Government Chapters 6 & 7

1. Chapter 6
Voters and Voter Behavior

2. Section 1:

3. History of Voting
 Extending Suffrage:
 Voting rights for African Americans
 19th Amendment –women’s right to vote

4. The Power to set Voting
Qualifications
 Five Restrictions on how States use power
 People must be allowed to vote for representatives
and senators in Congress
 Cannot deprive a person the right to vote based on
race
 Cannot deprive a person the right to vote based on
sex
 Cannot require payment
 Cannot deprive a person of 18yrs. to vote

5. Section 2:
Voter
Qualifications

6. Universal Requirements
 Citizenship
 must be a citizen or native-born
 Residence
 States Adopt Residence Requirements
 to keep a political machine from importing enough
outsiders to affect the outcome of local elections
 to allow new voters at least some time to become
familiar with the candidates and issues in an
election

7. What about College
Students?

8. Universal Requirements
Cont.
 Age
 No state may set the minimum age for voting in any election
 A state may set the age at less than 18, if it chooses to do so

10. Weird facts about
voting
 In Hungary and the Philippines sixteen-year-olds can also vote - but only if
they're married!
 In Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil, sixteen year olds can vote if they want, but
once they turn 18 voting is required.
 In fact around 23 world countries have compulsory voting, including two EU
nations - Italy and the Netherlands although they don't enforce it. The penalties
are normally modest fines.
 Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia also allow 16 year olds to vote if
they are employed and - to all effects and purposes - tax-paying stakeholders.
 17 year olds can vote in North Korea - although, funnily enough in Kim Jong Un's
dictatorship, their vote doesn't seem to have too much of an impact.
 Sixteen-year-olds can also vote in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guernsey, Jersey and the
Isle of Man, whereas 17 year olds are allowed to vote in Indonesia, and Timor-

11. Other Qualifications
 Registration
 49 states require all voters to be registered
 “Motor Voter Law”
 allow all eligible citizens to register to vote
 provide for voter registration
 make registration forms available at local offices
 Literacy
 no state has a voting qualification based on
reading/intellectual ability

12. Literacy Test Time!
Let’s see if you could pass!

13. Other Qualification Cont.
 Tax Payment
 Payment of taxes used to be a common suffrage
qualification
 Persons Denied the Vote
 Nearly all states have disqualified those who have
been convicted of serious crimes

15. Section 3
Suffrage and Civil Rights

16. How to cheat and win:
 Gerrymandering-manipulating the
boundaries of an area in order to win an
election

18. What is an Injunction?
 Injunction- a court
order that either
compels or
restrains the
performance of
some act by a
private individual
or by a public
official

20. The Fifteenth Amendment

21. Plessy vs. Ferguson
 1896: The Supreme Court
ruled that it was
constitutional to keep
blacks and whites separate
as long as the facilities
were equal
 “Separate but Equal”
 Ruled that blacks and
whites could have
different facilities.

22. Brown vs. Board of
Education
 Ended legal segregation in
schools
 Chief Justice Earl Warren
argued that it violated the
Equal Protection Clause of
the 14th Amendment

23. Voting Rights Act of 1965

24. The Voting Rights Act of
1965
 Made the 15th Amendment effective—it beat out
the legal battles that were preventing African
Americans from voting
 This act applied to all elections held anywhere in this
country
 Voting Act originally to last only five years

25. Voting Rights Act of 1965
cont.
 Preclearance
 cases show that laws most likely run afoul of
preclearance requirements are those that make
changes
 location of polling places
 boundaries of election districts
 deadlines in the election process
 ward or district election to at-large elections
 qualifications candidates must meet in order to run for
office

26. Section 4 Voter Behavior

27. Nonvoters
 Tens of millions vote in all kinds of elections
 Many millions for one reason or another choose not
to vote

28. The Size of the Problem
 Off-year
election: the
congressional
elections held in
the even-
numbered years
between
presidential
elections
 Ballot Fatigue

