Voting-age population - Citizens who are eligible to vote after meeting the minimum age requirement              

Registered voters - People who are registered to vote                    

Australian ballot - A government printed ballot of uniform dimensions to be cast in secret that many states adopted around 1890 to reduce voting fraud associated with party printed ballots cast in public.                       

Activists - People who tend to participate in all forms of politics.            

GOTV (Get Out the Vote) - Get out the Vote Drive tactics include door to door canvassing, radio ads, TV ads, and election day festivals. They are not very useful.        

Voting specialists - People who vote but do little else: not much schooling or income, old                                                    

Communalists - Votes AND does nonpartisan community activities such as joining community organizations: better educated and DOES NOT ENJOY CONFLICT

Parochial participants - Doesn’t vote and stays out of election campaigns but will contact local officials about specific local issues  

Campaigners - Votes AND gets involved in campaigns: better educated, clear identification with a political party, takes strong positions and enjoys the conflict of politics

Linkage institutions -  channels that allow individuals to communicate their preferences to policymakers: i. Political parties ii. Interest groups iii. Elections iv. Media

Voter turnout - differences in state-controlled elections (the hours polls are open, Voter ID laws, variations in funding for polling places and workers, variations in types of voting allowed, such as voting by mail, absentee voting, and early voting) ii. Variations in voter registration laws and procedures (registering in-person, online, or automatically) iii. Election type (more turnout for presidential elections than midterm elections)

Structural barriers - such as Voter ID laws, variations in funding for polling places and workers, variations in types of voting allowed, polling hours, availability of absentee ballots, voting by mail, and early voting opportunities, ability to register in-person and/or online,

Political efficacy - the belief that an individual’s participation in the political process will make a difference ; used to predict the likelihood of whether an individual will vote

Voter choice - factors influencing voter choice include: i. Party identification and ideological orientation ii. Candidate characteristics iii. Contemporary political issues iv. Religious beliefs or affiliation, age, gender, race and ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics

Fourteenth Amendment - granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including formerly enslaved people

Fifteenth Amendment - granted African American men the right to vote

Seventeenth Amendment - changed the practice for electing Senators from a vote by state legislatures to a direct vote by the people

Nineteenth Amendment - granted women the right to vote

Twenty-Fourth Amendment - eliminated poll taxes, a structural barrier to voting

Twenty-Sixth Amendment - lowered the voting age to 18

Rational choice theory - refers to individuals who base their decisions on what is perceived to be in their best interest

Retrospective voting - refers to individuals who decide whether the party or candidate in power should be reelected based on the recent past

Prospective voting - refers to individuals who vote based on predictions of how a party or candidate will perform in the future

Straight ticket voting - refers to individuals who vote for all of the candidates from one political party on a ballot

Split-ticket voting:  refers to when a voter in an election votes for candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election.