Exam 8: Elections, Representation, and Voting Rights

First enacted by Mississippi in 1890 as a means of preventing Blacks from voting, the _________ soon spread throughout Southern and border states.

In 1941, Congress enacted a law specifying that the method of "_________" would be used to ascertain the number of Congressional seats to which each state would be entitled.

In _______________, the Supreme Court struck down the Enforcement Act of 1870, by which Congress attempted to protect the right of African-Americans to vote in state elections.

In ________________, the Supreme Court explicitly upheld the use of literacy tests based on the reasoning that "in our society where newspapers, periodicals, books and other printed matter canvass and debate campaign issues, a State might conclude that only those who are literate should exercise the franchise."

Does the Supreme Court's requirement of uniform state-wide standards for recounting votes in presidential elections follow logically from its reapportionment decisions of the 1960's?

Do long-standing statutory restrictions favoring the two party system and discouraging the growth of third parties violate the constitutional rights of voters?

Oklahoma's version of the ___________________, adopted as an amendment to the state constitution in 1910, required literacy tests for all voters whose ancestors had not been entitled to vote prior to 1866.

In Davis v. Bandemer (1986), the plurality opinion indicated that plaintiffs challenging partisan gerrymandering of state legislatures would have to make a "threshold showing of _____."

For some jurisprudential thinkers, such as ______________, the primary utility of and justification for judicial review is to maintain the integrity of the democratic process.

In _____________, the Supreme Court struck down spending limits set by the Federal Election Campaign Act as applied to the Colorado Republican Party's "independent expenditures."

Justice _____________ famous footnote in United States v. Carolene Products (1938) recognized potential problems resulting from efforts to limit political participation.

In Reynolds v. Sims (1964) Chief Justice Warren applied the principle of "one person, one vote" to ___________________.

In Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960), Justice ______________ stated, "that if the plaintiffs' allegations were proven [regarding racial gerrymandering, it would be "difficult to appreciate what stands in the way of adjudging [the redistricting measure] invalid."

Is the recently enacted ban on unlimited soft money contributions to political parties constitutional?

Did the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the popular election of United States Senators fundamentally alter the balance of power between the national government and the states?

The voting age in all elections was lowered to eighteen with the ratification of the _____ Amendment to the Constitution in _____.

Every ten years, after completion of the census, ____ reallocates Congressional seats among the states.

Could Congress or a state legislature constitutionally require employers to grant employees "time off" to vote without a reduction in pay?

Is it appropriate for federal courts to scrutinize forms of local government, such as at-large elections, in order to insure that minority voting strength is not diluted? Is federal judicial involvement in these matters, which were traditionally left to local governments, necessary and legitimate, or is it excessive judicial activism?

In United States v. Classic (1941), the Supreme Court held that the federal government could regulate party primaries in order to prevent _____.