29. Why People Do Not Vote
 Can’t Vote
 resident aliens
 ill or disabled
 traveling
 religious beliefs
 jail/prison
 Actual Nonvoters
 Don’t want to
 Don’t care

30. Non-Voter vs.
Voter

31. Comparing Nonvoters to
Voters
 Voters Characteristics
 high income
 education
 occupational status
 long-time residence
 sense of party identification
 Nonvoters Characteristics
 under 35
 unmarried
 unskilled
 live in south rural areas

33. Voters and Voting Behavior
 Studying Voting Behavior
 results of particular elections
 field of survey research
 studies of political socialization

34. Factors that Influence
Voters
 Age
 Race
 Income
 Occupation
 Education
 Religion
 Family
 Co-workers
 Friends

35. Sociological Factors
 Income/Occupation
 High Income=
Republican Party
 Low Income=
Democratic Party
 Education
 Gender:
 Women = democrat
 Men = republican

36. Sociological Factors:
 Religious Background:
 Protestants typically are republican
 Catholics and Jews are typically democrat
 Geography:
 Smaller cities and rural areas—republican
 Big cities – democrat
 Family:
 People in a family tend to vote similarily

37. Psychological Factors
 Party Identification: the loyalty of people to a
particular political party
 Straight-ticket Voting: practice of voting for
candidates of only one party in an election
 Split-ticket voting: practice of voting for the
candidates of more than one party in an election
 Independents: people who have no party
affiliation
 Candidates and Issues

38. Chapter 7: The Electoral
Process

39. Nominating Candidates:
 Nomination: naming the candidates that will seek
offices
 These candidates are put into a pool and then voted
on by the party. The party then helps that single
person campaign for office
 Self announcement: a person who decides for
office announces it themselves.

40. Caucus:
 Caucus: a group of like-minded people who meet to
select the candidates they will support in the election

41. Convention:
 Convention: a meeting of a major political party,
especially one that nominates a candidate for
president

42. Direct Primary:
 Direct Primary: an intra party election to pick that
party’s candidates for the election
 1. Closed Primary: a party nominating election
where only declared party members can vote
 2. Open Primary: a party nominating election in
which any qualified voter can take part.
 Blanket Primary: “wide-open primary” where all
voters receive the same ballot—a long list that includes
every candidate regardless of party.

43. Section 2: Elections

44. Administration of
Elections:
 States primarily control elections however the
Constitution gives Congress the power to fix
election laws.
 When do we hold elections?
 Elections are typically held the first Tuesday after
the first Monday in November.
 Some states have other dates for state or local
elections

45. Administration of
Elections:
 Absentee voting: voting
by those unable to get to
their regular polling
places on election day
 Covers 3 groups of
people:
 People too ill or
disabled to make it to
vote
 Those who will not be
home on election day
 Those serving in the
armed forces

46. Coattail Effect:
 Coattail Effect: when a strong
candidate running for an office
helps attract voters to other
candidates in their party

47. Precincts and Polling Places:
 Precinct: a voting district
 Polling Places: the place where voters vote
 Ballot: a form that a voter completes to pick a
candidate for a position
 Office-Group: rotate which candidates name is on
top
 Party Column: listed by party
 Bedsheet ballots: incredibly long lists of candidates

48. Voting Machines:

49. Sources of Funding:
 Private Contributions: the majority source of
campaign funds are given by individuals
 Small Contributors: people who give a small
amount
 Wealthy individuals
 Political Action Committees (PACs)
 Temporary Organizations
 Public Subsidy: grant of money from the
government

53. Federal Election
Commission (FEC):
 Federal Election
Commission: regulates all
federal law dealing with
campaign finance
 No candidate can receive
money from a foreign
source
 Cash gifts of more than
$100 are prohibited

54. Federal Election
Commission (FEC):
 FEC Laws:
 Require the timely disclosure of campaign finance
data
 Place limits on campaign contributions
 Place limits on campaign expenditures
 Provide public funding

55. Loopholes in the Law: