Glossary of election policy terms
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The following is a glossary of election policy terms. Each term on this page is accompanied by a brief definition. Some terms include links to more comprehensive definition pages; these terms are written in blue text.
Terms
General election policy terms
- Absentee/mail-in voting: Absentee/mail-in voting is voting that does not happen in person on Election Day but instead occurs another way (generally by mail). All states allow for some form of absentee/mail-in balloting. Some states require voters to provide a valid excuse to vote absentee/by mail, while others allow any eligible voter to cast an absentee/mail-in ballot.[1]
- All-mail voting: In all-mail voting states, voting is conducted primarily, although not necessarily exclusively, by mail.
- Approval voting: A voting system in which voters may vote for any number of candidates they choose.[2][3]
- Ballot stuffing: This term refers generally to the act of casting illegal votes or submitting more than one ballot per voter when only one ballot per voter is permitted.[4]
- Ballot exhaustion: Ballot exhaustion occurs when a ballot can no longer be included in a final tally because all the candidates chosen on the ballot are no longer in the contest.[5][6]
- Blanket primary: In a blanket primary, a voter is not required to vote for one party's candidates. Instead, for example, the voter may choose a Republican candidate for one office and a Democratic candidate for another.[7]
- Block voting: Block voting is a system in which a voter can select as many candidates as there are open seats.[2][3]
- Candidate withdrawal: Ballotpedia uses the term withdrew when a person announces a candidacy or files for an election but later decides—by his or her own choice—not to appear on the final ballot.
- Candidate disqualification: Ballotpedia uses the term disqualified when a person announces a candidacy or files for an election, but another entity—such as a court, election authority, or political party—prevents him or her from appearing on the final ballot. This may also be referred to as candidate removal.
- Canvassing: Canvassing is the process whereby candidates or campaign workers attempt to win votes by contacting voters directly. Canvassing may be conducted in person, by telephone or via email. Another important purpose of canvassing is to determine whether certain policies will prove popular with voters.[8][9]
- Caucus: A caucus is a party-administered meeting that also functions as a kind of nominating contest. At a caucus, participants may debate about the candidates; in addition, the voting process itself may not be conducted in secret. Instead, caucus-goers may vote by raising hands or gathering in groups organized by preferred candidate.[10]
- Closed primary: In a closed primary, only registered members of the political party conducting the primary are permitted to vote.[11]
- Cumulative voting: A cumulative voting system allows each elector to cast as many votes as there are seats up for election while also allowing the elector to distribute their votes in any way they choose, such as giving multiple votes to one candidate.[2][3]
- Delegates: Delegates "are individuals chosen to represent their states at their party conventions prior to a presidential election." Delegates formally select the presidential nominees of their respective parties at these conventions.[12]
- Exit polling: Exit polling is the polling of voters immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Exit polls are conducted to give an early indication of how an election has turned out.
- With fusion voting, more than one political party can support a common candidate. Consequently, the name of a single candidate can appear on the same ballot multiple times under multiple party lines.[13][14][15]
- Majority: A majority voting system is an electoral system in which the winner of an election is the candidate that received more than half of the votes cast.[2]
- Multi-winner system A multi-winner system is an electoral system in which multiple individuals can win election to an office.[2]
- National popular vote: The National Popular Vote Plan (NPV) refers to the concept of allocating a state's presidential electors to the candidate who wins the national popular vote regardless of the state results in a presidential election.[16]
- Open primary: An open primary is a primary election in which any registered voter may vote. In an open primary, a voter may vote without having to be a member of the party for which the primary is conducted.[17]
- Overvote: An overvote occurs when a voter chooses more candidates on a ballot than is permitted. This results in a ballot that cannot be included in the final tally.[18]
- Party list voting: Party list voting is a system in which electors vote for political parties rather than individual candidates.[2]
- Plurality: A plurality is the number of votes cast for a candidate that receives more votes than any other candidate without receiving a majority, or more than half, of the total votes cast.
- Primary election: A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office and run in the general election.[19]
- Proportional representation: Proportional representation refers to multi-winner systems in which winners are allocated in proportion to their votes.[2][3]
- Push polling: Push polling is a public-opinion survey technique used to influence voters. Loaded questions are posed to mislead or bias the listener against an opposing candidate or political party, rather than to gather data.[20]
- Ranked-choice voting: Ranked-choice voting is a system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner.[21][22]
- Runoff primary: A runoff primary is a second primary election held to determine which of the top two candidates with the most votes in the first primary will be awarded the party nomination for an office.
