earmarked
Funds that are allocated to a specific program, project or for a designated purpose. Revenues are earmarked by law. Expenditures are earmarked by appropriations bills or reports. According to the Office of Management & Budget definition, earmarks include: Add-ons. If the Administration asks for $100 million for formula grants, for example, and Congress provides $110 [...]
elastic state
A state whose voting outcome in a presidential election is relatively sensitive or responsive to changes in political conditions, such as a change in the national economic mood. Nate Silver: “Elastic states are those which have a lot of swing voters — that is, voters who could plausibly vote for either party’s candidate. A swing [...]
Election Administrator’s Prayer
“Please, please, please let the winners win big.” or “Lord, let this election not be close.” Doug Lewis, Executive Director of the National Association of Election Officials, was quoted by USA Today using another variation in November 2000: “God, please let the winner win in a landslide.” Election law professor Rick Hasen used the phrase [...]
Electoral College
The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. Americans actually vote for the electors who then vote for the President. The term “electoral college” actually does not appear in the U.S. Constitution and was derived from the concept of [...]
Eleventh Commandment
A phrase used by Ronald Reagan during his 1966 gubernatorial campaign in California, which read: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” It was created by California Republican Party Chairman Gaylord Parkinson to stop liberal California Republicans from labeling Reagan an extremist as they did to Barry Goldwater two years earlier in the [...]
entryism
A political tactic of joining an organization with which you do not agree with the intention of changing it from the inside. In his 1959 book Masters of Deceit, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described entryist tactics by Soviet agents to infiltrate school boards, trade unions, and major party precinct organizations.
ex officio
From Latin, meaning, “by virtue of one’s office.” Ex officio status in all sub-committees is usually granted to the committee chairman and minority leader. They are typically not permitted the same voting rights. For example, the Vice President serves ex officio as president of the Senate, but is only permitted to vote in a tie-breaker [...]
exit polls
An exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately as they leave the polling place in which they are asked which candidate they chose. Exit polls are conducted by media companies to get an early indication of who actually won an election, as the actual result sometimes may take many hours to determine.