Magruder's American Government: 10. Government by the People, Sections 4–7

A ballot is the medium by which a voter registers a choice in an election. The word comes from the Italian ballotta, "little ball," and reflects the practice of dropping black or white balls into a box to indicate a choice.

Many of them did so by absentee voting—a process by which they could vote without going to their polling places on election day.

The coattail effect occurs when a strong candidate running for an office at the top of the ballot helps attract voters to other candidates on the party’s ticket. In effect, the lesser-known office seeker “rides the coattails” of the more prestigious personality...

A precinct is a voting district. Precincts are the smallest geographic units for the conduct of elections.

To be a public opinion, a view must involve something of general concern and of interest to a significant portion of the people as a whole.

The mass media include those means of communication that reach large, widely dispersed audiences (masses of people) simultaneously.

Many opinion leaders hold public office. Some, often referred to as pundits, write for newspapers or magazines, or express their opinions on radio, television, or the Internet.

As a result, a party and its victorious candidates regularly claim to have received a mandate to carry out their campaign promises. In American politics, a mandate refers to the instructions or commands a constituency gives to its elected officials.

Private organizations whose members share certain views and objectives, and who work to shape the making and the content of public policy are called interest groups. These organizations are also very aptly known as pressure groups and special interest groups.

Most earlier polling efforts were of the straw vote variety. That is, they were polls that sought to read the public’s mind simply by asking the same question of a large number of people.

The universe is a term that means the whole population that the poll aims to measure.

Clearly, each of those universes is so large that it would be impossible to interview all of its members. So pollsters construct a sample—a representative slice of the total universe.

A random sample is composed of randomly selected people, and so it is one in which all the members of its universe stand an equal chance of being interviewed.

A medium is a means of communication; it transmits some kind of information. Media is the plural of medium. The mass media include those means of communication that can reach large, widely dispersed audiences simultaneously.

The media play a very large role in shaping the public agenda, the societal problems that the nation’s political leaders and the general public agree need government attention.

Instead, newscasts featuring candidates are usually short, sharply focused sound bites—snappy reports that can be aired in 30 or 45 seconds or so.

A labor union is an organization of workers who share the same type of job or who work in the same industry.

Lobbyists are those people who try to persuade public officials to do those things that interest groups want them to do.

The term lobbying was first used in Great Britain in the 17th century, referring to members of the public who waited in the public lobbies of the House of Commons to talk with members of Parliament.

An interest group may also file an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in a case to which it is not itself a party but in which it does have a stake. An amicus brief consists of written arguments presented to a court in support of one side in a dispute.

Most lobbyists know how to bring grass-roots pressures—pressures from members of an interest group or from the people at large, often beginning at a very basic level—to bear on public officials.