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21 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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A term coined to describe how Americans tend to live among others of similar economic statuses and cultural beliefs.
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Big Sort
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The right to vote.
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Suffrage
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The period after the Civil War when black rights were ensured by a northern military presence in the South and by close monitoring of southern politics; ended in 1877.
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Reconstruction
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Examinations ostensibly carried out to ensure that voters could read and write but actually a device used in the South to disqualify blacks from voting.
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Literacy Test
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A device used in the South to prevent blacks from voting; such clauses exempted those whose grandfathers had the right to vote before 1867 from having to fulfill various requirements that some people could not meet. Since no blacks could vote before 1867, they could not qualify for the exemption.
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Grandfather Clause
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A tax that must be paid before a person can vote; used in the South to prevent blacks from voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits poll taxes in federal elections.
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Poll Tax
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A device for preventing blacks from voting in the South. Under the pretense that political parties were private clubs, blacks were barred from voting in Democratic primaries, which were the real elections because Democrats always won the general elections
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White Primary
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A law passed by Congress in 1965 that made it illegal to interfere with anyone's right to vote. The act and its subsequent amendments have been the main vehicles for expanding and protecting minority voting rights.
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Voting Rights Act (VRA)
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A congressional district whose boundaries are drawn so as to maximize the political advantage of a party or racial group; often such a district has a bizarre shape.
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Gerrymandering
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Methods of drawing district boundaries that minimize black representation. With cracking, a large concentrated black population is divided among two or more districts so that blacks will not have a majority anywhere; with stacking, a large black population is combined with an even larger white population; with packing, a large black population is put into one district rather than two so that blacks will only have a majority in only one district.
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Cracking, Stacking, and Packing
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A congressional district whose boundaries are drawn to give a minority group a majority in the district.
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Majority-Minority District
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Election reforms introduced in the early twentieth century as part of the Progressive movement; included the secret ballot, primary elections, and voter registration laws.
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Progressive Reforms
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A statute that allows people to register to vote at public offices such as welfare offices and drivers' license bureaus.
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Motor Voter Law
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A direct primary where voters select delegates to presidential nominating conventions; voters indicate a preference for a presidential candidate, delegates committed to a candidate, or both.
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Presidential Preference Primaries
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During a presidential election, these are states whose Electoral College votes are not safely in one candidate's pocket; candidates will spend time and more money there to try to win the state.
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Battleground States (Swing States)
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A group of electors selected by the voters in each state and the District of Columbia; the electors officially elect the president and the vice president.
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Electoral College
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A member of the Electoral College who votes on the basis of personal preference rather than the way the majority of voters in his or her state voted.
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Faithless Elector
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Refers to citizens who vote for candidates whose stands on specific issues are consistent with their own.
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Issue Voting
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Voting for or against incumbents on the basis of their past performance.
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Retrospective Voting
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The situation in which elected officials are constantly engaged in a campaign; fund-raising for the next election begins as soon as one election is concluded.
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Permanent Campaign
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A term used in the media to refer to a president having clear directions from the voters to take a certain course of action; in practice, it is not always clear that a president, even one elected by a large majority, has a mandate or, if so, for what.
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Mandate
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