Chapter 15: Voting Rights and Voter Behavior Ap Gov

Electorate

Potential voting population

Franchise

the right to vote

Suffrage

the right to vote

15th Amendment

extended the right to vote to all males regardless of race

19th Amendment

extended the right to vote to women

23rd Amendment

gave DC residents the right to vote

24th Amendment

prohibits Congress and the states from imposing poll taxes as a condition for voting in federal elections

26th Amendment

allows those eighteen years old and older to vote

Literacy Test

- were used to keep people of color and sometimes poor whites from voting

- they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration.

- Involved many trick questions

Poll Tax

a payment required by a state or federal government before a citizen is allowed to vote

Grandfather Clause

allowed states to recognize a registering voter as it would have recognized his grandfather.

White Primary

a popular method for southern states to keep African Americans from voting.

17th Amendment

allowed for the direct election of Senators

Civil Rights Act of 1964

- Outlawed discrimination in the workplace

- Emphasize the use of injunctions

- Means a court order that restrains the performance of some act by private individuals or public officials

Voting Rights Act of 1965

- Enforcement of the 15th Amendment to all elections, federal, state, and local

- Outlawed the literacy test requirements

- Created poll workers to oversee the conduct of elections

Rational-choice voting

voting based on what a citizen believes is in his or her best interest

Retrospective voting

voting based on an assessment of an incumbent's past performance

Prospective voting

casting a ballot for a candidate who promises to enact policies favored by the voter in the future

Party Identification

is the easiest way to predict a voter's habits

Voting-age population

citizens who are eligible to vote after reaching the minimum age requirement(18)

Voter registration

enrollment in the electoral roll

Wards

For the purposes of voting, the division of counties, cities and towns

Precinct

a small geographic area of about 500-1,000 voters who all vote at an assigned polling place, often a school or community center.

Polling Place

the place where the voters who live in a certain precinct go to vote, often a school or community center

Help America Vote Act

- imposes a number of requirements on states, mostly to create national standard for voting and election management.
- All states had to upgrade their voting systems to an electronic format

Absentee Ballot

a process by which people could vote from home without going to the polling place by mailing in their ballot

Political efficacy

A person's belief that they can make effective political change

Gender Gap

Difference in political views between men and women and how these views are expressed at the voting booth