United States Election Glossary pt 10

July 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Part of knowing how to participate in a United States election is to have a thorough understanding of the language and lingo. Just like with watching sports, you would not understand nfl if you don’t talk the talk. This is part ten of the United States election glossary, including the more prevalent terms that you need to know.

Swing Voters – These are voters that do not have an allegiance to any one particular political party.

Term Limits – These are limits that are imposed on the length of time any politician is allowed to remain in office. As an example, the President of the United States can only serve up to two terms of four years in length in his office.

Third Party – This is any political party that is not one of the two primary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats.

Town Meeting – This is a gathering of voters in a specific town in order to discuss certain issues and to arrive at decisions about those issues.

Vote – This is a way to show preference and to choose an elected leader or to decide upon an initiative. Voting can be done by marking paper, raising hands or by filling forms out on a computer depending on the type of election that is being held.

Voting Booth – This is the small enclosure where a person can vote privately.

Voting Machine – This is a mechanical device that is used for the purpose of voting. There are numerous different types of machines used for this purpose in order to streamline and to automate the voting process.

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Defending Your Right to Vote

July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Everybody works to preserve and grow their rights, including their right to vote for their leaders and the rules of their society. Some people enlist in the military, while some other people go into activism on the local stage. No matter how you choose to do so, you should always work to defend rights as important as voting.

With your right to vote, you stand above a lot of other countries. With your right to protest, you have even more abilities that far too many people don’t get in this world. It’s vitally important that you gain the knowledge necessary to protect your rights and freedoms. With your freedom and the knowledge you gain from an online degree, you can make a lot of great things happen in this world. You can also keep a lot of potential bad things from ever happening.

For one, everyone needs to be constantly on guard against losing our freedoms due to paranoia or fear of losing security. While defending ourselves is necessary, we must keep ourselves from making one of our leaders into an overt dictator just because we’re scared. With fear comes irresponsibility, so we the people need to be empowered to preserve our freedoms. If you do your part by getting educated and using your knowledge to the best of your ability, you’re a great citizen. Some of the worst things in the history of the world have happened because good people have done nothing.

 

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United States Election Glossary pt 8

March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

United States Election Glossary pt 8

Part of knowing how to participate in a United States election is to have a thorough understanding of the language and lingo. This is part eight of the United States election glossary, including the more prevalent terms that you need to know.

Primary Election – This is an election where the primary goal is to choose the party’s candidate for a specific office. Whichever candidate is the winner from the party is later going to go up against the winner from the other parties in what is known as the general election.

Protest Vote – This is a vote that is cast for some third party candidate, a candidate that is not likely going to win. The purpose of this vote is to show displeasure with whatever mainstream candidates are running.

Redistricting – This is a process where the physical boundaries composing a voting district become changed.

Referendum – This is also known as a ballot measure, an initiative or a proposition and it is a promised piece of law that people are going to vote on during the election.

Representative Democracy – This describes a government where all adult citizens in the country can vote in order to elect the leaders of the country. The leaders that are elected are then able to make all governmental decisions.

Republican – Simply put, a republican is any individual that belongs to the political party known as the “republican political party.”

RepublicanParty – This is a major political party in the United States, also regarded as the GOP, which stands for Grand Old Party. The symbol for this political party is the elephant. Republicans came to be in the middle of the 1800s as an anti-slavery political party.

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United States Election Glossary pt 7

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

United States Election Glossary pt 7

Part of knowing how to participate in a United States election is to have a thorough understanding of the language and lingo. This is part seven of the United States election glossary, including the more prevalent terms that you need to know.

Plurality – The plurality of the votes refers to whoever receives more votes than any other person.

Political Action Committee – Also known as PAC, these are political groups that are not related formally to a specific political party, but they are associated with some other group such as a corporation or a labor union. These groups try to influence candidates and elections through giving money so that they receive favor later.

Political Party – This is a group of organized people that have commonality in goals and values, attempting to get a specific candidate elected into office. The Republicans and the Democrats are two examples of major United States political parties.

Politician – This is a person running for an office, or a person that has already won an election and is in an office position already.

Poll – This is a survey of voters take in order to determine which issue or candidate they may decide to vote for.

Popular Vote – This is the result of votes from all eligible voters. Whoever wins popular vote is generally going to win the election, however sometimes the Electoral College is responsible for choosing the new president instead.

Precinct – This is a voting subdivision based on demographic area where party officials can be elected on a local basis. There are typically between 200 and 1,000 voters in a single precinct.

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United States Election Glossary pt 6

March 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

United States Election Glossary pt 6

Part of knowing how to participate in a United States election is to have a thorough understanding of the language and lingo. This is part six of the United States election glossary, including the more prevalent terms that you need to know.

Matching Funds – This refers to public money that has been given to a presidential candidate in an equal amount to whatever has been raised privately. Before the convention, in the primary season, candidates that use these matching funds can get as much as $250 dollars in the matching funds for every single individual contribution that they receive. These matching funds are usually financed through the United States taxpayers. The way that this happens is because people can check a box when filing their taxes to donate $3 of their return to the cause.

Midterm Election – This is a general type of election that exists in a different year than the presidential election year, two years into the president’s term. In this midterm election, many other positions are voted on including local positions, state positions, House of Representative positions and some of the members of the senate.

Motor-Voter Bill – This is a bill that Congress passed in 1993 in order to allow citizens of the United States to register for voting whenever they are applying for a driver’s license.

Negative Ads – These are political advertisements that are designed to attack the opponent of a candidate, usually as a means of destroying the character of the opponent.

Open Primary – This is a primary where all of the registered voters are capable of voting no matter which party they have decided to register as.

Platform – This is a form written document stating the stances of the political party on a number of important issues as well as the party’s goals for the near and long-term future.

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United States Election Glossary pt 5

March 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

United States Election Glossary pt 5

Part of knowing how to participate in a United States election is to have a thorough understanding of the language and lingo. This is part five of the United States election glossary, including the more prevalent terms that you need to know.

Exit Poll – This is an informal poll that is taken using people that are leaving the voting booth after voting. The purpose of an exit poll is to predict the upcoming outcome of the current election before all of the polls have been closed.

Front Runner – This is the political candidate that currently appears to be winning the election.

General Election – This is an election that will be held all throughout the country on the same day, as opposed to a local or small scale election.

House of Representatives – This is a part of Congress, and the House is responsible for voting on laws and legislation. There are always 435 members of the house, and they are divided up among the states based on their population, though each state always has at least one member of the House of Representatives. Each of the districts has 570,000 citizens in it.

Incumbent – This is someone who currently holds an office.

Independent – This is someone that is not associated with a single political party.

Liberal – This is someone who is generally interested in reforming current conditions. Liberals are typically referred to as being “left wing.”

Libertarian – This is someone that belongs in the Libertarian party.

Lobbyist – These are people that are associated with specific groups, such as corporations or labor unions for example, that try to persuade government members, such as members of the Congress, to enact beneficial legislation for their group.

Majority – This means more than half when it pertains to voters.

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