Why elections need a run up period

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

I brought this up in the thread about election integrity, but as I recall it got buried in a sea of "elections are too long already" comments and it wasn't really a good avenue to explain what I mean. And it does need some explanation, because it's tricky to see at first, since an election where there is an existing government and a challenger to that regime the run up doesn't matter. But that's not the only type of triggered election.

There is also a legacy election, which generally amounts to a reshuffling of what already exists. And this is where trigging an election can be a huge advantage, because you don't actually have someone ready to run against you. Sprinkle in some properly picked timing (essentially when no one is on in the wee hours of the US time zone) and all of a sudden you have a day head start of everyone who's a citizen getting the message "it's time to vote." And that's assuming that anyone willing to contest the election can get an opposition in a day, which is...daunting to say the least. Add to that the fact that the vast majority of votes are cast in the first day of an election, and yeah...

Now, I'm not trying to hate on anyone who has done this, past or present. To me it's the same thing as some of the wonky things people do in pvp that weren't the intended use. If the game lets you do something, have at it. But this is also probably as big of an advantage if not bigger as overloading the votes with random characters who don't play regularly in the settlement, and bonus, it has an easy fix.

When an election starts, there is a two-day period of no voting to give challengers a chance to throw their hat in the ring.

[Rubricae]

When an election starts, there is a two-day period of no voting to give challengers a chance to throw their hat in the ring.

You know, that's not really a bad idea. If something like this were to be considered it would be worth extending the election by the same amount of time. To make sure people with busy bee lives are still able to vote without losing out on days.

[Xerah]

It works that way in politics as well (At least in Canada). The people in charge decide when to call one. It is all part of politics.

If someone does have aspirational aims at winning an election, they should start preparing right away and be ready for it. If they're not? Then they have another month to get ready for it.

At any rate, I don't think it is a big deal nor do we need to drag it out any longer, because... elections are too long already. Maybe 6-12h if anything, but most people aren't rushing to vote instantly either. If the server is empty when they call the election, the server is empty for people to vote. It doesn't seem like a huge advantage that is worth spending time to 'fix'.

[Aeryeris]

A run-up period would be extremely beneficial and likely improve the actual political roleplay a lot. Currently the surprise election system is extremely abuseable, and is actually quite stressful to deal with for sitting settlement leaders. OOC timing really does matter, people vote on the first day, candidates need time to actually prepare a coherent and solid platform before they can be considered a viable option.

I'd say 2 IRL days is actually a pretty good lenght too, given all the above. It allows for candidate debates to matter, coalition building etc. All that good stuff. Please do this!

Maybe make the actual voting period a bit shorter though. 4 days and 16 hours is too long even now. With a 2 day run-up period, maybe just make the remaining 2 days 16 hours the 'votable' period or something.

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

It works that way in politics as well (At least in Canada). The people in charge decide when to call one. It is all part of politics.

If someone does have aspirational aims at winning an election, they should start preparing right away and be ready for it. If they're not? Then they have another month to get ready for it.

At any rate, I don't think it is a big deal nor do we need to drag it out any longer, because... elections are too long already. Maybe 6-12h if anything, but most people aren't rushing to vote instantly either. If the server is empty when they call the election, the server is empty for people to vote. It doesn't seem like a huge advantage that is worth spending time to 'fix'.

I'm fairly certain that the voting doesn't start the day the Canadian government calls one, even though I know nothing about Canadian politics save that your prime minister is a swanky dresser.

And I agree, people should be prepared, but if you aren't at least considering it and working toward that goal two days is not going to be enough time anyways. On the flip side, if you have been having conversations and are almost ready, if the other side catches wind and launches an election it's definitely advantage them with how it is now. Maybe you have access to how many people vote on the first day as opposed to the second or third, I know I don't, but I also know I would be floored if less than 66% of the votes weren't cast day one.

As for elections being too long, if I had my magic wand, it would be two days run up one day voting. But that's never going to happen.

Anyways, I just want to double down on my point that this isn't personal to anyone. But this is an old trick to get an advantage in an election that predates my time here, and I've seen it used to great efficiency multiple times across different settlements. And like most of the gamey things of Areliths past I think it's time to put this one out to pasture.

[Rei_Jin]

I’m not involved in politics on Arelith anonymous, heck, I rolled and moved on with life.

But I do miss y’all so I check in here to see what’s happening, and this (and the book thing!) caught my attention.

