A.P. U.S. Government
- What
- A.P. U.S. Government
- When
- 5/3/2018
- Where
- A.P. U.S. Government
Classwork:
ODD BLOCK TODAY.
Students finished their discussion on the Judicial document.
Voting Behavior, Public Opinion, and the Media
***********KEEP CAUSE and EFFECT in mind as you review!!!
1) Voting and the Media: major linkage institutions from the public to the government making public policy.
2) Reserve Powers Clause of the 10th Amendment: gives states the right to determine voting procedures.
3) 15th Amendment: gave freed slaves (males) the right to vote.
4) 17th Amendment: voters select
5) 19th Amendment: right to vote can not be denied based on sex (women get the suffrage!)
6) 24th Amendment: outlaws poll tax as a requirement to vote
7) 26th Amendment: prohibits federal and state governments from denying the right to vote to 18 year olds in federal and state elections.
8) Voting Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1965: increased opportunities for minorities to register to vote and allowed the U.S. Attorney General to prevent state interference in the voting process.
9) Baker v Carr (1962): established the “one man, one vote” principle.
10) “Majority- Minority districts: majority-minority districts as a result of gerrymandering are ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS.
11) Proposition 187: a
12) Political Socialization: determines voting behavior and your party identification (i.e. which party you align with). So they way you’re raised (socialized by family, friends, and your school) as well as the media and your education will be a great determinate of if/how you vote.
13) Democratic Voters: people in lower income brackets and laborers tend to vote Democratic. Why? The Democratic Party is for funding of social programs and sees government as a way to help those in need.
14) Republic Voters: upper-middle to upper-income level voters tend to vote Republican because this party wants smaller government, stresses individual responsibility, and wants to lower income taxes for all, even the wealthy.
15) NUMBER ONE FACTOR that DETERMINES VOTER TURNOUT: citizens with higher incomes and greater education vote in higher numbers than those with lower incomes and less education.
16) Voting trend for women: they tend to vote in greater numbers for democratic candidates than do men.
17) Soccer mom: broadly refers to a North American middle-class suburban woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to their youth sporting events or other activities In large part, the intense media interest stemmed from the media's belief that soccer moms had become the most sought-after group of swing voters in the 1996 elections. In the end, suburban women favored Clinton (Democrat) by 53 to 39, while suburban men voted for Dole (republican).
18) Youth Vote: have voted in much lower numbers than other groups, although many in this demographic voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
19) Religious background: those who are churchgoers tend to vote Republican, while those who do not attend church regularly tend to vote Democrat.
20) Ethnicity: Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians tend to vote Democrat.
21) Southern states: tend to vote more Republican on the national level.
22) Party Identification: which party you “belong” to/support. A major factor in determining how people vote.
23) Presidential elections: personality (of the candidate) and issues, rather than party have been a conclusive factor in determining the outcome of the election. (Let’s discuss Howard Dean and yelling).
24) “ticket-splitting”: when a person votes for candidates of different parties for various political offices (i.e. voting for the person, rather than strictly for the political party). In many elections, split-ticket voting occurs more than straight-ticket voting.
25) “straight-ticket voting”: a voter chooses candidates from the same political party for every office up for election.
26) Motor Voter Act of 1993: passed into law by president Bill Clinton; enabled people to register to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles; HUGE numbers registered to vote. In fact, it has not been since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that so many people have registered to vote.
27) Voter turnout: downward trend over the past 40 years in presidential elections…only about 50% of eligible voters turned out from 1968 to 2008. EXCEPTIONS: 62% in 2008 and 58% in 2012.
28) “Mid-term elections” (AKA “off-year elections”): voter turnout is even lower than in presidential election years.
29) Why is voter turn-out so low, especially in an age of election/candidate coverage in all media? Decline in party identification and an increase in distrust of politicians.
30) Voting Rights Act of 1965: A law passed at the time of the civil rights movement. It eliminated various devices, such as literacy tests, that had traditionally been used to restrict voting by African-Americans. All such states were in the South. Expands democracy! Made the 15th Amendment a reality!
31) The Civil Rights Act of 1964: is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").
32) Opinion Polls: increased dramatically in recent years. Pollsters want to know what the public is thinking in order to determine how they might vote. Polls have become so sophisticated that the use of exit polls (polling done with people after they exit from voting)in carefully selected precincts (i.e. voting districts) can accurately predict the outcome of an election in just minutes after the polls close. BIG QUESTION: If East Coast election results are reported right after polls close, will it influence West Coast voters to stay home?
33) For a poll to be accurate, the questions on a survey poll must be asked of a group of people--what pollsters call a sample--that is representative of the larger population.
34) Social Media: in 2012, the Obama Campaign used social media more effectively than the Romney Campaign as a tool to get out their vote. Major contributing factor in Obama’s victory over Governor Romney.
35) What the media covers: has a huge influence on what the public perceives as important.
36) Media has been blamed: for the decline of party identification and party politics. In other words, why should a person get involved with a political party when the interactive media makes it easy to access information and influence office-holders?
37) Trial balloons: selective leaking of information by politicians to see how voters react to issues or public policy.
38) Media and Romney’s “47%” remark (in the 2012 presidential election versus Barrack Obama): an anonymous person videotaped Mitt Romney at a fund-raising vent saying that about 47% of Americans did not pay federal income taxes and that they were looking for government handouts and therefore would never vote for him as they would be voting for a Democrat. His remarks were very harmful to his campaign. See this interesting CBS News article: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fact-checking-romneys-47-percent-comment/
39) Modern presidents depend on the media: to tell the story of the president’s agenda. The president uses his press secretary to deal with the “press corp.”, as both a way to genuinely inform the public and to “spin” explanations of negative press about the president.
40) Other ways the President communicates with the American people (and the world): through the State of the Union Address and weekly radio addresses. By virtue of the fact that he is the president, he has a built-in “bully pulpit”. A president’s relationship with the media is often one of love/hate usually adversarial as the media are the “Watchdogs of Democracy”.
41) A president must have public support to complete his agenda. Approval ratings are a sign of public support and presidents usually hover around a 50% job approval rating at the end of their term in office. The two most important factors for a president’s approval rating are his foreign policy successes or failures and whether or not the economy is performing well or poorly.
42) By winning election to office, a president will claim he has a “mandate” (authorization/support) from the public for his political policy agenda.
GO TO THE FOLLOWING AP WEBPAGE AND REVIEW FRQS, Scoring Guidelines and Sample Responses:
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/2086.html
ALSO: For Today’s Review Focus on the following FRQs on the AP Website:
2013: #4A
2014: #2
Homework: