1. Voting Definitions

2. Suffrage The right to vote

3. Franchise

4. Electorate The potential voting population

5. Transient Person living in the state for only a short time ◦Doesn’t retain the right to vote until establishing legal residence there

6. Registration A procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting

7. Purge Reviewing the list of registered voters and to remove the names of those who are no longer eligible to vote

8. Poll Books The list of all registered voters in each precinct

9. Literacy A person’s ability to read or write

10. Poll Tax A special tax, demanded by states, as a condition of voting

11. Injunction A court order that forces or limits the performance of some act by a private individual or by a public official

12. Off-Year Election Congressional election that occurs between presidential election years

13. Gender Gap Measurable differences between partisan choices of men and women

14. Party Identification Loyalty of people to a political party

15. Straight-Ticket Voting The practice of voting for candidates of only one party in an election

16. Split-Ticket Voting Voting for candidates of different parties for different offices at the same election

17. Independent A term used to describe who have no party affiliation

18. Political Action Committee The political extension of special interest groups which have a major stake in public policy

19. Subsidy A grant of money, usually from the government

20. Soft Money Money given to State and local party organizations for voting-related activities

21. Hard Money Campaign money that is subjected to regulations by the FEC

22. Public Opinion The complex collection of the opinions of many different people; the sum of all of their views

23. Mass Media Those means of communication that reach large audiences, especially television, radio, printed publications, and the Internet

24. Peer Group People with whom one regularly associates, including friends, classmates, neighbors, and co-workers

25. Opinion Leader Any person who, for any reason, has an unusually strong influence on the views of others

26. Mandate The instructions or commands a constituency gives to its elected officials

27. Interest Group Private organizations whose members share certain views and work to shape public policy

28. Straw Vote Polls that seek to read the public’s mind simply by asking the same question of a large number of people

29. Sample A representative slice of the public

30. Public Agenda The public issues on which the people’s attention is focused