| A | B |
|---|
| Nomination | Being officially endorsed by a political party as their candidate for elective office. This generally requires winning a primary, caucus, or the nomination at a convention. |
| Campaign Strategy | a candidate's plan to win their election. |
| National Party Convention | held every four years these meetings nominate a party's presidential and vice presidential candidates and writes the party's platform. |
| McGovern-Fraser Commission | this committee met in 1968 to reform the Democratic party by making it more inclusive. |
| Superdelegates | party leaders who are automatically voting members of a party's national convention. The Republicans have few of these delegates as compared to the Democratic party. |
| Invisible Primary | The period before any election or primaries are held, when potential candidates are trying to win support among political elites, potential donors. |
| Caucus | some state parties use this method to determine who they want as a nominee. These meetings include campaign speeches, and negotiations before the attendees decide whom they want to be the nominee. |
| Presidential Primaries | many states hold these elections, in which a state's voters express their preference for a party's nominee for president. Most delegates to both party's national convention are chosen this way. |
| Frontloading | States like to have their state's primary as early as possible, so that it is seen as meaningful. |
| Party Platform | A political party's positions on the issues the party feels are important. |
| Direct Mail | sending messages through a variety of methods directly to voters. |
| Campaign Contributions | donations made directly to a candidate. |
| Independent Expenditures | money spent on a political message or candidate. These cannot be coordinated with a candidate's campaign. |
| Federal Election Campaign Act a 1974 law which put limits on campaign contributions, required disclosure of donor names, and created the Federal Election Commission. | a 1974 law which put limits on campaign contributions, required disclosure of donor names, and created the Federal Election Commission. |
| McCain-Feingold Act | a 2002 law that banned soft money contributions, and limited contributions to political parties. it also sought to limit independent "electioneering" before an election, but this provision was found unconstitutional. |
| Political Action Committees | organizations that raise money from individuals and then distribute the money to groups the group supports. |
| Federal Election Commission | a governmental organization that administers and enforces campaign finance laws. |
| Buckley v. Valeo | The 1974 campaign act sought to limit how much of a candidate's own person money a candidate could spend on a campaign. The decision in this case found that portion of the campaign law unconstitutional. |
| Soft Money | money given to a political party for "party-building" expenses. These contributions were mostly used to indirectly, but clearly, campaign for a candidate. |
| McConnell v. Federal Election Commission | This 2003 decision upheld the McCain-Feingold Act's ban on soft money. |
| 527 Groups | organizations that may take unlimited contributions. They may not directly advocate for the election of a specific candidate. Contributions must be reported to the IRS. |
| Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission | This 2010 decision found the limit on electioneering by independent expenditure groups (Super PAC's) under McCain-Feingold to be unconstitutional. |
| 501(c) Groups | organizations which may receive unlimited contributions and are exempt from reporting them. They cannot spend more than half of their contributions on political activities |
| Super PACs | organizations which only make independent expenditures. They may take unlimited contributions and spend the money as they wish, as long as they do not coordinate the expenditures with a candidate's campaign. |
| Selective Perception | people's beliefs guide what they pay attention to and how they interpret events |
| Suffrage | The legal right to vote. |
| Political Efficacy | The belief that participating in the political process is important. That each vote is important. |
| Civic Duty | The belief that in a democracy a citizen should vote. |
| Voter Registration | The system each state has in deciding who can vote. |
| Motor Voter Act | A 1993 federal law requiring that states permit people to register to vote when applying for a driver's license. |
| Crawford v. Marion County Election Board | upheld a state law requiring voters show a photo ID before being allowed to vote. |
| Mandate Theory of Elections | the idea that the winning candidate has the backing of the citizens to carry out the candidate's platform by virtue of winning the election. |
| Policy Voting | deciding whom to vote for based on policy preferences and a candidate's position on the issues |
| Electoral College | In America, we vote indirectly for the president. We really vote for electors who them vote for the president. These electors must vote as the majority voted in the state they represent. |
| Battleground States | those states where the choice for president is not clear cut before the election. |
| Gerrymandering | redrawing election districts to help one party and hinder the other. |
