Not Another Rigged Election!

That's right, fellow Antarctians! AO will soon be pulling out those dusty, virtually unused ballot boxes once again for another glorified beauty contest...and all it will cost you is your national dignity! In a matter of weeks, candidates for Regional Delegate will be invading countries all across the Antarctic, harassing their political leaders for cash and endorsements; demeaning, embarrassing (and mostly lying to) their beleaguered citizens; and polluting their airwaves with sleazy negative advertising. And you could be one of those nations! All you need do is sign up in this thread.

The model for this year's elections will be based on the "Primary Elections" we held back in '08. Participating nations will be entitled to allocate a number of Delegate Votes in any manner they see fit (proportionally, winner-take-all, whatever), based on how candidates perform in the contest held in their nations. These contests can be traditional primary elections or caucuses, or something a bit more, erm, unconventional (as examples, last time The Palentine held an "Iron Chef" competition and based its delegate count on viewer votes; Gruenberg held a slumber party; Stewed Rats even held a breeding contest and allocated votes based on how many baby rats the candidates' teams could produce).

The Contests

The "elections" will be held over a four-week period. The first week will be focused exclusively on one country (preferably one willing to devote a little extra creative energy to RPing a national "primary" contest), dubbed the "First in the Region" (like New Hampshire). Last time it was Cottia, this time...who knows? Make your bids.

The second week will be devoted to contests held in "native" AO countries (like South Jenstown or Zarquon Froods). If your main nation is located in AO, you are entitled to hold a contest this week.

The third week will be set aside for the various puppet nations located in AO (and another contest, similar to "Democrats Abroad", for "observer" countries who don't have a puppet, if they are interested). If you have a puppet nation located in AO, you may participate during this week.

And of course the final week will be held in OMGTKK and The Palentine, both of whom will be given enough Delegate Votes to deem all the preceding contests completely unnecessary.

And remember, kids: one player, one nation. No multis.

The Candidates

Any WA nation located in AO is entitled to field a candidate to compete on their nation's behalf. To serve as Delegate, nations must meet the requirements listed below:

Candidates must we willing to devote some time and energy to participating in this RP. If they flake on us (or owing to no fault of their own, are overcome by RL distractions), they will probably not be chosen. This is commonly known as "the Cluichstan rule." (And if you think I'm going to let you get away with what Cluich did after he flaked and subsequently lost, you got another think coming.) Finally -- and saying this shouldn't be necessary because we maintain a relatively friendly and troll-free atmosphere here -- no using RP to lob thinly veiled attacks against other players. Just like on the NSWA forum: "RP" is no excuse for forum misconduct.

Got everything down? Good. We will be fielding interest for this contest over the next few weeks. If you want to run for delegate, or hold an "election" in your country during one of the weeks listed above, speak now, or forever hold your peace.

I would like to enter Aundotutunagir in the "puppet nations" primary (the third week). I would like to enter Hiriaurtung Arororugul as my candidate for Delegate. Hiriaurtung Arororugul will be the candidate (and WA member), but the primary would actually take place in Aundotutunagir since Aundotutunagir and Hiriaurtung Arororugul are separate nations, but Hiriaurtung Arororugul isn't really a nation, but the game thinks he is a nation, but we all know that he is really just a person from Aundotutunagir, but he's been granted nationhood so he can represent Aundotutunagir in the WA, but.......

Um, is that OK?

Yes, of course, that's fine. Are you running for real this time or just for fun?

And just to emphasize, for those of you who may not be familiar with these contests, you do not need to be running for delegate in order to hold a primary election. You can be just a regular old rank-and-file schmo, voting just for shits and giggles (and/or the opportunity to pelt the candidates with beer cans and tomatoes). Alternately, you do not need to be holding a primary in order to run for delegate, but it sort of makes sense to hold an election if you're fielding a candidate. (duh.) The result is only going to come down to whom I pick for the position anyway, so there's no way you could possibly "cheat."

I dunno, probably just for fun. I like being able to move my WA around and with my travel schedule and the way I disappear for long stretches I'm not really the ideal Delegate.

I would like Alqanian Antarctica to be included in the puppet week. I'd probably go for something unconventional, will start thinking about possible contests...

Of course I'll run. Makes it more interesting. As far as "hating the WA", has AO officially "gone Gates" or is this more the slowly simmering sort of rage?

And I presume, a contest in Krioval to be held during Native Week?

That thing was written by Gruenberg, back in like 2008. We used to have a very tongue-in-cheek "UN-hating policy," and even put in place a regionwide "mandate" for shooting the gnomes on sight, but that sort of petered out when the WA was created and we were handed an opportunity to make the laws we wanted, instead of enforcing antiquated, miserably written crap from 2003.

But of course. And I just wanted an excuse to use the phrase "gone Gates".

Except now we're stuck forcing new and shiny overreaching (yet all-too-often still miserably written) crap passed in 2012.

Anyhow, I'm game for hosting a primary (provided that work/RL doesn't unexpectedly get mega-crazy that week), but I'll have to do some brainstorming to determine which puppet nation would be the best location. (Robin Sparkles and something having to do with gemstones; or Artic Oasis with ... just about anything since there's minimal RP backstory for that nation yet)

When do you need the nation details by, Kenny? (Obviously, before the primary week, understandably, but if you need to know sooner, I can work with that. I just need some brainstorming time.)

ETA: I'm not sure how these usually work, but could part of the RP be requesting a specific action on the NS forums? I have a newly created puppet that could be moved here for primary season if I was allowed to have a competition for Best/Most Defenestrations. Because there aren't nearly enough of those in the GA nowadays ... And certain ambassadors (I think we can all come up with more than a few candidates) who could really use a swim every now and again.

This post has been edited by mousebumples on Mar 9 2012, 04:24 PM

I'm going to release Sintar Maxim to once again run for delegate, assuming he can find his pants. I'm on hear just about every night now, so participating this go round shouldn't be too difficult.

Zarquon Froods will also be holding a primary, most likely as a native, though if I believe I can get creative enough by the time the elections roll around I may offer it as the first in region.

Excellent! This should be fun, as usual.

Obviously, we'll cluelessly hold our primary as the natives we are. What we'll do is beyond me, but it'll probably be charmingly clueless and gigglingly endearing.

Well, first off, hell yeah. Sounds like a blast.

Second off, I wouldn't spoil too many of the details until the campaign starts.

Third off, a "newly created puppet" won't get you many votes, as they are apportioned based on NS population. Is there any chance you can keep the contest but do it with one of your more established AO nations?

And fourth off, we are far away from the actual start of the competition. It probably won't begin till after April Fools' (with "Puppetwank Tuesday" probably running during the third week of April or thereabouts). So at least you have some time to plan ahead.

If I remember correctly, all I did in your country last time was run a marathon of cheesy old sitcoms my candidate used to star in, and she still got 30% of the vote!

Makes sense. And ... I'll see what I can work out with one of my existing nations. If the national population matters, I'll probably go with Robin Sparkles, since that nation's population is much greater than that of Artic Oasis (~6.5 billion versus ~4 billion ... versus the piddly 7 million in the new puppet, heh), and I may even try to combine my original RS idea into the forum idea ... somehow.

This should be great fun, Kenny.

It seems relevant for me to state already that I won't be very active around Easter. I'll be on a road trip with little to no Internet connection from April 4 to April 9 and I may not be on much for a couple of days before and after that. No problem for me I guess if that time is something else than puppet week, but I thought I should mention it.