9. If your state doesn t have primaries, what do you have instead? Are the delegates from primaries and caucuses bound by law to vote for the candidate they were chosen to vote for? 10. Who can vote in an open primary? Who can vote in a closed primary? How is a closed primary supposed to prevent scheming? Could you still find a way around it? 11. Who determines when a primary is? What s the first caucus? First primary? When is Indiana s primary? Should we move ours up? 12. If you read the Thinking Critically on page 279, it talks about whether we should have all primaries on the same day. Do you think we should? Do you like the suggestion of regional primaries that they offer? 13. When is Super Tuesday this year? What about generally speaking? 14. True or false: General elections are mostly, but not necessarily, held in November. 15. We vote for President on: F T A F M I N
16. Tommy, Ursula, Victor, Wendy, and Zebediah are all running for the House (or the Senate). What percent of the vote does the winner need to get elected? (You should ask about this one in class if you are not 100% sure) 17. What s a runoff election? How is an instant runoff election different? (Go to YouTube and check out videos on instant runoffs if you aren t really sure how they work, there are some good 3 minute ones out there.) 18. In referendums, get to vote for or against something that is proposed by their legislature. 19. How is an initiative different from a referendum? If you get the required amount of signatures and it is placed before the voters on a ballot, what is it called? 20. After Governor Pence passed the Religious Freedom Act in Indiana, there was talk of a recall election. What is that? Can you find an example of a successful recall election? 21. Kind of like primaries, voting from state-to-state. 22. As far as the ballot goes, who makes it, what kind is it (country and openness), and who counts it? (do you believe in it?) Does the Constitution mention what type of ballot should be used? 23. What s a chad? Do you understand why the Supreme Court stopped the counting of the ballots? If not, you should ask in class. 24. So, let s say you had a ballot where there were Republicans, Democrats, and Independents on the ballot and there were 5 positions that were being voted on, with a candidate of each party in each position. Draw this out so that it would look like a party-column ballot. (Draw it on the next page)
Now, after you ve drawn this, demonstrate the coattail effect by telling me what position candidate one was running for and what candidate five was running for. (This is also called straight-ticket voting.) Ok, not using the same scenario above, draw it like an office-block ballot, in the space below. Which one do political parties tend to favor? 25. Below, here is the butterfly ballot. Who was at a disadvantage on this ballot?
26. What s weird about Oregon s voting? Do you think Indiana should do this? What about texting it in? 27. As far as mail in voting is concerned, what are some of the disadvantages, according to scholars? 28. Four reasons people run for office: a. Sense of - they feel obligated to govern. b. Sense of. c. If you re in business, it can help give you. d. Interest in politics, or it s always been a goal of the person. FORMAL REQUIREMENTS (FROM THE CONSTITUTION) 29. Presidential requirements: a. Age b. Natural c. Resident for at least years. 30. Vice President requires: a. Same as the above except: i. ii. 31. Senator requires: a. Age b. Citizenship c. Reside in 32. House of Representatives requires: a. Age b. Citizenship c. Reside in INFORMAL QUALIFICATIONS 33. The higher the office, generally, the the requirements. Things like college, professional and leadership, and skills. There are other factors that have to deal with culture, such as.
34. When it comes to campaigns today, what s been the biggest change as far as management and consultants? 35. Political Campaigns a. Choose a candidate for anyone still running for President, either Democrat or Republican, and tell me who is the: b. Candidate (You should also know what the following roles are responsible for) i. Campaign Manager: ii. Pollster: iii. Fund-Raising Consultant: iv. Media Consultant: v. Social Media Consultant: MONEY AND POLITICS 36. What Supreme Court case gave rise to super PAC s by allowing unions and corporations to share in first amendment rights, including freedom of political speech? 37. Early ways that tried to limit money and politics. a. Started with the under Warren G. Harding. b. In 1925, they tried to pass campaign finance reform, but there was no way to enforce the punishments. c. The Political Activities Act of 1939 (AKA the ) limited the amount of money a group could spend on an election to, and from an individual to a campaign committee. i. Loophole:. d. In 1971, the FECA was passed, which limited campaign expenditures and contributions. It also gave you a box you could check on your income tax return slip that would give to the party of your choice. (Who s going to willingly give up more money when they have to pay taxes?) e. In 1974, they changed it again. This time, the big change was that qualified candidates who abided by the limits and rules could receive. Also very important was the creation of the, which was the enforcement missing in 1929. f.
38. Buckley v. Valeo has a subtle difference that makes it unique. As opposed to not limiting how much a candidate could collect, it actually allowed candidates to as much money as they were able to. This could be thought of in terms of wealthy people running for office vs. the average person. You can see what an advantage they would have. 39. Advertising for or against a candidate, but not coordinated with a candidate s campaign is called an. 40. If you have money that you use for party building activities, that is called. 41. --- was passed in 2002. It was also known as the Bipartisan (not unbiased) Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCFRA). It had several legal challenges, specifically advertisements within and days of primary and general elections. Looking at the chart on 292, answer these next three questions. 42. In 2014, how much money could an individual give to each candidate or candidate committee, per election? 43. In 2014, how much money could a national party give to each candidate or candidate committee, per election? 44. In 2014, how much money could a PAC donate in total to all candidates, per election? 45. Nonprofit groups operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare, which can include lobbying and engaging in political campaigning, are known as. 46. Tax-exempt groups that raise money for political activities are known as. (Make sure you understand the difference between those two groups.) 47. Number of SuperPACS by 2014? 48. Draw a flow map showing the chronological order of major events in the presidential election. Make it for the election this year and start in September 2015 (end in January 2017). If you don t understand, ask about this in class and I ll put it up on the board.
49. www.270towin.com Check it out if you have time. It will show you every electoral college total for every election in history. By the way, what did the looser get if the winner received 270 electoral votes exactly. 50. So when you determine what party someone belongs to, ideology is the most important factor (conservative or liberal), but the most important factor for determining is likely to vote is that person s. 51. Who s more likely to vote, the middle aged or younger voters? When did 18 year olds first have the right to vote? Why did they get this right? What s an excuse someone who is 18-24 years old gives for not voting? 52. What do we know about trends concerning voting and age? 53. From a racial standpoint in the 2012 election, which group had the highest voter turnout? Who was 2 nd? Who was 3 rd and 4 th? Which racial group is growing in importance of voting? 54. A voter who evaluates candidates based on the candidates' positions and votes for the candidate that best represent his or her views is a. 55. (Out of order, sorry) First primary and first caucus by tradition? State with the most electoral votes? 56. If you look at someone who is in office (incumbent) whose past decisions and actions and then vote on that person, you are not a prospective voter, but a. (see the difference?) 57. What are salient issues? What s a salient issue? 58. Are political campaigns more or less negative than they used to be? Why go negative? What s it called when you make the conscious choice not to vote and you feel it is rational and logical?