Mobile Voter - Txt:Politic

19th Amendment - This amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote. It was ratified in 1920.

501c – A non-profit group, as defined by the IRS.

527’s - 527’s are political groups funded by “soft money” contributions. Examples are the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth or MoveOn.org

Ballot initiative - A public policy question decided by a vote of the people. The placement of the question on the ballot is initiated by the people (usually by petition). Used only at the state level.

Blue Dog Democrat - A Democratic Party member who is ideologically aligned most closely with moderate Republicans.

Boll Weevil - A conservative Democratic politician from a southern state.

Buckley v. Valeo – This was a landmark 1976 Supreme Court decision on campaign finance law that upheld the Federal Election Campaign Act's disclosure requirements, contribution limits, and provisions for public funding of presidential election campaigns.

The Court ruled that spending limits cannot be imposed by law, except for the limits accepted voluntarily by presidential candidates who receive public funds, because this would have the effect of restricting "free speech."

Thus, the ruling allows for unlimited spending by Congressional candidates (they do not receive public funds), and by persons or groups that campaign for or against a candidate, but do not coordinate their activities with any candidate or campaign. The ruling also says that candidates who do not receive public money do not have to limit spending of their own personal funds on their campaigns.

Can-Spam Act – passed in 2003, this act sets national standards for sending commercial messages via email and mobile and requires the FTC to enforce its provisions.

Can-Spam allows e-mail marketers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail as long as it contains all of the following:
_ an opt-out mechanism (sender has ten days to remove the users name once they have opted out and sale or transfer of an address after an opt-out is prohibited);
_ a valid subject line and header (routing) information;
_ a physical address for the person or group sending the message;
_ a label for adult content

Canvassing - A form of grass roots campaigning that involves going door to door to try to create new supporters for your candidate or issue (and to identify existing supporters).

Caucus (legislative) - A group of legislators brought together by common goals or characteristics. Congressional caucusses include the Republican and Democratic party caucuses. There is also the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus and a variety of caucuses oriented around specific issues.

Caucus (local party) - Political party meeting at which voters choose nominees to represent their political parties in general elections – basically the caucus is a grass-roots alternative to political primary. Iowa had the first presidential caucus in the US in Jan 2004

Closed primary - A primary in which only voters that belong to a particular political party can vote. Only registered Democrats can vote in a closed Democratic primary election.

Commission on Presidential Debates - The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987. Its primary purpose is to produce the presidential and vice presidential debates. The CPD is a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation.

Concurrent powers – These are powers shared under the Constitution by both national and state governments jointly. For instance, taxation and law enforcement.

Democracy – According to Winston Churchill: "the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Equal Protection Clause – This clause is a part of the Fourteenth Amendment and guarantees that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Federal Election Campaign Act - FECA was an act of Congress passed in 1971 as an overhaul of laws regulating contributions to and expenditures of political parties and candidates in federal elections. In 1974, the act was amended and the Federal Election Commission was created. It was amended again in 1976 after the Supreme Courts “Buckley v. Valeo” decision and then again in 1979.

FECA limits who can make political contributions, how much can be contributed and establishes public disclosure requirements for those who do. FECA allocates about $62 million for each major presidential candidate. If the candidate accepts this money, then no additional funds may be raised.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) - The commission is an independent regulatory agency that enforces the terms of the Federal Election Campaign Act. Members of the FEC are chosen by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The commission is evenly divided – no more than 3 commissioners may be members of the same political party – and is comprised of 6 members, each serving six-year terms.

Fiscal year - The beginning and end of the federal government's annual budgetary cycle, which begins October 1st and ends September 30th

Gerrymandering - The redrawing of voting district boundaries by the party in power in such a way that the parties supporters are strategically grouped in the hopes of increasing their power in the next election.

Political gerrymanders date back all the way to the colonial times. The Framers provided a remedy for the problem: the Constitution gives state legislatures the initial power to draw federal election districts, but authorizes Congress to “make or alter” those districts. In Bandemer, the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause also grants judges the power–and duty–to control that practice.

HAVA - The Help America Vote Act of 2002. Legislation aiming to improve administration of elections in the U.S. by:
1. creating a new federal agency to serve as a clearinghouse for election administration information;
2. providing funds to states to improve election administration and replace outdated voting systems; and
3. creating minimum standards for states to follow in several key areas of election administration.

