A.   every

B.   every other

C.   every three

D.   every four

A.   Every country in the world holds primary elections.

B.   The United States is one of the few nations in the world to hold primary elections.

C.   About half of the countries in the world hold primary elections.

D.   Approximately three-quarters of the countries in the world hold primary elections.

A.   exploratory committee.

B.   primary election.

C.   referendum.

D.   midterm election.

A.   primary

B.   proportionality

C.   plurality

D.   majority

A.   single

B.   straight

C.   split

D.   dual

A.   15

B.   6

C.   4

D.   10

A.   Alexander Hamilton.

B.   James Madison.

C.   Elbridge Gerry.

D.   Thomas Jefferson.

A.   legislative districts are redrawn in a way that disperses members of a particular party across multiple districts, thereby reducing that party’s chances of winning any seats.

B.   legislative districts are redrawn in a way that concentrates members of a particular party in as few districts as possible, thereby limiting the overall number of seats that party might win.

C.   a legislative candidate wins election with less than 50% of the vote in a three-candidate race.

D.   a legislative district votes to elect a member of one party to serve in the House of Representatives but also elects a member of a different party to serve in the state legislature.

A.   Iowa; Connecticut

B.   Connecticut; Iowa

C.   New Hampshire; Iowa

D.   Iowa; New Hampshire

A.   write the bills that will be introduced in state legislatures around the country.

B.   assign current members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate to congressional committee positions.

C.   nominate candidates for other important elections, including the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

D.   make rules concerning delegate selection for future primaries and draft the party’s platform.

A.   34th

B.   10th

C.   4th

D.   1st

A.   people’s compact.

B.   grassroots amendment.

C.   popular directive.

D.   ballot initiative.

A.   enabled voters to make their choices on the basis of the individual candidate rather than the list of a party’s candidates.

B.   removed all party labels from the voting process.

C.   provided voters with the ability to write in candidates who did not have their names printed on the ballot.

D.   allowed voters to rank order each of the candidates running for a given office.

A.   gerrymandering

B.   retrospective voting

C.   initiative

D.   prospective voting

A.   the fact that, unlike Nixon, Kennedy had hired a professional political consultant.

B.   Kennedy’s aggressive use of push polls, especially in the Northeast.

C.   that Kennedy had a much stronger performance than Nixon during televised debates.

D.   Nixon’s failure to develop infomercials.

A.   negative ads tend to focus on candidates’ personal characteristics, while positive ads tend to focus on important policy differences.

B.   both positive and negative ads focus almost entirely on important policy differences.

C.   both positive and negative ads focus almost entirely on candidates’ personal characteristics.

D.   negative ads tend to focus on important policy differences, while positive ads tend to focus on candidates’ personal characteristics.

A.   Similar to the United States, most democratic countries allow candidates to raise unlimited sums of money to spend on their campaigns with no restrictions on when the money can be spent.

B.   The United States prohibits candidates from raising unlimited sums of money to spend on their campaigns.

C.   There is no democratic country in the world that currently provides public financing for its elections.

D.   Unlike the United States, most democratic countries provide public financing for their elections.

A.   Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

B.   Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

C.   SpeechNow v. FEC (2010)

D.   Bush v. Gore (2000)

A.   Super PACs.

B.   PACs.

C.   527s.

D.   501(c)(4)s.

A.   matches, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, all contributions of $250 or less.

B.   is determined by a formula that weighs a presidential candidate’s previous fund-raising and number of votes received in previous elections.

C.   provides $200 million for all candidates meeting the minimum requirements specified by law

D.   provides $500 million for all candidates meeting the minimum requirements specified by law

A.   $25,000

B.   $1,000

C.   $5,000

D.   $2,700

A.   the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP).

B.   surveys asking voters how optimistic they are about the future of the economy.

C.   the unemployment rate in each state.

D.   the size of the national debt.

A.   can spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy as long as their efforts are not coordinated with those of any candidate’s campaign.

B.   are limited to spending $100,000 per candidate per election.

C.   are not required to disclose where they get their funds so long as they place hard limits on both the amount of money they raise and their total number of donors.

D.   are required to disclose where they get their funds if they intend on coordinating their message with a particular political campaign.

A.   free media.

B.   a spot advertisement.

C.   a press junket.

D.   the C-SPAN effect.

A.   the campaigning and lobbying in which private corporations engage around business regulation and trade policy.

B.   political campaigns that operate at the local level and use face-to-face communication to generate interest and momentum among voters.

C.   the practice of legislators trading their votes on legislation for campaign contributions.

D.   the fact that politicians often adopt marketing strategies that attempt to “sell” their candidacies to potential voters.

A.   state and local governments.

B.   the federal government.

C.   political parties.

D.   the candidates running for office.

A.   an open primary system.

B.   a proportional representation system.

C.   a closed primary system.

D.   a ranked-choice vote primary system.

A.   a plurality system

B.   a closed primary system

C.   a majority system

D.   a proportional representation system

A.   win the election only if the election were held in a majority system.

B.   win the election only if the election were held in a plurality system.

C.   not win the election under any set of democratic electoral rules.

D.   win the election in either a majority or plurality system.

A.   referendum

B.   open primary

C.   majority system

D.   closed primary

A.   closed primary system.

B.   proportional representation system.

C.   majority system.

D.   blanket primary system.

A.   state governments

B.   the federal government

C.   political parties

D.   voters

A.   eliminated state-level voter registration requirements.

B.   required state governments to use computerized voter registration databases.

C.   financed the creation of 2,000 additional polling places across the country for midterm and presidential elections.

D.   authorized $1 billion for civic education in order to increase voter turnout in national elections.

A.     

