POSC Exam 3

How was voter turnout in the 2020 Presidential election (Hint: It is described in the “Current
Events Bulletin” from Chapter 10)

• It was the highest voter turnout rate in over 100 year

• It was the lowest voter turnout rate in over 100 years.

• Voter turnout for presidential elections is fairly constant because of the large fines that
  people pay if they don’t vote in that electio

• We don’t know this information because it is a violation of privacy to find out if someone
  voted in an election or no

Our electoral system

• creates strong incentives for flip-flopping/“institutionalized lying” because candidates
  (especially for the presidency) must say one thing to get the votes of more extreme voters
  in the party primaries and then say something else to get the votes of the more centrist
  American voters in the General Election

• does not allow for many political parties that represent clear, distinct choices for the
  American electorate.

• relies heavily on campaign ads for the candidates to get their campaign promises to the
  larger public, which leads to overly simplistic platitudes and/or overblown attacks on
  their challenger rather than real solutions to complicated problems

• All of the above

Incumbents (those who are already in office and are running for re-election)

• win re-election only about half of the time.

• usually lose (about 80% of the time) because we are so sick and tired of politicians making promises they don’t keep.

• win over 80% of the time (and, in recent elections, closer to 100%)

• are constitutionally barred from running for re-election because the Framers worried
  about creating a class of “professional politicians

Compared to most other democracies, election campaigns in the United States

• a. are more expensive

• b. are less expensive

• c. are paid for primarily through taxes

• d. b and c only

as clearly demonstrated in the 2020 and 2022 elections, which of the following is a
distinguishing feature of elections in the United States

• Elections are infrequent.

• Election and vote-counting procedures vary considerably from state to state since each
  state has the constitutional authority to run elections as they would like.

• Elected positions have no fixed terms of office (each elected official decides when they
  will face the voters for re-election).

• All of the above

What is one of the primary criticisms of the new 501 (c) 4 organizations? (This is the “shell
corporation” Stephen Colbert created on the Colbert Report.

• a. They are an unfair restriction on the free speech of corporations.

• b. They can assist candidates financially without being officially tied to their campaigns.

• c. They are allowed to accept donations of campaign money without revealing the names of
  their donors

• d. Both b and c.

What did the US Supreme Court argue in its 2010 Citizen’s United v. Federal Elections
Commission ruling?

• They said that there is so much money in federal elections that, starting in 2012, all
  candidates for federal office MUST only use money set aside by Congress to run for
  office.

• 
  They said that corporations have freedom of speech rights which allow them to create ads
  independently of the candidates running for office advocating for specific candidates
  running for office.
  

• They said that we must adopt a PR voting system no later than 2024.

• They abolished the Electoral College because it clearly violates the notion of popular
  sovereignty

Does money have an important role to play in American elections?

• No. Ever since the 1976 Supreme Court ruling, Buckley v. Valeo all candidates for office
  are given exactly the same amount of money to run their primary and general election
  campaigns

• Yes. Incumbents have a substantial money advantage over their challengers, and they use
  this advantage to win re-election at extremely high rates

• Yes. Challengers are usually able to raise a lot more money than the incumbents, and
  they use that funding advantage to beat incumbents regularly.

• Sometimes. Women, because they are not as numerous as political candidates, are able to
  use this novelty to outraise and outspend the males whom they challenge, but when two
  males are running against one another incumbents win 50% of the time and challengers
  win 50% of the time

How does voter turnout in the United States compare to voter turnout in other countries?

• Our voter turnout rate is very low, along with other countries with federal systems and/or
  referendums, like India and Switzerland. (and even India is starting to overtake us)

• We clearly have the highest level of voter turnout of virtually any country in the world

• While lower than the voter turnout in Australia and Chile, where all citizens must vote or
  they face a fine, voter turnout in the United States is one of the highest of those countries
  that do not require their citizens to vote

• it is impossible to figure this out because our strict privacy laws make it impossible for us
  to get an accurate count of what percentage of the population voted in any given election

Which of the following is TRUE about the 2022 midterm elections ?

• More people voted in 2022 than in the 2020 presidential election.

• Despite the fact that the Republicans flipped the House from Democrats to Republicans
  and Democrats gained a one-seat increase in their majority in the Senate, the incumbency
  rate for the House and the Senate were near the very high levels that they have been
  during the post-WWII period

• Money did not have any effect on the outcome of the 2022 elections. About half of those
  who got elected actually had less money than those candidates they beat in the election

• All of the above are true.