Hail, Columbia! (The Election of 1816 - FINAL ROUND)

[Cranberry]

The Electoral College having failed to reach a majority in the first round, the election of 1816 is now going into the second round, between the top two finishers incumbent President and Democrat Martin Van Buren and his Continental opponent Senator John Quincy Adams. Platforms, views and issues can be found in the original thread.

3 days

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jqa

[TDAS04]

Quincy

[Mr. Smith]

JQA

[Intell]

Van Buren.

[Zioneer]

I find it interesting how in such an extensively alternate timeline, we ended up with candidates who were presidents in real life anyway.

[Bigby]

I find it interesting how in such an extensively alternate timeline, we ended up with candidates who were presidents in real life anyway.

Super early at that too, with VB being 20 years early and Quincy Adams being 8 years early.

[bagelman]

I find it interesting how in such an extensively alternate timeline, we ended up with candidates who were presidents in real life anyway.

Voted MVB but I actually would like to see this stay a coincidence rather than become a trend in this TL.

[Cranberry]

One day left.

I find it interesting how in such an extensively alternate timeline, we ended up with candidates who were presidents in real life anyway.

Voted MVB but I actually would like to see this stay a coincidence rather than become a trend in this TL.

It is not that we would not offer you different, new candidates - we have after all had Mexicans and even a Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice as Presidents. It just seems that whenever we offer RL Presidents as candidates, people often choose them as options as they know them. I always try to find rather unusual options for President, but some times there is just a RL-President that is just such an obvious option that I have to go with him. I will try to evade those in the future, however; and I can promise you that I will never include Jackson.

[Cranberry]

Election of 1816

Second Ballot

Martin Van Buren [Democratic-New York]—39 Electors
John Quincy Adams [Continental-Massachusetts]—23 Electors

An outcry went through the northeastern cities when the results of the second, secret ballot of the Electoral College, held two days after the first on the 17th of December 1816, was made public. "PRESIDENCY STOLEN FROM RIGHTFUL WINNER ADAMS BY DUBIOUS BACKROOM DEALS" was the headline of the Hartford Courant that day, and it perfectly summed up the mood of many in the nation. Van Buren had gained the support of the Mexican electors by promising Morelos the Vice Presidency, and had won over Crawford's supporters simply by not being John Quincy Adams - in the end, this was enough to beat the Massachusetts Senator.
The dissatisfaction with the result, and the system of electing the President,however was so big that some, especially within the Continental Party, voiced their opinion to change the system radically, claiming that among popular vote counts, Adams had beat Van Buren 60 to 40 percent - numbers such as that were circulating among Northeastern, mostly pro-Adams newspapers and were determined only through independent research - thus have to be taken with caution.



I know that you actually voted for JQA, but I wanted to go a bit into the upcoming issue of the EC being considerably undemocratic, so there you have Martin Van Buren Vol 2

[Zioneer]

See, now this is how you do a "defy the voter's will" election. For one thing, you do it in a really early-on election, where such things were plausible (and in fact happened with JQA and Jackson in real life). For another, you specifically point out why you're doing what you're doing. And for another, you make the parties act realistically to something as corrupt as this.

Lets see what happens next...