Shadow Empire

Chapter 1173 Election Results

Director Roland was very busy this week because Mr. Potter had assigned him some work.

He needs to take his people to those swing states and Socialist states that have made deals to oversee the voting process, ensuring that no mistakes are made and that every ballot is correctly placed in the ballot box.

No one shuffled the ballots, and no one voted.

This was crucial to whether Mr. Porter would become the President of the Union. Although Director Roland had some personal matters to attend to, he dared not neglect his duties.

A week always seems to pass both quickly and slowly amidst anxiety and busyness.

"Quickly" means that by the time he can sit down to rest and think about how to deal with Lance, it's already late at night.

A day seemed to vanish from his life in an instant, never to be found again. It passed so quickly that he barely reacted; it was noon, then evening, and he went to sleep.

Slow refers to the fact that within this fast-paced time, there are always a few minutes of anxious time that seem exceptionally long every now and then.

Even if he checked his watch several times, only a few minutes or a dozen minutes might have passed.

This contrasts sharply with how quickly time seems to fly by each night.

Fortunately, there were no problems with the ballots. His people kept a close watch on the polling stations and ballot boxes, 24 hours a day.

Anyone who did anything other than voting at the polling station was searched by the FBI.

No one thought Mr. Porter was making a mountain out of a molehill, nor did they laugh at him, because everyone knew that this would be the biggest upheaval in federal politics in nearly twenty years.

No amount of caution is excessive.

Time passed in this chaotic state of mind, with the three major federal advisory bodies making daily predictions about the election results, which people enjoyed watching.

Those voters, and those who are more enthusiastic about politics, are now not even interested in working. They are always talking about who is most likely to win and what will happen to the federal government if they win.

Everyone is watching the outcome of this election, whether it's Mr. Porter or the other candidates.

When all the ballot boxes were gathered in Congress, the crucial moment of counting the votes began.

Large crowds gathered outside the Capitol, while inside, numerous journalists documented every step of the vote counting process.

This is no simple matter; approximately tens of millions of votes come from various states across the federal government and ultimately converge here.

The staff counting the votes need to take out their ballot cards, hold them high so that the three vote counters can see them, and then they will record them as valid votes.

The entire vote counting process takes several days. They first count the votes in each party's fixed territories because the results of these counts will not cause dissatisfaction or any objections.

Indeed, that was the case, and the votes in all fifteen states were counted very quickly.

The election results for the federal president are not directly elected, but the election ballots play a crucial role in measuring public opinion.

Regional senators and representatives are directly elected by voters. In a sense, senators and representatives are the embodiment of public opinion. Therefore, as the electors who truly have the power to decide the election, they are the ones who ultimately decide who is the president.

However, they must consider whether the voters who support them can accept their election results. If they do not want their political careers to end, they have better obey the popular vote.

This can also be considered a form of... democracy.

But in reality, whether it's senators or representatives, they are all products of election manipulation by political parties.

The voters in the federal government have never understood one thing—

They can only choose who to vote for, not who to let do the job!

This may sound contradictory, but it is not actually contradictory.

The major political parties nominate "candidates," and these voters can only vote for these candidates; this is the essence of hypocritical freedom.

You think Mr. Smith is a very good politician, but he cannot get the party's nomination. He is not a candidate, and you don't have that option when you vote.

When you are forced to choose between a group of people you don't know and a group of people you know and feel comfortable with, people often just fill in the name of someone they know.

And when necessary, they will directly manipulate the election results to make the people they want to push into the position of senator or state legislator.

Regardless, these people need to be more compliant with public opinion in order to continue voting for this seemingly decent official in the next election.

With the results of the ballots and electoral votes in fourteen states, the Socialist Party has gained a clear advantage, winning votes in seven states.

The Liberal Party won votes in five states, the Federal Party in two states, and the Labor Party in one state.

There are four states left, four swing states. Even though the Socialists are currently in a clear advantage, they will be in danger if they cannot win at least one of the four swing states.

The Socialist Party candidates all looked relaxed with smiles on their faces, as if their current lead gave them the illusion that they could win!
“I think we can win!” The Socialist candidate stood there watching the constantly changing vote count, then turned to look at the gentlemen behind him, including Senator Cleveland.

His fervor and excitement were impossible to hide. Leading by two states meant that if he could win just one of the four swing states, he would have a very good chance of winning.

Although he knew when he was nominated as a presidential candidate that he was likely just a runner-up, when he actually got to this point, who could calmly face such an outcome?
He still wanted to give it a shot, just in case.
Senator Cleveland behaved very rationally and calmly, even to the point of being somewhat ruthless.

He calmly looked at the presidential candidate and shook his head. "I'm afraid it will be difficult. You know, we've been in power for too long, and the people below are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with our rule."

"Moreover, we have been trying to address the issue of factionalism over the years, returning the states from local interest groups to the federal government, which has already harmed the interest groups in some swing states."

"They are unlikely to support us this time, so we will not consider these things for the time being."

"You need to adjust your mindset."

The presidential candidate was initially quite excited, but Senator Cleveland's words immediately dampened his spirits.

He gave a somewhat sullen "hmm," glanced at Mr. Potter in the distance, and then focused his attention back on the vote count.

The results for the first swing state are in, and the Liberals have won almost unanimously. Then came the second state, where they undoubtedly achieved a huge victory.

