5-Minute Guide to Election Lingo

This term refers to the youngest group of voters, 18- to 24-year-olds, and their voting habits. Over the past few decades, young voters haven’t had an impressive voting record. Just 42 percent reported voting for president in the 2012 election—the lowest turnout of any age group.

Conservatives generally think government should play a limited role in regulating business and making social reforms. They tend to vote for Republicans. Liberals generally think government should take an active role in regulating business and solving social issues. They tend to vote Democratic.

Brief, catchy phrases that politicians use to sum up their positions or attack their rivals.

Many political ads give you reasons to vote for a particular candidate. Attack (or negative) ads tell you why not to vote for someone—and they can get nasty. Both voters and candidates say they don’t like attack ads, so why do we keep seeing them? Because going negative seems to work.

States that have a large number of undecided voters are known as battleground states because candidates tend to campaign hard there, fighting for every vote. They are also known as swing states.

Election maps are often color-coded. Red is usually for states that tend to vote Republican, blue for states that tend to vote Democratic. Battleground states are sometimes referred to as purple states.

Political action committees (PACs) are groups that can collect up to $5,000 per donor per year to support a candidate. Super PACs can accept unlimited amounts from donors (including corporations and unions) but can’t coordinate their efforts with a candidate’s campaign staff. Critics say that super PACs give their donors too much political influence.

Particularly vile or overly personal campaign tactics.

Technically, the presidency is decided not by the popular vote (total votes cast nationwide), but by the electoral vote. In the Electoral College system, each state has the same number of electoral votes as it has representatives in Congress. The total number of electoral votes is 538. (This includes 3 for Washington, D.C.) To win, a candidate must receive at least a majority (270) of those votes.

A political figure of any political party who appeals to or claims to represent the common people. (Republican Donald Trump is considered by many to be a populist.)

Long before election campaigns largely played out on TV and online, candidates traveled from town to town giving the same speech. Sometimes they’d stand on a tree stump to be better seen in a crowd. Today the term refers to the standard speech candidates give day after day on the campaign trail.

A dispute carried out on Twitter. (Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have engaged in heated back-and-forth exchanges, attacking each other’s actions and words via tweets.)