In my opinion, the way to “address” the election system is:

1. Staff confirm the 48 hour period which sees, on averages, the highest number of unique log-ins (which is probably the US weekend, from 00:01 Saturday morning to 23:59 Sunday night, US PST, as that incorporates the Euro Saturday morning play through to the US Sunday night play).
2. Votes may ONLY be cast during this time, this is known as the “voting” period.
3. An election may be triggered at any time, with all eligible settlement “electors” and “officials” receiving notification on log in that such has been triggered, and the incumbent settlement leader automatically entered into the election unless they were assassinated or removed by the DMs or the settlement system due to settlement bankruptcy.
4. This “campaigning” period must be a period no less than 24 hours, meaning that if one wants a LONG campaigning period they would trigger an election an hour before the voting period would begin, meaning that it would functionally run for a full week, and if they want a short campaigning period they would trigger an election 25 hours before the voting period would begin.
5. Thus, an incumbent might prefer a short election period, where a challenger might prefer a long election period, and politics can ensue. Or maybe the challenger wants a short campaigning period, to try to get as few competitors as possible, who knows?
6. If a candidate is assassinated during the campaigning period they are removed from the ballot
7. If a candidate is assassinated during the voting period, another member of the faction they entered the election with, with the specific “vice-leader” (hurr hurr) setting in the faction system (which would need to be added and would provide the same functionality as the faction owner EXCEPT that they cannot remove the faction owner, nor dissolve the faction, but on the deletion of the faction owner they become the new faction owner; yes, only one character can be the vice-leader) becomes the candidate in their place.

This system allows for folk to discuss election plans before the election cycle begins, and creates opportunities for espionage and skullduggery in numerous ways.

This system also allows for the maximum number of unique player log-ins, on average, to be able to vote, without having to be constantly alert for what might be happening.

Yes, we could end up with a week long campaigning period, but we could also end up with one that is only a day long.

By entering the incumbent settlement leader automatically into the election, they cannot be removed without notice just because someone decided to try and do a sneaky while they’re on a RL holiday, meaning that it’s only IC actions and inactions that really matter here, not actions taken for OOC issues. Yes, if they’re on a RL holiday they won’t be campaigning themselves, but their allies can campaign on their behalf, and if they are an effective leader then unless their opponent(s) are particularly skilled operators, the good will they have developed within their settlement will count for much.

And, by having a vice-leader who is there to step up, we create opportunities (especially in Andunor) for folks to use another person to try to win the vote, then assassinate them whilst voting is ongoing to take their place (a very drow thing, isn’t it?), or for an election to still go to a good group even if their leader is cruelly taken out.

[Kythana]

100% agreed.

I really do not like how much OOC bleed seems to happen during elections, particularly from the angle of, "Wow, my opponent hasn't even responded to my declaration or has been out on the streets debating me! What an awful choice!" Which often translates less from actual roleplay, and more OOC schedules overlapping and timezone issues.

Having just like a 24 hour period were an election is in preparation state, and allows for all candidates to ready themselves would be nice. Regardless of whether this is realistic or not, I'd welcome something that feels less gamey, and opens up to a fairer opportunity, rather than blindsiding someone by attracting a huge portion of voters during the playtime any opposition happens to be unavailable.

[Dreams]

I think the entire term of someone else should be considered your run-up period. Campaign IC whilst you're waiting for elections to come up. That's really when an effective leader is going to be making alliances and planning, and ultimately that's how you're going to win over the numbers long term.

Alternatively, pay a great assassin and just wait for the right opportunity to kill all of your opposition.

[Amnesy]

Starting the campaign when elections are called is already too late. Any citizen can call the elections after the grace period, thus a politician-PC should campaign and roll out their RP way ahead of when this is possible.

Include other PCs to run with pamphlets,
Actively interact in contrast to the present settlement leadership,
Strike deals, favors, alliances with factions of influence (even outside the settlement),
Have something to show outside complaints against the current regime; deeds to support PC claims/campaign values.

When elections are called, by the PC or someone else, the politician-PC cranks the effort up.

And those who see 'elections are in progress' and only then start the process, well in my book usually are not suited to win already.

As a personal tip, let the politician-PC be creative, the best settlement leaders are those who generate and bring RP to the whole settlement (think of Katernin or more recently Ginny and the shifts they made to Cordor - how much RP it generated).

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

Starting the campaign when elections are called is already too late. Any citizen can call the elections after the grace period, thus a politician-PC should campaign and roll out their RP way ahead of when this is possible.

Include other PCs to run with pamphlets,
Actively interact in contrast to the present settlement leadership,
Strike deals, favors, alliances with factions of influence (even outside the settlement),
Have something to show outside complaints against the current regime; deeds to support PC claims/campaign values.

