PLSC 230 FInal Qs

  1. How do you think the Australian ballot adds to the suppression of voter participation?

    1. Literacy tests, requiring people to meet certain requirements to vote (specifically marginalized voters)

  2. Voter files are useful to campaigns because they…?

    1. Voting history and address/ contact information; how to target/ market to you

    2. Enables you to target campaigns nad know more about the people you are reaching out to

    3. “What a campaign needs to know about people”

  3. William Meckean did what? 

    1. Front porch campaign

  4. First campaign era, why is it known as the pre-democracy era?

    1. The state legislatures choose candidates; gatekeeping

  5. If a political organization decided to use most of its resources on TV ads what type of practice is that?

    1. Wholesale politics: mass audience

  6. Tammany Hall, a powerful political machine often provided party supporters in the public sector. What progressive reform might weaken this type of machine and thus the party?

    1. Civil service reforms so they aren’t  politically tied

  7. Which of the following organizations don’t have to disclose their donors

    1. 501( C)

  8. Candidates are required to report to the FEC how much from donors.

    1. 200

  9. Arguing for the American system of campaign finance

    1. Those in support of open money supported this b/c they supported free speech 

    2. Opportunity for interest groups and individuals to have a voice

  10. Impact of Citizen United decision

    1. High impact as corporation donation restrictions on private/ corporate donations

  11. What is the incumbency advantage

    1. Vote share earned compared to a non incumbent would have earned

  12. What type of congressional candidate’s raise the most money on average?

    1. incumbents 

  13. You decide to run for congress. What conditions are you more likely to win

    1. Open seat 

  14. What % of congressional incumbents win elections?

    1. 80-95

  15. Most Competitive congressional elections typically feature what?

    1. Quality challenger vs quality challenger

      1. In this case the incumbent has stepped down; incumbent is not a quality challenger

  16. Serious congressional candidates are said to be strategic, what do we mean by being strategic?

    1. Only enter the race when their chances/ perspective of winning are good

  17. If a member of congress send mail without postage, why would they do that

    1. Franking privilege: members of Congress can send mail to constituents w/out postage

  18. Recently the Club for Growth has begun supporting candidates for office

    1. Interest group

  19. Why are congressional primary elections often uncontested?

    1. Incumbents can discourage potential challengers

  20. How do primary elections increas ethe competitiveness of congressional elections

    1. They allow others to run; creating contested elections and jurisdiction is dominated by one party

  21. Florida voters considered the anti-gambling amendment to be known as what?

    1. Referendum: An actual document

  22. Tur or false; turn out in off-cycle elections is lower than in state-federal elections

    1. True

  23. Legislators in professionalized legislators are often reelected at what rate compared to non-professionalized?

    1. Higher 

  24. During the 2024 election, Harris's popularity helped the Democratic party gain seats in the House and Senate. Would we say it is related to her coattails, Biden, or something else?

    1. Hers

  25. Why were non-partisan elections created?

    1. A progressive era reform to curb the power of political machines

  26. How do national forces affect the results of state elections?

    1. State and local do better when pres is doing well; high correlation

  27. What kind of initiative campaigns involve a great deal of money and tasks are done by professionals?

    1. Ballot initiatives

  28. What is the most common form of political participation?

    1. voting 

  29. What is the trend in voter turnout in recent elections?

    1. It has gone up 90s-today

    2. Was a decline from the 70s-the 90s (for the total number of voters)

  30. What was the Motor Voter Act?

    1. DMVs can register people to vote which decreases registration costs

    2. The intent was to lower voter registration costs

  31. Partisan strength matters the most for what?

    1. For voting in elections

  32. Negative partisanship 

    1. Decrease turnout

    2. Increase turnout

    3. Increase donations

    4. Not consistently connected to the turnout

  33. The most accurate predator models of 2020 focused on which factor of the election outcome?

    1. economy 

  34. What is priming regarding choosing a candidate (campaigns)?

    1. The campaign uses the media to focus on what voters should vote for

  35. Which candidates are likely to benefit more when the economy is doing well?

    1. incumbent 

      1. And vice versa

  36. What is the most important factor that impacts voting in the US?

    1. Partisan identification

  37. When deciding how to vote Americans are more likely to rely on?

    1. Short cuts, rule of thumb

  38. If a group of millionaires donates a lot to campaigns and PACs, thus gaining more influence over others in the state would be called participatory inequality; T/F

    1. True

  39. Which of the following depressing American elections?

    1. High costs of voting, two-step voting, election day on work day

  40. When do people vote?

    1. Stakes are high

    2. States mail a ballot

    3. Celebrities encourage them

    4. Partisanship isn’t part of the campaign

  41. When the trump campaign used the immigration issue to court democratic voter who favored stricter immigration to their side they were?

    1. Persuade

    2. targeting 

    3. Mobilize

    4. Cross pressured

  42. Why do political consults encourage candidates to repeat basic messages across their campaigns?

    1. Because they don’t think voters have high enough political interests

  43. What have studies shown to be the most powerful influence on party 

    1. Family, specifically parents

  44. Why is legalization of marijuana a wedge issue?

    1. It has support from two major political parties

  45. What is the relationship between an individual’s level of partisanship and their political participation? 

    1. More partisanship= more participation, more investment in the success of their party

  46. How does party identification function as a filter?

    1. Individuals tend to accept info from parties from the party they identify with and ignore the opposition

  47. What helps us to understand how voters access ideological and issue positions of candidates when voting?

    1. Median voter theorem

  48. Sociotropic voting is?

    1. A form of retrospective voting; the overall performance of the economy in the country

  49. What is the strongest predictor of how likely they are to participate in politics?

    1. Education

  50. A voter's race, ethnic, gender, and religion are correlated with partisan preference, this is rooted in and encouraged by different parties. A white evangelical was likely to support which candidate in 2020?

    1. Trump

  51. 2024 election, which of these things isn’t true; false

    1. Harris made significant gains over biden in 2020; False

    2. Trump didn’t better in hispanic areas compared to 2020; false

    3. Dem area superted trump more; true

    4. Women voted more for Harris, trump men; True

  52. Cost benefit analysis; 

    1. figuring out who is going to vote- P(v)= pB-C 

  53. Most local campaigns are which if the following 

    1. Publicized well

    2. Almost Invisible

    3. Gossip 

    4. Organized by political professionals

  54. What do campaigns call the promotion they get from engaging in promotional activity 

    1. Earned media 

  55. In 2024 election, biden was more likely to receive support from those with less racial resentment t/f; True

  56. The idea of loser consent does what

    1. Recognizes the importance of losing candidate to conceding to the race so their voters accept the winner

  57. If a campaign consulting company conducts a survey in the city where many people don’t have phones, what would be the potential issue?

    1. Might not representative of the broader population

  58. Which of the following difference of political behavior between men and women

    1. Women are more likely to vote; more active since the 80s

  59. The data bases employed from modern campaigns do which of the following

    1. Contain info primarily in state voter files

    2. Focus on precinct states

    3. Merge it from state census and private marketing

    4. Limited by privacy laws

  60. Why is trump’s campaign and messaging populist

    1. Focuses on anti-elitism, particularly a elite serving a government