Deck 9: Campaigns and Voting Behavior

Question 1

Which of the following did the Federal Election Campaign Act NOT do?

A)Require disclosure of campaign contributions by all candidates for federal offices
B)Provide public financing for the presidential nominees of both major parties
C)Provide public financing of House and Senate races
D)Limit presidential campaign spending
E)Provide public financing of Senate races

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The Electoral College was originally established in order to u.provide direct election of the president by the people,although its operation has had the opposite effect.
V)merely certify the results of the people's choice for president and vice president.
W)give the nation's elite,rather than the people directly,the power to choose the president and vice president.
X)insure high voter turnouts in elections throughout the country.
Y)give legitimacy to the presidency,which was regarded suspiciously by most people as another potential monarchy.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

A nomination refers to a(n)

A)media event in the course of a presidential election.
B)highpoint of public opinion in support of a particular candidate.
C)party's official selection of a candidate to run for office.
D)monetary campaign contribution.
E)endorsement of elite press,such as the New York Times.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Superdelegates are the supreme power within each of the parties.

Question 5

According to a 2008 Census Bureau survey,the most common response given by nonvoters for not voting in the 2008 election was that they

A)could not find their polling place.
B)could not take off time from work or school that day.
C)forgot that it was Election Day.
D)did not know who the candidates were.
E)forgot to register in time for the election.

Question 6

The Presidential Election Campaign Fund

A)consists of money collected from the $3 federal income tax check-off.
B)is distributed by the FEC to qualified candidates to subsidize their presidential campaigns.
C)garners only about 10 percent of American taxpayers' participation.
D)Both a and b are true.
E)All of the above are true.

Question 7

Researchers suggest that campaigns have three effects on voters; these are the following:

A)reinforcement,activation,and conversion.
B)reinforcement,gate keeping,and scorekeeping.
C)selective perception,gate keeping,and conversion.
D)agenda setting,gate keeping,and conversion.
E)activation,selective perception,and reconversion.

Question 8

The McCain-Feingold Act of 2002

A)increased the limit on individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates to $2,000.
B)decreased the limit on individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates to $1,000.
C)increased the limit on individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates to $3,000.
D)decreased the limit on individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates to $3,000.
E)banned individual contributions to presidential and congressional candidates.

Question 9

The greater the policy differences between the candidates, z.the less likely voters will be able to steer government policies by their choices.
{)the more likely voters will be able to steer government policies by their choices.
|)the less likely voters will turn out on Election Day.
})the more likely voters will provide an "echo" rather than a "voice" on Election Day.
~)the more likely citizens will feel a sense of civic duty.

Question 10

A theory of voting according to which voters make their decisions based on their answer to the question "What have you done for me lately?" is called p.policy voting.
Q)the mandate theory of elections.
R)retrospective voting.
S)political efficacy.
T)prospective voting.

Question 11

Suffrage refers to

A)a type of election unique to the United States.
B)the right to vote.
C)a voter registration system.
D)voter turnout rates.
E)voting procedures in the Electoral College.

Question 12

The greater one's sense of political efficacy,the
F) less likely one is to vote.
G) more likely one is to vote. h. greater one's chance of being defeated in an election.
I) less likely one is to view the election process in the United States as legitimate.
J) more likely one is to see differences between the parties.

Question 13

The phenomenon that people's beliefs often guide what they pay attention to and how they interpret events,common among voters in political campaigns,is

A)selective perception.
B)gate keeping.
C)scorekeeping.
D)agenda setting.
E)frontloading.

Question 14

Which of these is NOT one of the provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act?

A)The subjecting of 527 groups to contribution restrictions
B)The banning of soft-money contributions
C)The increase in the amount that individuals can give to candidates,to rise with inflation
D)The barring of groups from running "issue ads" within 60 days of an election if they refer to a federal candidate and are not funded through a PAC
E)The prohibition of corporations' and unions' use of general treasury funds to pay for electioneering communications in the last 60 days of an election

Question 15

The Democratic and Republican candidates for president are formally nominated by the

A)presidential caucuses.
B)presidential primaries.
C)Electoral College.
D)national party conventions.
E)national committees.

Question 16

The McGovern-Fraser Commission

A)chose presidential candidates for the Democratic Party.
B)investigated violations of campaign finance law in 1968.
C)established the dates of presidential primaries.
D)had a mandate to make the Democratic Party conventions more democratic.
E)strengthened the role of the party's national committee.

Question 17

The McGovern-Fraser Commission made the delegate selection process of the Democratic party more democratic by

A)giving the power of selecting delegates to party officials.
B)increasing the number of delegates chosen.
C)weakening the power of party leaders to choose convention delegates.
D)encouraging the use of presidential caucuses rather than primaries.
E)None of the above is true.

Question 18

Which of the following statements regarding political campaigns is FALSE?

A)Most people pay relatively little attention to campaigns.
B)Party identification influences voting behavior regardless of what happens in campaigns.
C)Incumbents start with a substantial advantage in terms of name recognition and an established track record.
D)Campaigns never change voters' minds.
E)In tight races,a good campaign can make the difference between winning and losing.

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of a 527 group?

A)MoveOn.org
B)JohnKerry.com
C)The Republican Party of Iowa
D)The Democratic Party of New Hampshire
E)EggPac

Question 20

People with higher than average education k.are no more and no less likely to vote than people of lower educational levels.
L)are more likely to vote than people of lower educational levels.
M)are somewhat less likely to vote than people of lower educational levels.
N)are much less likely to vote than people of lower educational levels because they know it won't do any good.
O)are more likely to vote than high school dropouts but less likely to vote than those with high school diplomas.

Question 21

The specific goal of the presidential nomination game is to win a majority of votes

A)cast in presidential primaries.
B)cast in presidential caucuses.
C)among party delegates in order to win the party nomination.
D)in the Electoral College.
E)compared to the other party's candidate in the general election.

Question 22

Network news coverage of national political conventions has surged in recent decades.

Question 23

The greater the policy differences between the candidates,the more likely voters will be able to steer government policies by their choices.

Question 24

The extended length of the nomination process advantages individuals who already hold prominent political positions.

Question 25

Voter turnout in state and national elections increased significantly after Congress passed the Motor Voter Act of 1993.

Question 26

One result of modern campaigns is that a disproportionate amount of attention is given to caucuses and primaries occurring late in the calendar year.

Question 27

Older Americans are more likely to vote than are younger Americans.

Question 28

The Republican Party is a form of PAC.

Question 29

It is possible for the Electoral College to choose a president who did not win a majority of the popular vote.

Question 30

A meeting of all state party leaders for selecting delegates to the national party convention is called a primary.

Question 31

The way in which candidates attempt to manipulate money,the media,and momentum to achieve the nomination is through

A)campaign strategy.
B)primaries.
C)charisma.
D)propaganda.
E)party support.

Question 32

The most widely accepted theory of voting behavior among political scientists is the mandate theory of elections.

Question 33

According to Anthony Downs,rational people vote when they perceive meaningful policy differences between the candidates.

Question 34

A(n)________ is a party's official selection of a candidate to run for office.

A)appointment
B)nomination
C)conversion
D)imprimatur
E)endorsement

Question 35

The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 provided public financing for presidential primaries and general elections,limited presidential campaign spending,required disclosure,and attempted to limit contributions.

Question 36

The phenomenon that people often pay the most attention to things that they already agree with is called selective perception.

Question 37

In most advanced industrialized countries,election campaigns

A)are endless affairs,sometimes lasting a year or more.
B)are not limited by law.
C)last more than two weeks by law or custom.
D)last no more than two months by law or custom.
E)are limited by law to three months.

