System of representation - One in which people choose who will represent them at various levels of government.

Free elections - Procedures in which people can vote for the person they believe will best represent their interests and beliefs.

Eligible - To vote in a U.S. federal election, you must be 18 years old and a citizen of this country. Additional rules vary by state.

Amendments to the Constitution - The 15th Amendment makes it illegal to prevent someone from voting because of their race or skin color. The 19th prevents voting discrimination based on gender. The 24th Amendment prohibits charging fees or taxes to vote. And the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. To read and see a copy of the Constitution and the Amendments, go to http://www.archives.gov/
national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html.

Civic duty - As a U.S. citizen, it is your duty to help protect the freedoms you have been given. Voting is one of the best ways to show you take that responsibility seriously.

Platform - A list of issues, often called planks, and where a political party stands on them.

Constitutional Requirements - To be President of the United States you must be a natural born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and be a resident of the country for 14 years.

Campaign slogans - Catch phrases or one-liners that summarize a candidate's vision or stand. Some of the most famous ones are Herbert Hoover's "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage," Dwight Eisenhower's "I like Ike!" and Bill Clinton's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" (which he got from Fleetwood Mac's 1977 hit "Don't Stop.") The Progressive Party got its nickname, the Bull Moose Party, after its presidential nominee of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, told reporters he was as "fit as a bull moose" to serve as the nation's chief executive again-Roosevelt had served as president from September 14, 1901 to March 4, 1909.

Embarrassing incident - Democrat Howard Dean's excited scream after he lost the Iowa caucus in 2004 was an infamous moment that year, turning off some voters who questioned his temperament; he dropped out of the race eventually.

Debates - Civic and political organizations often sponsor debates in which candidates respond to questions. Well-known members of the media often act as moderators.

Political action committees - These are often called PACs. To see a list, go to http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/pacronyms/pacronyms.pdf.

Lobbyists - People who are paid to promote a client's cause to government officials.

Campaign finance reform - The attempt to decrease the influence of people and groups who give lots money to political candidates. For more information, go to http://www.fec.gov/press/bkgnd/bcra_overview.shtml.

Special interest groups - Organizations that focus on an issue or set of issues and try to influence public policy to benefit their causes. These can include environmentalists, educators, and foreign governments, to name a few.

Law - The law's official name is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act; most people refer to it either by its acronym of BCRA or McCain-Feingold. The Federal Elections Commission enforces the law, as well as governs the financing of all federal elections. There are six commissioners appointed by the President to six-year terms. To keep the group nonpartisan, no more than three commissioners can belong to the same party.

Soft Money - unlimited amounts of money that can be contributed to national political parties and then used in campaigns.

Primary - A preliminary election in which people go to polls on a certain day and cast ballots for delegates to the party's convention. The delegates may pledge to support a candidate or be undeclared/uncommitted. In most states, the actual presidential candidates' names appear on the ballot. "Pledged" delegates are bound to vote for their candidate at the national convention. Undeclared delegates are free to vote for any candidate they wish at the convention. If no candidate gets a majority of votes on the first ballot at the national party convention, most states allow delegates to change their votes.

Caucus - A meeting or series of meetings for registered voter members of a political party to choose delegates to send to their parties' national conventions. Voters divide themselves into groups according to the candidate they support. At the end of the caucus, party organizers count the voters in each group and calculate how many delegates to the convention each candidate has won. As with the primaries, delegates can be pledged to a candidate or undecided. If no candidate gets a majority of votes on the first ballot at the national party convention, most states allow delegates to change their votes.

Caucuses - The first method used in this country to select candidates. Caucuses start out as local meetings, sometimes in a private home, where party members talk about the candidates and issues. Members who have picked a candidate can try to win over others during the caucus. To learn more about primaries and caucuses, go to http://www.thegreenpapers.com/Definitions.html.

Pledged to a Candidate - These delegates pledge to support a particular candidate. However, if no candidate gets a majority of votes on the first ballot at the national party convention, most states allow delegates to change their votes.

Most states - Four (4) states have both a primary and a caucus. Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico and Washington. To see a list of the 2008 primary and caucus dates, go to http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2008pdates.pdf.

