194 PART Two • ThE PoliTiCs oF AmERiCAn DEmoCRACy
Hatch Act 176
independent
expenditures 177
indirect primary 181
issue advocacy
advertising 177
midterm elections 188
office-block, or
Massachusetts,
ballot 186open primary 182
party-column, or
Indiana, ballot 186
political action
committee (PAC) 176
political consultant 174
presidential primary 172primary election 173
registration 190
socioeconomic
status 192
soft money 177
superdelegate 181
super PAC 178vote-eligible
population 189
voter turnout 188
voting-age
population 189chaptersummary
1 The legal qualifications for holding political office
are minimal at both the state and the local levels,
but holders of political office still are predominantly
white and male and are likely to have professional
status.
2 American political campaigns are lengthy and
extremely expensive. In recent decades, they have
become more candidate centered rather than
party centered in response to decreasing party
identification. Candidates have begun to rely on
paid professional consultants to perform the various
tasks necessary to wage a political campaign. The
campaign organization devises a campaign strategy
to maximize the candidate’s chances of winning.
Candidates use public opinion polls and focus groups
to gauge their popularity and to test strategies.
3 Interest groups are major sources of campaign
funds. The contributions are often made through
political action committees, or PACs. Other methods
of contributing include issue advocacy advertising.
The McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 imposed
significant restrictions on campaign finance, but in
2010 these restrictions were largely swept away by
the Supreme Court in its ruling Citizens United v.
FEC.
4 Campaign finance today is largely based on
two types of committees. Super PACs can raise
unlimited funds from any source, but supposedly
are not allowed to coordinate with candidate
campaigns. Candidate committees face restrictions
on contributions but are not limited in how they may
spend their funds to support a campaign.
5 After the Democratic convention of 1968, the
McGovern-Fraser Commission formulated new
rules for primaries, most of which were also adoptedby Republicans. These reforms opened up the
nomination process for the presidency to all voters.
6 A presidential primary is a statewide election
to help a political party determine its presidential
nominee at the national convention. Some states use
the caucus system of choosing convention delegates.
The primary campaign recently has been shortened
to the first few months of the election year.
7 The voter technically does not vote directly for
president but chooses between slates of presidential
electors. In most states, the slate that wins the most
popular votes throughout the state gets to cast
all the electoral votes for the state. The candidate
receiving a majority (270) of the electoral votes wins
the election. Both the mechanics and the politics of
the electoral college have been criticized sharply.
8 The United States uses the Australian ballot,
a secret ballot that is prepared, distributed, and
counted by government officials. The office-block
ballot groups candidates according to office. The
party-column ballot groups candidates according to
their party labels and symbols.
9 Voter participation in the United States is often
considered to be low, especially in elections that do
not feature a presidential contest. Turnout is lower
when measured as a percentage of the voting-age
population than it is when measured as a percentage
of the population actually eligible to vote.
10 In colonial times, only white males who owned
property were eligible to vote. The suffrage issue
has concerned, at one time or another, most groups
in the United States. Today, to be eligible to vote,
a person must satisfy registration, citizenship,
age, and residency requirements. Each state has
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