Question 38

"Soft money" refers to political contributions that are earmarked for party building activities.

Question 39

The significance of the Supreme Court decision in Buckley v.Valeo is that it upheld restrictions on the amount of money an individual could contribute to his or her own campaign.

Question 40

Primaries emerged through reform efforts that sought to take nominations out of the hands of party bosses.

Question 41

Which of the following is NOT a major criticism of the primary and caucus system?

A)Disproportionate attention goes to the early caucuses and primaries.
B)Prominent politicians find it difficult to take time out of their duties to run.
C)Money plays too big a role.
D)Participation is low and unrepresentative.
E)The system does not give enough power and access to the media.

Question 42

National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the national party convention are referred to as

A)party bosses.
B)McGovern-Fraser delegates.
C)superdelegates.
D)caucuses.
E)frontloaders.

Question 43

The state that has disproportionate power because it holds the first presidential primary each election year is

A)New York.
B)California.
C)Iowa.
D)New Hampshire.
E)Rhode Island.

Question 44

Frontloading refers to

A)a strategy employed by candidate press secretaries that seeks to bombard the media with positive news.
B)the recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar year in order to capitalize on media attention.
C)a fundraising technique that candidates employ to amass large amounts of money before a campaign actually begins.
D)bargaining among superdelegates over which candidate they will support at the national convention.
E)candidates' refusal to campaign in early primary states.

Question 45

Following the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968,the party chose to

A)limit attendance at future conventions to the elected officers of the party's organizations nationwide.
B)limit attendance at future conventions to the party's nationwide elected government officeholders.
C)tighten up its convention delegate selection to keep it from being overrun by women,minorities,youth,and single-issue groups.
D)allow party officers and Democratic officeholders,many of whom had not been seated at recent conventions,to serve as "superdelegates."
E)open up its process of choosing delegates to the national convention in order to respond to demands for greater inclusion from women,minorities,youth,and other groups.

Question 46

The intention of the McGovern-Fraser Commission reforms of the Democratic Party was to

A)close delegate selection processes to the public.
B)make national conventions more democratic.
C)provide party leaders with more influence in national conventions.
D)construct rules for media coverage of national conventions.
E)grant the national convention the power to select party delegates.

Question 47

Voters in presidential primaries and caucuses tend to be

A)very similar to the rest of the United States population in terms of education and income.
B)older and more affluent than the United States population as a whole.
C)minorities and notably younger than the general population.
D)somewhat less educated and somewhat poorer on average than the United States population as a whole.
E)far less educated and much poorer on average than the United States population as a whole.

Question 48

In most caucus states,about ________ percent of the registered voters typically show up for party presidential caucuses.

A)5
B)20
C)35
D)45
E)50

Question 49

The national party convention is

A)the supreme power within each of the two parties.
B)responsible for nominating the party's presidential and vice presidential candidates.
C)the author of the party's national platform.
D)All of these are true.
E)None of these is true.

Question 50

The administration of campaign finance laws and the enforcement of compliance with their requirements is handled by the

A)Fair Political Practices Commission.
B)Campaign Finance Bureau of the Department of the Treasury.
C)Department of Justice.
D)Federal Election Commission.
E)Government Accounting Office.

Question 51

The Federal Election Campaign Act

A)provided public financing for Senate and House races.
B)required broadcasters to provide free airtime to each major candidate for federal office.
C)ended public financing for presidential campaigns.
D)required all candidates for federal office to disclose all contributions made to their campaigns.
E)removed spending limits from presidential campaigns.

Question 52

Network television news coverage of national party conventions has

A)dramatically increased in response to the growing significance of national conventions in selecting presidential and vice presidential candidates.
B)dramatically decreased in response to the declining significance of national conventions in selecting presidential and vice presidential candidates.
C)experienced drastically larger audiences than news coverage of national party conventions in earlier decades.
D)outpaced audience viewing of popular events,such as the Super Bowl.
E)generally been limited to one major broadcast station,such as CBS or NBC.