Territories - American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia all hold either a primary or a caucus. Only the District of Columbia has an Electoral College vote, but all send delegates to the party conventions.

Super delegates - The Democratic Party created this category in the 1970s to give party officials the ability to weed out candidates deemed to be unelectable.

Donkey - In the 1828 presidential election, Andrew Jackson's opponents called him a jackass for trying to convince voters that he would be a "people's president." Instead of fighting the label, Jackson embraced it. Gradually the emblem for one of the earliest Democrats came to represent the party.

GOP - Short for "Grand Old Party," a phrase that first appeared in a Cincinnati, Ohio, newspaper in 1876.

Elephant - This creature became the party's mascot after cartoonist Thomas Nast used an elephant to represent Republican voters in 1874.

Progressive Party - Theodore Roosevelt launched this party in 1912 when he lost the GOP nomination to his friend William Howard Taft. Roosevelt had handpicked Taft to succeed him after he decided not to run in 1908. Roosevelt quickly became unhappy with Taft's conservative policies, however, and tried to wrest the GOP nomination away from him; he failed. When some in the press suggested the former president was not fit to serve again, Roosevelt retorted that he was "fit as a bull moose." That became the new party's nickname and the Bull Moose became the mascot.

Election Day - Election Day is not set in the Constitution. In 1845 Congress designated the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day. This date served several purposes. The day of the week gave people time to reach polling sites without having to travel on Sunday, the Sabbath; most of the population lived in rural areas at that time. It also gave states time to choose electors in time for the Electoral College, which by law had to meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after a presidential election. Early November was a good time of the year also, because the harvest was done, yet winter had not yet set in to make travel difficult.

"Smoke-filled rooms" - According to the Chicago Historical Society, the Associated Press created this famous phrase in 1920 to describe how Warren Harding got the Republican nomination. Legend has it that GOP leaders met in a hotel room after the convention became deadlocked. To read more, go to http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3217.html.

Super Tuesday - This phrase came into existence in 1988 after a group of southern states scheduled Democratic primaries for March 9. The states' political leaders did this to give the region a bigger role in nominating candidates.

Ticket - The list or slate of candidates selected by a political party to run for office.

Nine men - Nine vice presidents have moved up to the presidency. Eight of them assumed the job upon the President's death: John Tyler (1841), Millard Fillmore (1850), Andrew Johnson (1865), Chester A. Arthur (1881), Theodore Roosevelt (1901), Calvin Coolidge (1923), Harry S. Truman (1945) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1963). Gerald R. Ford was the only vice president to get the job following a presidential resignation, which happened in August 1974 when Richard M. Nixon stepped down in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office over the Watergate scandal and related issues. For more information about the vice presidency, go to http://www.senate.gov/
artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Vice_President.htm.

Women - The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, a year after Congress changed the laws to let women vote. Several states had done this already.

Voting age - Originally, the voting age was 25. In 1868, the 14th Amendment lowered the age to 21. The 26th Amendment lowered it to 18.

Electoral College Vote - It is possible for a candidate to win the popular vote and lose the Electoral College vote and thus the election.

National Voter Registration Act (1993) - This is commonly called the Motor Voter Act.

Help America Vote Act (2002) - The purpose of the act is to establish a program to provide funds to States 1) to replace punch card voting systems, 2) to establish the Election Assistance Commission 3) to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, 4) to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and 5) for other purposes. To learn more, go to http://www.eac.gov.

Census - The constitutionally mandated enumeration of the population. A nationwide count of the people who live in a country. The U.S. agency that oversees this is called the Census Bureau.

Punch card - This popular voting mechanism became infamous in 2000 when many machines did not punch holes all the way through paper ballots, making it difficult to know which candidate the voter chose. The little rounds of paper that should be punched out are called chads. Ones that were partially punched were called dimpled or pregnant chads. And then there were the hanging chads - those chads that were incompletely removed and hanging by one corner.

Dec. 18 - According to the Constitution, electors meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. Congress then tallies the results in early January, and a new president is officially "elected."