1. Absentee ballot: a way for a person to vote by mailing in a paper ballot if he/she is not going to be home on Election Day or is unable to go to their polling place
2. Ballot box: the box where ballots are placed that are then taken to a central location to be counted
3. Beltway: the area in and around Washington, D.C., the nation's capital where all three branches of the federal government (executive, judicial, and legislative) are based
4. Bipartisan: neutral, favors neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party
5. Blue state: a state that typically votes for Democratic Party candidates.
6. Constituent: a person who is part of politicians' responsibility for representation whether at the local, state, or federal level
7. Electoral college: the process through which the president is officially elected based on electors from each state whose numbers are determined by population
8. Grass roots: a term that indicates an issue or campaign is firmly based with ordinary people
9. Incumbent: a politician who has been elected to office and is running a campaign to be re-elected to that office
10. Independent: a voter who claims he/she is not associated with a formal political party
11. Lame duck: any politician who will not be returning to office but will still serve out his/her term between Election Day and the swearing-in date for new office holders
12. Red state: a state that typically votes for Republican Party candidates
13. Stump speech: a speech given by a politician over and over again at many campaign events to reinforce his/her message to the voters
14. Swing state: states that go back and forth between red states and blue states so are often called “purple” states
15. Term limits: laws that say certain politicians can only serve a finite number of terms; U.S. Congress members do NOT have term limits but the president of the United States and many state governors do have term limits |