Question 53

The Democratic National Convention in ________ led to serious reforms,now referred to as the McGovern Fraser Commission reforms,in the methods it used to choose its convention delegates.

A)1936
B)1968
C)1952
D)1984
E)1992

Question 54

The presidential primaries are

A)elections in which voters in a state vote for a candidate or delegates pledged to the candidate.
B)meetings of all state party leaders for selecting delegates to the national party convention.
C)the supreme power within each of the parties,responsible for nominating the party's presidential and vice presidential candidates.
D)the official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party.
E)a master game plan through which candidates set out to guide their electoral campaign.

Question 55

Historically,the presidential primary season begins in

A)winter in New Hampshire.
B)summer in New Hampshire.
C)winter in Iowa.
D)summer in Iowa.
E)winter in Missouri.

Question 56

The addition of superdelegates to the Democratic national conventions was spearheaded by

A)those who felt the Warren Commission had led to unrepresentative delegate selection.
B)President Jimmy Carter.
C)the McGovern-Fraser Commission.
D)those who felt the McGovern-Fraser Commission had opened up the delegate selection process too much.
E)the Warren Commission.

Question 57

Critics of primaries and caucuses contend that the new presidential "kingmakers" are now

A)party bosses.
B)the few who vote in the caucuses and primaries.
C)the media.
D)interest groups.
E)state party organizations.

Question 58

The tendency of states to hold primaries earlier in the calendar to capitalize on media attention is called

A)stacking the deck.
B)frontloading.
C)agenda setting.
D)framing.
E)politicking.

Question 59

Today,a majority of the delegates to the national convention are selected through

A)state party conventions.
B)party caucuses.
C)presidential primaries.
D)local party conventions.
E)state legislatures.

Question 60

In states with caucuses,

A)supporters of candidates attend a series of open meetings to express presidential preferences.
B)the state legislature selects the state's delegates to the national conventions.
C)party leaders select delegates according to their own candidate preferences.
D)candidates appoint supporters to serve as delegates.
E)delegates are chosen through the general election of a candidate.

Question 61

Contributions of up to $250 matched from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to qualifying presidential nominees are called

A)soft money.
B)hard money.
C)matching funds.
D)tax cuts.
E)illicit expenditures.

Question 62

Which of the following is NOT a factor that increases a person's likelihood of voting?

A)Having a sense of civic duty
B)Possessing political efficacy
C)Discerning the ways in which policy differences affect one's interests
D)Believing that some policies of one party are balanced by other policies of the other party
E)Believing that the benefits of voting outweigh the costs

Question 63

Which of the following is NOT true of the 2008 presidential election?

A)Obama carried 53 percent of the popular vote,compared to 46 percent for McCain.
B)Obama won 365 electoral votes,compared to 173 for McCain.
C)The Democrats won nine states that they had lost in 2004.
D)The Republicans won nine states that they had lost in 2004.
E)Among the states that Democrats won in 2008 were Florida,Ohio,and Virginia.

Question 64

If you believe that "public officials don't care much about what people like me think," then you are expressing feelings of

A)high political efficacy.
B)low political efficacy.
C)rationality.
D)policy voting.
E)retrospective voting.

Question 65

The notion that candidates need to raise and spend enough money to compete but that it is not always necessary to outspend an opponent is called the

A)majority-minority doctrine.
B)doctrine of sufficiency.
C)soft-money approach.
D)selective perception.
E)hydraulic theory of money and politics.

Question 66

Suffrage means

A)the legal right to vote.
B)turning out to vote.
C)voting for the winner.
D)voting for the loser.
E)the struggle for equal rights for women.

Question 67

Which of the following statements about voter turnout in the U.S.is FALSE? p.Older people are less likely than younger people to vote.
Q)People with higher than average education levels have a higher voter participation rate.
R)African Americans are less likely than whites to vote.
S)Americans' voter participation rate is far lower than voter turnout in other democracies.
T)Women are more likely to vote than men.

