Preparing to Vote(Packet 17)

General voting words

• Ballot: the paper you vote on.

• Candidate: someone running for office.

• Issues: important ideas or concerns.

• Endorsement: when someone says they’re supporting / backing a certain candidate.

• Proposals: another name for issues.

Ways to find out about candidates and/or issues

• Newspapers – especially the editorials• Magazines – Time, Newsweek, etc…• Television – even those Sunday morning shows

- or the political channels• Radio – Talk radio• Debates – TV / radio for big debates

• Pamphlets – often sent to your house

Political Parties

Major• Democrats

• Republicans

Others

(Minority Parties)

http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm

Some others are

Non-Partisan (no party)

Primary and General Elections

• An election to nominate (name) candidates to run for office.

• For example: there may be 5 different Democrats wanting to run for office, so in a primary, they’ll vote to see which one of the 5 will be the one to run.

• The election that decides who will be the one who actually wins and takes office.

Closed / Open Primaries

• You must be registered as a member of a political party to vote.

• Democrats could only vote for primary Democrats.

• Would keep the other side from voting for someone who wouldn’t beat their candidate.

• Every registered voter can vote – no matter which political party they belong to.

Split tickets

• Voting for people in more than one political party (splitting your vote a couple of ways).

• Example: voting for a Republican President and a Democratic Governor

• In some primaries, you cannot vote a split ticket.

Absentee Ballots

• If for some reason you know ahead of time you won’t be able to vote, you can get an absentee ballot.

• Like: soldiers in another country, people out of their home state for vacation or business, or elderly people who’d have a hard time getting out to vote.

Soweto, South Africa (1994)