When Presidential candidates select a running-mate, they are highly likely to emphasize picking someone who balances the ticket and will appeal to a wider spectrum of voters. So, a highly liberal Democratic candidate might pick a running-mate who is extremely well-regarded by Conservatives and falls close to the middle of the political spectrum. They also may be often be seen as more superficial choices. Recent classic examples of superficial running-mate choices include President Obama and Joe Biden (young and black; old and white) and John McCain and Sarah Palin (old and male; young and female).

The Electoral College currently has 538 members, one for each member of Congress (Senators and Representatives), as well as three electors representing the District of Columbia. The Electoral College is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but instead the Constitution simply mentions that the President will be chosen by electors "apportioned by State legislatures." However, the Electoral College has been largely present in its present form since the eighteenth century, with the three DC electors being added by the Twenty Third Amendment (1961).

The Australian Ballot, also called the Secret Ballot and the Massachusetts Ballot, was introduced in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The primary intention of the Australian Ballot was to ensure voter privacy by making the voter choices secret. This was done to reduce the impact of bribery and intimidation that had so affected the election of 1884.

In recent years, Presidential elections have been extremely tightly contested by the count of the popular vote. In the last three elections, the winning candidate has been able to carry at least fifty-percent of the popular vote, giving him the majority; in 1992 Bill Clinton won the election with less than forty-five percent of the popular vote because he won the plurality—the most of any one candidate—and won in the electoral college; however, in his first election in 2000, George W. Bush won neither the majority nor the plurality of the popular vote, narrowly losing out to Democrat candidate Al Gore. President Bush carried thirty states to Gore’s twenty and won the electoral college by five points.

Hard money is money given by a donor or source directly to a candidate to fund his or her campaign. Soft money is money that is given instead to the party to indirectly fund the campaign of one or more people. Soft money is now, by and large, illegal.

The vast majority of American states, forty-eight out of fifty, allocate all of their votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state during a Presidential election. The only two exceptions are Nebraska and Maine, which allocate their votes proportionally based on the percentage of the popular vote distributed among the various candidates.

A swing state is a state that does not consistently vote for either the Democrats or the Republicans; as such, the way a swing state votes has inflated its influence on the outcome of Presidential election campaigns. Notable swing states at the moment include Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

A closed primary, as opposed to an open primary, is defined as a primary election in which only those voters who have registered with the party prior to election day may vote in the election. Semi-closed primaries allow both registered voters and independent voters to vote in primary elections.

The amount of votes in the Electoral College correspond to the  members of the House of Representatives, the  Senators, and the  electors from the District of Columbia. The votes do not correspond to an amount of registered voters.

This question is slightly tricky, but actually easy if you remember your presidents. If you remember who was elected president in 1824 (J.Q. Adams) you don’t even have to remember what the corrupt bargain was!

That said, let’s discuss the so-called “corrupt bargain.” The background to this scene is full of fairly convoluted political history that we will, for the most part, not cover in depth. Essentially, what happens is there are four contenders for the presidency, as follows (the number of Electoral College votes follow each in parentheses): 1. Andrew Jackson (99); 2. J.Q. Adams (84); 3. William H. Crawford (41); 4. Henry Clay (not enough to matter).

While it may seem that Jackson should have won outright (indeed—he received 43% of the popular vote), he failed to achieve a majority in the Electoral College (remember: the EC elects the president!). In fact, NO candidate managed to achieve a majority in the EC, thus the top three contenders (Jackson, Adams, and Crawford) get thrown into the House of Representatives (why is that?).

Here, Clay comes into play. First, and most importantly, Clay was the Speaker of the House—a VERY influential position. Second, he hated Jackson and would pretty much do anything to make sure he didn’t win. So, Clay being the crafty man that he was, struck a deal with Adams: Clay would drum up enough support in the House to elect Adams as president, and in return, Adams would appoint Clay as Secretary of State (then seen as a stepping-stone to the Presidency).

Lo and behold! Adams wins the vote in the House of Representatives, is elected president, and quickly appoints Clay as his Secretary of State. Somewhat [un]surprisingly, Jacksonians were displeased with this result, hence the moniker “corrupt bargain.”