By this point, the Liberal and Socialist candidates were almost tied in electoral votes, and the remaining two swing states would determine the final outcome!

As mentioned earlier, although the Socialist Party knew that there was a high probability of them being a runner-up this year, and they were prepared for that possibility, they still hoped that the Socialist Party could win this election when the moment came.

The results for the third swing state came out quickly, and voters still gave their ballots to Mr. Porter.

In contrast to the "quiet" atmosphere on the Socialist Party's side, the Liberal Party seems to have already begun preparing for celebrations.

Mr. Potter's face was also filled with an uncontrollable smile, and he would shake hands with people who walked by to greet him and chat for a few words.

The Socialist Party could only watch coldly, just as they had done in the past, looking down on their opponents from a position of triumph.

As it turns out, this feeling is not pleasant.

"Let's go, go back."

The results for another state won't be available until tomorrow. The Socialist candidate stood there staring at Mr. Porter for a while before turning and leaving with the others.

Countless phone calls were answered and hung up throughout the night, and editors in every newspaper and magazine were working overtime.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Liberal Party has a high probability of winning, as electors will generally abide by the results of the popular vote.

Early the next morning, rumors about Mr. Porter's high probability of winning the election began to appear in the newspapers. Some newspapers, such as the Federal Times, used exaggerated words to embellish this "victory across the centuries".

It seems the entire Liberal Party camp is already celebrating, while the Socialist Party is much quieter.

The Federal Post also commented on and countered this issue. The article was written by the editor-in-chief, who believed that the popular vote was only of reference value before the electoral vote results were in.

In other words, the Socialist Party still has a certain chance of winning this election.

Everyone knew this was just a consolation, but the socialists seemed willing to believe in the outcome and pray for a miracle.

The following morning, the votes in the last swing state were tallied, with the Liberal Party leading by a wide margin in popular vote across nine states, the Socialist Party coming in second, and the Federal Party and Labor Party having little presence.

One week after the general election, the electoral vote will be held, and the candidate who wins at least half of the electoral votes wins.

They have one week left to do their final public relations efforts.

This is also the busiest time in the entire Golden State, where political opportunists and capitalists are waving money to help their figures in the limelight gain as much support as possible.

The Socialist Party is clearly at a disadvantage in terms of resources; capitalists will not invest more money in a candidate who is highly likely to lose the election and cause them to lose everything.

On the contrary, Mr. Porter was receiving a large number of capitalists and speculators every day who took the initiative to contact him, hoping to provide him with some "help" within their capabilities.

A week passed quickly for Mr. Potter.

The final electoral vote will begin in the fourth week of November.

This time, the whole world's attention is focused here.

As the electoral votes of the three presidential candidates steadily increased, enthusiastic applause followed each vote.

The Labour candidate was the first to be eliminated; he voluntarily withdrew from the election. He was truly a runner-up from the start, but people will not underestimate them because of this.

They used withdrawing from the election and giving up more electoral votes as leverage to reach some private agreements with the Liberal Party.

With the support of more than ten votes from the Labour Party, Mr. Porter is at least in the lead.

With the remaining two hundred-odd votes, the final battle began between the Liberal Party and the Socialist Party.

Seeing the relatively close vote count, Mr. Potter also became nervous.

He knew his chances of winning were high, but what if he didn't?
He held a cigar in his hand, constantly using nicotine to force himself to calm down. He would also occasionally glance at his opponents, the Socialist Party side, trying to glean some important information from their faces.

As the vote counting process progressed, the Socialist Party's increase in electoral votes began to slow down, while the Liberal Party's increase in electoral votes did not slow down at all.

The gap between maintaining a steady increase and starting to decrease the rate of increase will only widen. When the Liberal Party had just received a little over 110 votes, Mr. Porter had already obtained 145 votes and successfully became the new president of the Union.

As expected, everything yielded a result that satisfied some and dissatisfied others.

Senator Cleveland also sighed. In fact, the gap between them was not that big, and some tense and dangerous situations had arisen in the process.

While the popular vote in swing states almost entirely supported the Liberal Party, some electors did not fully heed public opinion and cast their votes for the Socialist Party in the Electoral College.

This gave Mr. Potter a real fright!
In reality, if it weren't for the dozen or so votes the Labour Party gave them, they would have been leading the Socialists by at most twenty votes, and they might not have been without a chance of being defeated.

But rules are rules. A majority means that even if all the remaining votes go to the Socialists, they still won't have the same number of votes because of the Federalists.

Like every victor in an election, Mr. Potter straightened his clothes and walked over to the Socialist Party side with the air of a winner, extending his hand to the Socialist candidate.

Reporters who were granted access began taking photos like crazy; this will be an important page in history!
“Congratulations, David,” the Socialist candidate said with a straight face.

His sour face made Mr. Potter burst into laughter. "You were so close. You might have been unlucky. Maybe you'll win next time. After all, the gap between us isn't insurmountable."

"But if it's next time, I believe I will still be the winner!"

He released the Socialist presidential candidate's hand and looked at Senator Cleveland next to him. "A wonderful contest. I look forward to our cooperation going forward. There should not only be competition between the presidential office and Congress, but also cooperation."

These words sounded harmless enough, but Senator Cleveland could detect a hint of mockery in them.

He pursed his lips. "Very good confidence. I hope you can always stay this confident!"

(End of this chapter)