WGU C963 FINAL AMERICAN POLITICS AND
THE US CONSTITUTION EXAM SCRIPT
◉ PACs (Political Action Committees) Answer: A committee set up
by a corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises and
spends campaign money from voluntary donations
◉ Electoral votes needed to win. Answer: 270 out of 538
◉ Caucus Answer: A meeting of local party members to choose party
officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.
◉ "King Caucus" refers to Answer: the use of each party's
congressional caucus to nominate presidential candidates during the
early nineteenth century.
◉ Electors Answer: people elected by the voters in a presedential
election as members of the electoral college
◉ Primaries vs. Caucuses Answer: Primary- more democratic +
representative
,Caucus- participants more informed + more interactive
◉ brokered convention Answer: no candidate gets a majority of
delegates, leaving party elites to pick a nominee
◉ Interest groups are Answer: organizations that seek to influence
government in order to achieve some or all of their goals.
◉ Lobbyist Answer: A person who is employed by and acts for an
organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy
decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
◉ legislative liaison Answer: executive personnel who work with
members of Congress to secure their support in getting a president's
legislation passed
◉ inside lobbying Answer: activities by lobbyists and interest group
leaders that involve direct contact with policy makers
◉ outside lobbying Answer: A form of lobbying in which an interest
group seeks to use public pressure as a means of influencing
officials.
,◉ Twenty-fourth Amendment Answer: The constitutional
amendment passed in 1964 that declared poll taxes void in federal
elections.
◉ Amicus briefs are Answer: known as "friend of the court" briefs
◉ literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses Answer: loopholes in
amendments 13-15 that kept blacks from voting in southern states
◉ National Voter Registration Act of 1993 Answer: this act passed in
1993 and frequently called the "Motor Vehicle Act" is a piece of
legislation that includes a provision that makes it possible to register
to vote when applying for or renewing your drivers license.
◉ Fifteenth Amendment (1870) Answer: One of the Reconstruction
Amendments
*Provisions:*
Prohibited the government from using a citizen's race, color, or
previous status as a slave as a voting qualification.
◉ Nineteenth Amendment (1920) Answer: granted women the right
to vote; its ratification capped a movement for women's rights that
dated to the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Although women were
voting in state elections in 12 states when the amendment passed, it
enabled 8 million women to vote in the presidential election of 1920.
, ◉ Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) Answer: It outlawed taxing
voters, i.e. poll taxes, at presidential or congressional elections, as an
effort to remove barriers to Black voters.
◉ Breedlove v. Suttles (1937) Answer: The Supreme Court upheld
poll taxes as constitutional in the 1937 case
◉ Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971) Answer: Lowered the voting
age from 21 to 18
◉ voting-eligible population (VEP) Answer: citizens who have
reached the minimum age to be eligible to vote, excluding those who
are not legally permitted to cast a ballot
◉ compulsory voting laws Answer: require citizens to vote in
elections or pay a fine.
◉ Shelby County v. Holder, 2013 (5-4 decision) Answer: States and
localities do not need federal approval to change voting laws.
◉ ballot fatigue Answer: the phenomenon by which voters cast
fewer votes for offices listed toward the bottom of the ballot
THE US CONSTITUTION EXAM SCRIPT
◉ PACs (Political Action Committees) Answer: A committee set up
by a corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises and
spends campaign money from voluntary donations
◉ Electoral votes needed to win. Answer: 270 out of 538
◉ Caucus Answer: A meeting of local party members to choose party
officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.
◉ "King Caucus" refers to Answer: the use of each party's
congressional caucus to nominate presidential candidates during the
early nineteenth century.
◉ Electors Answer: people elected by the voters in a presedential
election as members of the electoral college
◉ Primaries vs. Caucuses Answer: Primary- more democratic +
representative
,Caucus- participants more informed + more interactive
◉ brokered convention Answer: no candidate gets a majority of
delegates, leaving party elites to pick a nominee
◉ Interest groups are Answer: organizations that seek to influence
government in order to achieve some or all of their goals.
◉ Lobbyist Answer: A person who is employed by and acts for an
organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy
decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
◉ legislative liaison Answer: executive personnel who work with
members of Congress to secure their support in getting a president's
legislation passed
◉ inside lobbying Answer: activities by lobbyists and interest group
leaders that involve direct contact with policy makers
◉ outside lobbying Answer: A form of lobbying in which an interest
group seeks to use public pressure as a means of influencing
officials.
,◉ Twenty-fourth Amendment Answer: The constitutional
amendment passed in 1964 that declared poll taxes void in federal
elections.
◉ Amicus briefs are Answer: known as "friend of the court" briefs
◉ literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses Answer: loopholes in
amendments 13-15 that kept blacks from voting in southern states
◉ National Voter Registration Act of 1993 Answer: this act passed in
1993 and frequently called the "Motor Vehicle Act" is a piece of
legislation that includes a provision that makes it possible to register
to vote when applying for or renewing your drivers license.
◉ Fifteenth Amendment (1870) Answer: One of the Reconstruction
Amendments
*Provisions:*
Prohibited the government from using a citizen's race, color, or
previous status as a slave as a voting qualification.
◉ Nineteenth Amendment (1920) Answer: granted women the right
to vote; its ratification capped a movement for women's rights that
dated to the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Although women were
voting in state elections in 12 states when the amendment passed, it
enabled 8 million women to vote in the presidential election of 1920.
, ◉ Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) Answer: It outlawed taxing
voters, i.e. poll taxes, at presidential or congressional elections, as an
effort to remove barriers to Black voters.
◉ Breedlove v. Suttles (1937) Answer: The Supreme Court upheld
poll taxes as constitutional in the 1937 case
◉ Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971) Answer: Lowered the voting
age from 21 to 18
◉ voting-eligible population (VEP) Answer: citizens who have
reached the minimum age to be eligible to vote, excluding those who
are not legally permitted to cast a ballot
◉ compulsory voting laws Answer: require citizens to vote in
elections or pay a fine.
◉ Shelby County v. Holder, 2013 (5-4 decision) Answer: States and
localities do not need federal approval to change voting laws.
◉ ballot fatigue Answer: the phenomenon by which voters cast
fewer votes for offices listed toward the bottom of the ballot