When elections are called, by the PC or someone else, the politician-PC cranks the effort up.

And those who see 'elections are in progress' and only then start the process, well in my book usually are not suited to win already.

As a personal tip, let the politician-PC be creative, the best settlement leaders are those who generate and bring RP to the whole settlement (think of Katernin or more recently Ginny and the shifts they made to Cordor - how much RP it generated).

I read this and I feel like you have no idea where my op is coming from. I'll do my best to explain it better.

1) There's no way in hell I can advocate a perpetual election by starting a campaign as soon as the last election is over. It's a nightmare for a new leader who is trying to find their footing, even if its a five term chancellor you just lost to it seems a bit sore loser-ish, and the settlement is going to hate you for not accepting your loss and waiting for the next cycle, offsetting any good that may come from going that route.

2) Launching an election, as you pointed out, can be done by everyone that's a citizen. Including the current chancellor. That means that the best strategy with the current system is to keep your intention to run as close to the vest as possible, tossing out your "involving other's" points. When I ran for chancellor as a new player some 5 years ago now, I was given the advice to launch the election during the wee hours because my potential competition played in US evenings. That gave us a twelve-hour head start on random votes before they were even a candidate. We didn't need it to win, thanks to harpers extra votes it was all but guaranteed, but it certainly eliminated any chance my rival could have had of mustering up the randos. This is the part that this thread is trying to eliminate, which leads to three.

3) Logging in to find out the election you have been planning to run in for two or three weeks now has started and voting has been going on for 12 hours is deflating. It's not about winning or losing, there are several factors that relatively ensure the victor every cordorian election, and i will get into that in an add on below. But I know the person who was planning to run definitely had cool campaign ideas and I was working with them and I definitely had cool campaign ideas, and win lose or draw it would have been nice to see that play out. That went out the window with the surprise attack election, because now we are just struggling to put together as many votes as possible from the people we know would support us just so we made a decent show of it. A complete missed opportunity for fun roleplay thanks to the gamey aspect of the system.

As promised, my add-on on why cordorian elections are Fubared. It can really be summed up by two words. EXTRA VOTES. So, you have leadership, which gives you the candidate 2 extra votes. Thats cool, as both sides could have it. Then you have landed nobles who are actually given the title by the chancellor (say what?) that have 2 extra votes each. Then you have the harpers, who don't have extra votes themselves, but can vote in any election. That means that the harper in Cordor who more often than not are part of the existing government can rally all the other harpers to vote for who they want. Slap up a note in the harper base, and you might even get a few rando harpers your harper never interacted with voting with you too. I have no idea what the actual number could be with this, but I think its a conservative estimate to say this can add up to 5-10 more votes at a minimum. That's somewhere between 13 and 18 extra votes if you remove leadership from it since both sides can have it, and cordor gets what? 100 votes total?

And yet somehow, I have to worry about whether or not my casual character roleplays enough in the settlement to justify if I vote for the sake of fairness >_>.

So just to summarize an already long post, if you like the gamey lopsided style of elections, that's a legit position to take. I think it's awful for the game, but you are 100% entitled to your position. But if you are trying to make the case that its fair, I don't see how you can given everything I just laid out.

[Anomandaris]

Starting the campaign when elections are called is already too late. Any citizen can call the elections after the grace period, thus a politician-PC should campaign and roll out their RP way ahead of when this is possible.

Include other PCs to run with pamphlets,
Actively interact in contrast to the present settlement leadership,
Strike deals, favors, alliances with factions of influence (even outside the settlement),
Have something to show outside complaints against the current regime; deeds to support PC claims/campaign values.

When elections are called, by the PC or someone else, the politician-PC cranks the effort up.

And those who see 'elections are in progress' and only then start the process, well in my book usually are not suited to win already.

As a personal tip, let the politician-PC be creative, the best settlement leaders are those who generate and bring RP to the whole settlement (think of Katernin or more recently Ginny and the shifts they made to Cordor - how much RP it generated).

This is one of those "technically true" but practically not realistic situations. It's just not how elections and politics typically go. The entire term of the current leader is not a safe time to campaign, as you'll get frozen out as a political threat. You're either "on the inside" and slated for position by the incumbent powers that be, or looking to appear at least neutral so you can get a leg up from said powers, before you try to attack their base.

The "mechanics" of the system are, as a matter of fact, currently used (boarderline exploited) to create a gamey advantage. If we want to change that to be less manipulatable, great. If not then it is what it is.