- Same-day registration: Same-day registration permits voters to both register to vote and cast a ballot on election day.[23]
- Single-winner system: A single-winner system is an electoral system in which one candidate can win election to an office.[2][3]
- Single voting system: A single voting system is a multi-winner voting system in which each voter has one vote regardless of the number of open seats.[2]
- Undervote: An undervote occurs when the number of choices selected by a voter in an election is less than the maximum number allowed for that election. An undervote also occurs when no vote is cast for a single-choice election. Unlike an overvote, a ballot will not be canceled or disqualified as the result of an undervote.[24][25]
Redistricting terms
- Contiguity: Contiguity refers to the principle that all areas within a district should be "physically adjacent." A total of 49 states require that districts of at least one state legislative chamber be contiguous. A total of 23 states require that congressional districts meet contiguity requirements.[26][27]
- Compactness: Compactness refers to the general principle that "the distance between all parts of a district" ought to be minimized. The United States Supreme Court has "construed compactness to indicate that residents have some sort of cultural cohesion in common." A total of 37 states "require their legislative districts to be reasonably compact." A total of 18 states impose similar requirements for congressional districts.[26][27]
- Community of interest: A "group of people in a geographical area, such as a specific region or neighborhood, who have common political, social or economic interests." A total of 24 states require that the maintenance of communities of interest be considered in the drawing of state legislative districts. A total of 13 states impose similar requirements for congressional districts.[26][27]
- Gerrymandering: Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing district lines to favor one political party, individual or constituency over another.
- Majority-minority districts: A majority-minority district is one in which a minority group or groups comprise a majority of the district's total population. As of 2013, 'the United States was home to 113 congressional majority-minority districts. This represented approximately 26 percent of the nation's 435 House districts.[28][29][30][31]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "Absentee and Early Voting," October 21, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 FairVote, "Electoral Systems," accessed August 3, 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 ACE: The Electoral Knowledge Network, "Electoral Systems," accessed August 3, 2017
- ↑ The Free Dictionary, "Stuff the ballot box," accessed September 22, 2013
- ↑ FairVote, "RCV Elections and Runoffs: Exhausted Votes vs Exhausted Voters in the Bay Area," October 19, 2016
- ↑ MinnPost, "Ranked-choice-voting reality: Theoretical 'perfect case' doesn't happen," August 26, 2013
- ↑ wiseGeek, "What is the Blanket Primary?" accessed October 29, 2015
- ↑ The Courier, "America Votes Teacher’s Guide For Feature 4: Becoming Informed," accessed December 2, 2013
- ↑ Merriam-Webster, "Canvass," accessed December 2, 2013
- ↑ Merriam-Webster, "Caucus," accessed October 29, 2015
- ↑ Fair Vote, "Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and Top Two," accessed November 6, 2013
- ↑ Council on Foreign Relations, "The Role of Delegates in the U.S. Presidential Nominating Process," June 10, 2008
- ↑ Taegan Goddard's Political Dictionary, "Fusion voting," accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ Working Families Party, "What is Fusion Voting?" accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ The Clarence Bee, "State Senate candidate calls for an end to fusion voting," June 23, 2010
- ↑ National Popular Vote, "Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote," accessed August 4, 2017
- ↑ FairVote.org, "Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and 'Top Two,'" accessed April 27, 2012
- ↑ FairVote, "Voter Error in Top Two Primary Can Be Far Higher than in RCV Races," August 12, 2014
- ↑ VoteSmart.org: "Government 101: United States Presidential Primary," accessed November 3, 2013
- ↑ CBS News: "The truth about push polls," February 11, 2009
- ↑ FairVote, "Electoral Systems," accessed July 7, 2017
- ↑ MinneapolisMN.gov, "Frequently Asked Questions about Ranked-Choice Voting," accessed July 7, 2017
- ↑ Demos.org: "What is same day registration? Where is it available?" accessed January 28, 2014
- ↑ ABC News, "WNT: Explaining the undervotes," November 30, 2000
- ↑ The Washington Post, "1.7 million people in 33 states and D.C. cast a ballot without voting in the presidential race," December 14, 2016
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 All About Redistricting, "Where are the lines drawn?" accessed April 9, 2015
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 FairVote, "Redistricting Glossary," accessed April 9, 2015
- ↑ Indy Week, "Cracked, stacked and packed: Initial redistricting maps met with skepticism and dismay," June 29, 2011
- ↑ The Atlantic, "How the Voting Rights Act Hurts Democrats and Minorities," June 17, 2013
- ↑ Redrawing the Lines, "The Role of Section 2 - Majority Minority Districts," accessed April 6, 2015
- ↑ United States Census Bureau, "2009-2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates," accessed April 8, 2015
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