POLITICAL DICTIONARY CHAPTER 6

Prepared by a Student

Suffrage is the right to vote.  The Framers of the Constitution left the power to set suffrage qualifications to the States.  But the Constitution also sets some suffrage qualifications which are the minimum age to vote is 18, the prohibition of poll taxes, and others.

Franchise is just another word for suffrage – the right to vote.

Electorate is the potential voting population.  This term can refer to the totality of voters or electors, the partisans of a particular individual, group or political party, the collection of the voters enrolled in a geographically-defined area, or less commonly, the geographically-defined area which returns (elects) a representative. In America, the electorate is more than 205 million people, which is nearly every citizen who is at least 18 years of age.

Transients are people living in a State for a short period of time.  Nearly every State prohibits transients from voting.  In several States, the courts have held that college students who claim the campus community as their legal residence can vote there.  Other examples of transients are traveling sales agent, members of the armed services, and a college student.

Registration is the procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting.  Registration allows election officials have a list of people that are qualified to vote.

Purging is the process of election officials reviewing registered voters and removing the names of those that are no longer able to vote.  This is done every 2 to 4 years.  Sometimes, this requirement is ignored. 

Poll Books are the lists of registered voters in each precinct.  Poll books in places where the local process of purging are cluttered with a large numbers of people that are not qualified to vote or no longer meet the voting requirements.

Literacy is a person’s ability to read or write.  Literacy qualifications for voting were first put into effect in 1855 by Connecticut to prevent African Americans from voting.  Now, no State has this qualification anymore.

Poll Tax is a tax, or tariff, that has to be paid in ordered to be qualified to vote.  This qualification was used in the 1880s-1960s to allow only the rich and the powerful people to vote.  With only the rich and powerful people voting, it is they too themselves that are put into power.  So the 24^th amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes.

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral district lines (the boundaries of the geographic area from which a candidate is elected to a public office) in order to limit the voting strength of a particular group or party. 

Injunction is a court order that either compels or restraints the performance of some act by a private individual or by a public official.  The violation of an injunction amounts to contempt of court, a crime punishable by fine and/or imprisonments.

Preclearance is the approval from the Department of Justice for changes in election laws.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 created this restriction.  This prevents the weakening of voting rights for minorities.

Off-year Elections, also known as mid-term elections, are the congressional elections held in the even-numbered years between presidential elections.  The vast majority of these elections are held at the municipal level.  During these years, there are lower voter turn-out rates.

Political Efficacy is term referring to the citizens' faith and trust in government and their own belief that they can understand and influence political affairs.  People who lack political efficacy stay away from polls because they distrust politics and politicians.

Political Socialization is the process by which an individual acquires particular political orientations; the learning process by which people acquire their political beliefs and values.  Political socialization usually develops in the childhood/teenage years.

Gender Gap is the measurable difference between the partisan choices of men and women today.  In gender gap, women tend to favor the Democrats by a margin of five to ten percent and men often give the Republicans a similar edge.  It first appeared in the presidential election of 1980.

Party Identification is the loyalty of people to a particular political party.  This is the single most significant and lasting predictor of how a person will vote.  They usually vote for the candidates of their party election after election.

Straight-ticket Voting is the practice of voting for candidates of only one party in an election.  If a person uses this type of voting, it shows that he or she is extremely loyal to his or her political party.

Split-ticket Voting is the practice of voting for the candidates of more than one party in an election.  This began to increase in the 1960s and is fairly common today.  This weakens the conditions of individual political parties themselves.

Independents are people who have no party affiliation.  A large number of independents also weaken the individual parties themselves.  Their roles are critical in the elections in which the major political parties are near a tie.