Hail, Columbia! (The Election of 1856, Round 2)

[Cranberry]

No candidate reached a majority of the popular vote in the first round of the 1856 election, thus giving way for a top-two finisher race in the second round. To the amazement of many, this year, both candidates were nominally members of the same party: incumbent President Álvarez, of the "official" wing of the Whig Party, and his challenger from a more conservative side, the "True Whig" General Lee from Virginia. The Commonwealth Liberal candidate, James Buchanan fared poorly, but the third placing candidate's support, the Francophone former mayor of Ville Quebec Garneau, could prove vital for any of the candidates.


President Juan Álvarez of Mexico [Official Whig]
The President is seeing mild levels of approval, and is thus running for reelection for his party. His campaign revolves around his experience and sucess, and his agenda includes popular bullet points for the "Whig System": expansion of citizenship rights to both Natives and immigrants, expansion of free trade and reform of the penal code to include more "humane" provisions, in imitation of the British Liberals.


Senator James Buchanan of Pennsylvania [Commonwealth Liberal]
The Liberal Party reformed after loosing the 1852 elections, and with the inclusion of the old conservative elite, now call themselves the Commonwealth Liberals. Their policies have moved in direction of the Continentals, and include a renewed National Bank, stronger tariffs for the industries to be formed, and a tightening of naturalisation laws.


General Robert Edward Lee of Virginia [True Whig]
The True Whigs around General Lee are, while all still technically members of the Whig Party, clearly in opposition to the president. They especially oppose his policies in regards to immigrants, call for tight immigration laws, as well as for an opening of the Indian territory for white people, and for the deportation of the former slaves to Arkansas.


Former Mayor François-Xavier Garneau of Quebec [Canadien]
The Canadien ticket represents the liberal francophone elite in Quebec and some other northeastern provinces. They support many "humanist" policies of the president, such as the easening of immigration laws and the reform of the penal code, but hope to give more headlight on Quebec-specific issues when their votes are possibly needed in the runoff.

3 days

[Mr. Smith]

How disgusting, even Buchanan would've better than either of these options.

But I can't bring myself to troll vote for Lee, so I guess Alvarez it is.

[Boston Bread]

Alvarez

[Zioneer]

Well that's certainly a lopsided vote.

[Intell]

Enthusiastic Alvarez vote.

[Cranberry]

In the end, it was nothing but a landslide. The official party wing of the Whig Party held steady for the incumbent president, the francophone Canadiens broke heavily for Álvarez, even some Liberals thought of him as the "lesser of two evils". Equipped with strong Whig majorities in both chambers of Congress, President Álvarez is looking toward a succesful second term, this time with the first round candidate François-Xavier Garneau as Vice President.

President Juan Álvarez of Mexico [Official Whig] - 76.0%
General Robert Edward Lee of Virginia [True Whig] - 24.0%