caucus   A private meeting of political party members in order to seek agreement on a common course of action, to select delegates for a state or national nominating convention, and so on. As a nominating device, the caucus was replaced by the convention mainly because the caucus limited participation of party members.

precinct   A local government subdivision for organizing the voting process, typically containing less than a thousand voters. Each precinct has only one polling place, i.e., a place to vote.

state convention   Convention process at which delegates are chosen to go to the national convention.

nonpartisan primary   A primary in which candidates are not labeled by political party. Nonpartisan primaries are mostly held in municipal, i.e., city, elections.

Super Tuesday   A presidential primary election day in March in which many states participate to downplay the earlier Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

open primary   A primary election in which a voter may vote for the nomination of any of the candidates regardless of his or her political party affiliation.

closed primary   A primary election in which a voter must declare (or have previously declared) a political party affiliation and vote only in that party's ballot in the primary election.

Smith v. Allwright   United States Supreme Court decision which held that primaries are an "integral part of the election process" thereby protecting the rights of minorities to vote in state primary elections.

direct mail   Method of political campaigning which involves sending information and a request for money to names obtained from lists of people who have supported candidates of similar views in the past.

Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974   Congressional legislation with established the goal of tightening reporting requirements for contributions and limiting overall expenditures. It additionally created the bipartisan Federal Election Commission (FEC), an independent agency, to administer campaign finance laws and enforce compliance with their requirements.

soft money   Funds given by national political parties to their state and local parties for nonfederal uses, such as voter registration drives. It is often unreported because of its nonfederal character.

Political Action Committees (PACs)  Special-interest groups that have a major stake in public policy, and whose purpose is to raise and then distribute campaign funds to candidates for political office.

political activation   Outcome of political campaigns wherein voters are activated in that voters contribute money or become active in campaigns.

selective perception   Political phenomenon in which voters tend to pay the most attention to positions they already agree with and interpreting events according to their own predisposition.

GOVT 2305  American Government and Politics
Cathedral High School, El Paso, Texas
Last updated:  June 2004