Federal Election Commission. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States.
It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act. It describes its duties as "to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.
"[1] Membership[edit] Subsidy. A subsidy is a form of financial or in kind support extended to an economic sector (or institution, business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy.[1] Although commonly extended from Government, the term subsidy can relate to any type of support - for example from NGOs or implicit subsidies.
Subsidies come in various forms including: direct (cash grants, interest-free loans) and indirect (tax breaks, insurance, low-interest loans, depreciation write-offs, rent rebates).[2] Furthermore, they can be broad or narrow, legal or illegal, ethical or unethical. The most common forms of subsidies are those to the producer or the consumer.
Producer/Production subsidies ensure producers are better off by either supplying market price support, direct support, or payments to factors of production.[1] Consumer/Consumption subsidies commonly reduce the price of goods and services to the consumer. Types of subsidies[edit] Political action committee. In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a type of organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.[1][2] At the federal level, an organization becomes a PAC when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election, according to the Federal Election Campaign Act.[3] At the state level, an organization becomes a PAC according to the state's election laws.
History[edit] In 1947, as part of the Taft–Hartley Act, the U.S. Congress prohibited labor unions or corporations from spending money to influence federal elections, and prohibited labor unions from contributing to candidate campaigns (an earlier law, the 1907 Tillman Act, had prohibited corporations from contributing to campaigns). In 1971, United States Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). In its 2010 case Citizens United v.
United States presidential election in Florida, 2000. The 2000 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 7, 2000 as part of the greater 2000 United States presidential election.
After an intense recount process and the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, Governor George W. Bush officially won Florida's electoral votes, by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost 6 million cast, and as a result, the entire presidential election. The process was extremely divisive, and led to calls for electoral reform in Florida. Campaign[edit] Initially Florida had been considered a reliable red state. Also there was heavy backlash amongst the Cuban-American population against democrats during the Elian Gonzalez dispute, which Janet Reno the attorney general under Bill Clinton ordered Elian to be returned to Cuba.
In late October, one poll found that Gore was leading Bush and third parties with 44-42-4 among registered voters and 46-42-4 among likely voters.[4] Recount[edit] Electoral College (United States) What's the difference between soft and hard money campaign contributions?" In the simplest terms, "hard money" is from political donations that are regulated by law through the Federal Election Commission.
"Soft money" is money donated to political parties in a way that leaves the contribution unregulated. The difference boils down to a few crucial words and one administrative ruling. In 1978, the Federal Election Commission issued an administrative ruling that the funding rules established by law only applied to political campaigns, and not to "party building" activities.
The commission didn't go into great detail about what constituted a party building activity, basically defining it as something that didn't explicitly tell people to vote for a specific candidate. The ruling was issued, and political parties uniformly ignored it until 1988. What's the difference between soft and hard money campaign contributions?" Electronic voting. Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting using electronic systems to aid casting and counting votes.
Electronic voting technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting systems and specialized voting kiosks (including self-contained direct-recording electronic voting systems, or DRE). It can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet. In general, two main types of e-Voting can be identified:[1][2] e-voting which is physically supervised by representatives of governmental or independent electoral authorities (e.g. electronic voting machines located at polling stations);remote e-Voting where voting is performed within the voter's sole influence, and is not physically supervised by representatives of governmental authorities (e.g. voting from one's personal computer, mobile phone, television via the internet (also called i-voting[citation needed])).
Overview[edit] Paper-based electronic voting system[edit] What is the party column ballot. Coattail effect. The coattail effect is the tendency for a popular political party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election.
For example, in the United States, the party of a victorious presidential candidate will often win many seats in Congress as well; these congressmen are voted into office “on the coattails” of the president. This theory is prevalent at all levels of government. A popular statewide candidate for governor or senator can attract support for down ballot races of their party as well. Ballot. A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election, and may be a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting.[1] It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters.
Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. Election Day (United States) Not to be confused with Super Tuesday, for primary elections Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the general elections of public officials.
It occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November (this does not necessarily mean the "first Tuesday" in a month because the first day of a month can be a Tuesday.) The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8. The 2012 election was held on November 6, 2012. Congress has mandated a uniform date for presidential (3 U.S.C. § 1) and congressional (2 U.S.C. § 1 and 2 U.S.C. § 7) elections, though early voting is nonetheless authorized in many states.
Primary election. A primary election is an election that narrows the field of candidates before an election for office.
Primary elections are one means by which a political party or a political alliance nominates candidates for an upcoming general election or by-election. Primaries are common in the United States, where their origins are traced to the progressive movement to take the power of candidate nomination from party leaders to the people.[1] Other methods of selecting candidates include caucuses, conventions, and nomination meetings. Historically, Canadian political parties chose their candidates through nominating conventions held by constituency riding associations. Canadian party leaders are elected at leadership conventions, although some parties have abandoned this practice in favor of one member, one vote systems.