B.   are constitutionally required to include no more than 1 million people.

C.   are drawn to include a minimum of 100,000 people in all states.

D.   vary from a few thousand people in some states to nearly a million in California.

E.   are constitutionally required to include no more than 500,000 people.

A.   Within a state, electoral districts must have roughly equal populations.

B.   Voting was an individual right, not a group right.

C.   No one could be denied suffrage on the basis of race or gender.

D.   Voters may only vote once in an election.

A.   Redistricting

B.   Straight-ticketing

C.   Partisan gerrymandering

D.   Proportional representation

A.   United States v. Nixon (1974)

B.   Reynolds v. Sims (1964)

C.   Shaw v. Reno (1993)

D.   Bush v. Gore (2000)

A.   the fact that caucuses are inherently undemocratic methods of selecting nominees for national political office.

B.   Daniel Webster, who had unrivaled influence over the presidential nominating process during the 1820s and 1830s.

C.   the significance of Iowa as the first caucus of the presidential campaign.

D.   the use of each party’s congressional caucus to nominate presidential candidates during the early nineteenth century.

A.   superdelegates.

B.   whips.

C.   policy entrepreneurs.

D.   ombudsmen.

A.   at least 26 state-level presidential elections.

B.   at least 300 electoral votes.

C.   at least 270 electoral votes.

D.   a majority of the popular vote.

A.   a state’s electoral college votes would go to the candidate who won the national popular vote, not the candidate with a plurality of votes in that specific state.

B.   members of the Senate would be elected by the country on the whole instead of by individual states.

C.   the individual state-level caucus and primary elections during the nomination stage would be replaced with a national primary to be held on the first Tuesday of March during a presidential election year.

D.   the electoral college would be abolished and the candidate with the most votes in the country overall would become president.

A.   initiative; referendum

B.   recall; initiative

C.   referendum; recall

D.   referendum; initiative

A.   Wisconsin governor Scott Walker (2012)

B.   President Richard Nixon (1972)

C.   California governor Gray Davis (2003)

D.   President Warren Harding (1921)

A.   The Republican Party requires a two-thirds majority vote in a state to secure delegates, while the Democratic Party does not.

B.   The Democratic Party requires that state presidential primaries allocate delegates on the basis of proportional representation, while the Republican Party does not.

C.   The Democratic Party requires that state presidential primaries allocate delegates on the basis of a winner-take-all system, while the Republican Party does not.

D.   The Republican Party requires that state presidential primaries allocate delegates on the basis of proportional representation, while the Democratic Party does not.

A.   a candidate who is running against a current officeholder in an election

B.   whoever is leading in the polls on the day of the election

C.   the candidate who raises the most money during the campaign

D.   the current officeholder running for re-election

A.   sending direct mail to all potential supporters

B.   increasing social media ads

C.   using robocalls to reach potential voters.

D.   events that allow for face-to-face contact

A.   Incumbents generally spend less money than challengers.

B.   Incumbents and challengers generally spend the same amount of money.

C.   Incumbents generally spend more money than challengers.

D.   Incumbents and challengers are legally limited to spending only $2 million.

A.   wedge

B.   pocketbook

C.   prospective

D.   retrospective

A.   guided by campaign consultants.

B.   labor intensive.

C.   capital intensive.

D.   media driven.

A.   working-class and poor people.

B.   business and professional groups.

C.   environmental groups and religious organizations.

D.   leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties.

A.   Independent expenditures

B.   Seed money donations

C.   Soft money donations

D.   Hard money donations

A.   a bribe.

B.   graft.

C.   hard money.

D.   soft money.

A.   gather signatures from at least 100,000 people in each of 40 states.

B.   run as a major party candidate and raise at least $1 million in individual contributions of $250 or less in each of 40 states.

C.   gather signatures from at least 50,000 people in each of 20 states.

D.   run as a major party candidate and raise at least $5,000 in individual contributions of $250 or less in each of 20 states.

A.   2008

B.   2000

C.   2016

D.   1996

A.   was forbidden by the Campaign Reform Act of 1974.

B.   is protected absolutely by the First Amendment according to the Supreme Court.

C.   is limited by a cap of $50 million.

D.   is protected only if the candidate can match every personal dollar with a dollar from outside donations.

A.   a state legislator.

B.   a governor.

C.   the president.

D.   a U.S. senator.

A.   issue; partisan

B.   prospective; retrospective

C.   partisan; issue

D.   retrospective; prospective

A.   interest groups frequently engage in direct lobbying to enhance diversity in campaigns.

B.   voters tend to prefer candidates who are closer to themselves in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, geography, and social background.

C.   the Constitution requires at least minimal levels of representation in election campaigns.

D.   affirmative action legislation from the 1960s requires proportional representation in all elections.

A.   may spend no more than $10 million advocating support for its own presidential candidate.

B.   may make unlimited “independent expenditures” supporting its own presidential candidate.

C.   cannot spend any money advocating support for its own presidential candidate.

D.   may spend no more than $1 million advocating support for its own presidential candidate.

A.   send different campaign messages to different demographic groups of voters.

B.   raise money through thousands of small donations rather than a small number of large donations.

C.   send hundreds of very short messages to the largest possible number of voters.

D.   spend as little money as possible on advertising and, instead, to maximize “free media” coverage.