Question 68

Soft money is

A)money donated by a person to his or her own campaign.
B)cash contributions that are not traceable and in some situations illegal.
C)small donations that,while important to a campaign,are not as important as larger contributions.
D)money loaned to a campaign but expected to be paid back.
E)money donated to parties rather than to candidates; this type of contribution was declared illegal by the McCain-Feingold Act.

Question 69

Largely to prevent corruption associated with stuffing ballot boxes,states adopted ________ around the turn of the twentieth century.

A)the Electoral College
B)primary elections
C)voting machines
D)voter registration
E)the secret ballot

Question 70

One of the provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 was to

A)increase the limit on individual contributions to $5,000.
B)increase the amount of federal money presidential candidates can spend.
C)increase the limit on "soft money" contributions.
D)increase the limit on individual contributions from $1,000 to $2,000.
E)increase the limit on individual contributions to $10,000.

Question 71

When individuals base their choices in an election on their own issue preferences,this phenomena is called

A)economic voting.
B)retrospective voting.
C)policy voting.
D)split-ticket voting.
E)the mandate theory of elections.

Question 72

The appearance and increase in ________ was an unintended resulted of an amendment in 1979 to the original Campaign Reform Act,which allows parties to raise and spend money on voter registration and other campaign materials without limits on spending or the size of contributions that they can accept.

A)party discretionary funding
B)party expenditure exemption
C)soft money
D)expenditure waivers
E)institutional assistance

Question 73

Just over ____ of the population votes.

A)one-quarter
B)one-third
C)one-half
D)two-thirds
E)three-quarters

Question 74

Which of the following is permissible under current campaign finance regulations?

A)Mitt Romney's spending of $44 million out of his own pocket in pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination in 2008
B)A donation to candidate Barack Obama in 2010 in the amount of $10,000 from a single individual.
C)An individual contribution to a congressional candidate in the amount of $5,000 in the 2008 elections.
D)A soft-money contribution to a political party in the amount of $10,000 in the presidential election of 2000.
E)None of these is permissible.

Question 75

Highly educated individuals are more likely to vote because they

A)are smarter.
B)can better discern policy differences between candidates.
C)have a lower sense of political efficacy.
D)are usually white males.
E)have more influence in the political process.

Question 76

The belief that in order to support democratic government a citizen should always vote is a belief in the notion of

A)civic duty.
B)political efficacy.
C)political legitimacy.
D)suffrage.
E)the mandate theory of elections.

Question 77

Which of the following is an example of a PAC?

A)MoveOn.org
B)Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
C)The National Republican Party
D)FishPAC
E)All of these are examples of PACs.

Question 78

Anthony Downs' theory of rational voting behavior predicts that people will vote if they
F) can afford the time and energy to do so.
G) think one party will give them more policy benefits than the other. h. think their vote will make the difference for a particular candidate.
I) identify with a particular candidate,even though they doubt that one vote can make a difference.
J) feel obligated to do so.

Question 79

In Buckley v.Valeo (1976),the Supreme Court

A)ruled that the wildly unequal campaign expenditures of candidates for government office were a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and ordered Congress and the states to develop mechanisms to assure equal funding of all major candidates.
B)limited the activities of political action committees.
C)struck down the part of the Federal Election Campaign Act that restricted the amount individuals could contribute to their own campaign.
D)stated that the Federal Election Commission had no power to enforce compliance with their requirements.
E)declared the Federal Election Campaign Act unconstitutional.

Question 80

A major reason cited for America's level of voter turnout compared to other industrialized countries is k.bad weather in certain parts of the United States on Election Day.
L)greater interest in democracy in the United States.
M)registration is more cumbersome in the United States.
N)registration is more cumbersome in other nations.
O)Americans' high sense of political efficacy.