Independent expenditures is the correct answer. Similar in name, but different in substance, to coordinated expenditures, independent expenditures are expenditures that are completely separated from a campaign. Thus, a smear ad from a PAC, for example, is not a coordinated expenditure: it’s an independent expenditure. Do you see why?

Because the Senate is considered the senior government body in the legislature, it makes sense that you would have to be older to serve in the Senate than in the House. The correct answer is that you have to be at least twenty-five to serve in the House and thirty to serve in the Senate. Most members are usually significantly older than this minimum threshold.

The answer is “false.” Out of everyone in the entire US at the time immediately after the Revolution, only the males could vote. Out of the males, only free white males could vote. Out of free white males, only those who weren’t Catholic or Jewish, and who had property could vote. Thus, in the beginning, only about half of the free adult male population was eligible to vote.

The only requirements to run for the office of U.S. Representative are that one must be at least 25 years old, have been an American citizen for at least 7 years, and reside in the state that the district is in. There is no actual requirement that a candidate has to live in the district that the candidate is trying to represent, only that the candidate live within the same state. Candidates for Senate do actually have to live in the state that they want to represent.

To earn an absolute majority and be elected President of the United States, a candidate needs out of an available electoral votes.

During the 1960s and student activism in response to the Vietnam War, a movement arose that wanted the voting age lowered to 18 from 21. By 1971, both houses of congress ratified the 26th Amendment and it was subsequently ratified by the states.

If no candidate receives a majority of Electoral College votes, then the election decision is placed in the hands of the members of the House of Representatives. The House members are charged with choosing the next president from among the top three electoral vote winners, with each state delegation possessing one combined vote amongst all their respective members. This is a very rare occurrence– the last election to be decided by the House was in 1824, between Democratic-Republicans John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

The primary responsibility of a poll watcher is to ensure that the election process is fair, honest, and involves no attempts at trickery or manipulation of the voting. Poll watchers are vital part of a fair and open modern democracy because they prevent chicanery.

The lame duck period does not mean that the government stops functioning until the newly elected officials are sworn into office. For the Congress, this means that the defeated or retiring Congressmen and Senators still have the opportunity to propose and vote on laws. The newly elected officials must be sworn into office before they can take any legislative action. The President may issue Executive Orders but they are not subject to the approval of state legislatures. The Supreme Court does not make laws rather they rule on the Constitutionality of the law.

While the Commission introduced many sweeping reforms to the political party convention system, the leaders of each of the two main parties were allowed to remain in power, so long as they agreed to cooperate with the Commission’s new restrictions. These reforms forced party leaders to make their appointments of convention delegates a matter of public record, with the entire process done with greater transparency. Party conventions underwent a similar overhaul, with new rules preventing the exclusion of minorities from the leadership and delegate levels. The states were also affected – each state was required to alter its delegate selection process so that all participants were able to be included.