In practice, has become something of a hodge-podge of reforms - many of which have been difficult for states to implement. Many of which haven't addressed the 3 needs outlined above.

Invisible primary - Leading up to the first primaries, candidates have already begun campaigning and there is often a general consensus about who is the frontrunner. This time period is often referred to as the invisible primary, because, although no votes have been cast, it already seems as though the party has selected its nominee.

Matching Funds - These are federal funds given to presidential candidates that match private contributions given by individuals dollar-for-dollar. Eligible candidates in the presidential primaries receive up to $250 in matching funds for each individual contribution they receive, provided they agree to limit their campaign spending to $37 million.

Mobilization Groups - Groups whose primary focus is registering voters

Motor-voter Law - The Motor-voter law let US citizens register to vote when applying for or renewing their driver’s license. It became effective on January 1, 1995.

"Necessary & Proper" Clause – This is a provision in the Constitution which suggests that the federal government’s powers go beyond those that are explicitly stated in the Constitution itself.

Nonprobability Sampling – A selection of respondents for a survey or political poll which isn’t random. As a result, the responses from the survey may not be representative of the general population.

Open Primary – Primary for the nomination of a candidate of a particular party in which voters of any political party are eligible to vote.

Plurality - A voting system where the greatest number of votes wins, even if a majority is not reached. Also can be known as ‘First Past the Post’ (or FPTP) electoral system as an allusion to horse racing.

Psephology - The predictive or statistical study of elections.

Push Polling - This is a survey technique where the goal is to influence the person taking the poll instead of actually collecting data. This is done by incorporating negative or misleading information about opposing candidates into the survey questions.

Push Polling was most famously done (allegedly) by the Bush campaign against John McClain in the 2000 Republican Party Primaries. Bush pollsters reportedly called houses in South Carolina asking “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”. Although the allegation was false, the Bush campaign was (again, allegedly) able to plant the idea in the minds of thousands of voters and, eventually, cause McCain to lose the state and eventually drop out of the race.

Push Polling can also be used more generally, just to try to get certain ideas or themes into voter’s minds. For example, a candidate’s pollsters might ask questions which predominantly deal with terrorism and safety, or the economy or abortion if it was perceived that the opposition was weak on any of these points.

Representation – There are 435 Congressional districts. Currently, each district contains approximately 570,000 people. However, seats in the House are reapportioned every ten years, after the decennial census. Although the number of seats and, consequently, the number of Congressional districts has been fixed at 435, individual states may gain or lose districts as a result of reapportionment.

Soft money - Campaign contributions from large donors which were given to political parties instead of going directly to campaigns – this allowed donors to elude the legal limits placed on campaign contributions. Soft money contributions were essentially outlawed by the McCain-Feingold Bill.

Split-ticket voting - Casting votes for candidates of different political parties on the same ballot. For example,.casting a vote for the Republican presidential candidate while voting for the Democratic congressional candidate.

Suffrage – The civil right to vote … and the use of that right.

Vieth v. Jubelirer - In Vieth v. Jubelirer, Democrats sought to overturn Pennsylvania's redistricting plan, which was drafted by a Republican-led State Legislature and signed into law by a Republican governor. The redistricting plan gave Republicans an advantage in 12 of 19 Congressional districts, even though Democrats outnumbered Republicans statewide.

The Supreme Court was split in its ruling. An earlier case before the Supreme Court, Davis v. Bandemer, held that political gerrymandering claims were justiciable. In Vieth, four justices ruled that redistricting, as a political matter, should not be decided by the courts. Five justices ruled that partisan redistricting could be unconstitutional, but they didn't settle on a standard for deciding when a party had gone too far. In the end, the court allowed the Pennsylvania map to stand.

The Vieth case is important because it ultimately inspired activists to attempt to reform gerrymandering on a state by state basis (ie Proposition 77 in California).

VRM – Voter Relationship Management. VRM is the political world’s version of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). CRM originated as a way to manage customer data for sales people in the field. It later grew to include marketing and production data, and evolved to a sales worldview that put the relationship with the customer and excellent customer service the focus as opposed to the product.