The election of 1928 was won in a landslide by the Republican candidate, Herbert Hoover. He ran on the platform of opposition to prohibition and promising to maintain a strong economy. The booming 20s, as they are now often called, was a time of great economic growth and was firmly associated with the Republican Party; however, less than a year into Hoover’s Presidency the Great Depression broke out and he was voted out of office in the election of 1932 as emphatically as he was elected in 1928.

The general public only “directly” elects representative to the Senate and to the House. Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the President and approved by Congress. The President and Vice-President are voted for by the general public, but in an election the public is actually voting for electors who, through the electoral college, vote for the President and Vice-President. They key word of the question is "directly."

Incumbents (politicians who already hold the position for which they are running) win the vast majority of congressional elections. In some election cycles, the figure has been as high as ninety-percent.

All of these statements are true except that younger people are more likely to vote than older people. Young people, those in their twenties in particular, are notoriously difficult to get to the polls whereas older people tend to turn out in overwhelming numbers.

A caucus is the name given to the meeting of local members of a political party to decide the platform and issues of that political party and to select candidates for election. Caucuses were more prominent in the early part of the twentieth century than they are today, but they are still part of the electoral process in places like Iowa.

The Presidential election of 1876 had the highest percentage of the population turning out to vote in United States history, narrowly beating the pre-Civil War election of 1860. It was an election marked by a stark regional divide between the Republican North and the Democratic South (although New York voted Democratic). When there is stark regional differences voter turnout is generally higher, and during the pre-Civil War and immediate post-Civil War era of American politics, voter turnout was the highest it has ever been—around eighty percent.

In a dealignment election the population generally rejects the two major parties and favors an independent candidate. This occurs occasionally in American history, but has shown no signs of happening in recent years, even when the two major political parties fall out of touch with the issues that concern the common man.

Gerrymandering is often a difficult subject to tackle, and this question is not easy. That said, there are several hints that pave the way to knocking out many of the answers. For one, the federal legislature (Congress) does NOT redistrict the states. States are responsible for drawing their own district lines. The other easily determined answer is the one reading “. . .  to favor the election of US Senators within the state.” Remember that each state gets two US Senators (that distinction is important, because most states have STATE Senates as well), which are elected state-wide. Thus there is no such thing as redistricting for US Senators. Finally, states have nothing to do with reapportionment; reapportionment occurs after the conclusion of the Census which determines the number of people in each state, and thus the number of House members.

Now, the correct answer. Gerrymandering is the process by which state legislatures redistrict (that is redraw district lines) in ways that heavily favor the majority party. One of the ways, for example, is by taking a solid core of the opposing party and hacking off chunks of that district into the surrounding districts, thus diluting the voting power of the opposing party.

Lastly, remember that gerrymandering is named after Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts who signed into law a highly partisan redistricting plan that heavily favored his party. One of the oddly-drawn districts vaguely resembled a salamander, leading a newspaper to name it the “Gerry-mander.” 

This question is a little tricky. Students often struggle with the difference between redistricting and reapportionment, but the easiest way to keep them apart is to look at the words themselves: redistricting and reapportionment.

Redistricting is the often-controversial process by which state legislatures redraw the district lines within their states—not to be confused with gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is a type of redistricting—a politically charged/motivated redistricting. Theoretically speaking, however, redistricting COULD be completely unpartisan, it’s just unlikely.

Reapportionment, on the other hand, is far less controversial. Essentially, it’s the process by which the number of US House members of each state are determined in the wake of every decennial census. Keep in mind that the current number of House members is capped at 435, so the “net” gain is always zero. Do you see why that is? Let’s use an example by way of answer. Take almost any state in the Southeast—most of them have quickly growing populations—say, Georgia. Imagine that after the most recent census, it was determined that Georgia’s population grew by 1 million, while California’s shrank by the same. Further assume that 1 million (in either direction) is enough to shuffle a House member around. Taking those assumptions, then, it is likely that CA would lose a House member and GA would gain one at the conclusion of the census. However, since the TOTAL number of House members is capped at 435, it’s a net gain of zero (GA + 1, CA -1 = 0).

This question often tricks students, although it’s not facially confusing. A plurality means getting the highest percentage/number of the vote, not necessarily a majority. In other words, 20% could be a plurality; so could 45%; so could 5%. It just depends on the number of votes cast, and for whom.

A majority on the other hand MUST be greater than 50%. It doesn’t matter, for purposes of majority voting, if you received more votes than the proverbial “other guy.” The only thing that matters is getting greater than 50% of the vote.