How does the election board work and what parties are there?
Well... basically, we have a constitution (click on 'afewiki' above and try to find the 'Second Constitution') and we hold elections every few months.
There is a Senate with at present 10 members, a President/Vice President, 3-member Supreme court, an appointed Cabinet, and 5 regional governments with 10 states in each. Pretty much every elected position holds elections every 4 months. Keep in mind things are in some flux; there's a big movement right now to get rid of the Presidency and move towards a Parlimentary system.
There are basically five major parties (plus independents, plus tiny 1, 2, and 3-man operations):
the Atlas Conservative Alliance (ACA) are basically the equivalent of the real-world Republican party. Fiscal conservative and social authoritarian, ranging from moderate to extreme with the bulk of the party hovering somewhere in between.
the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) basically is a populist party, a mixture of 'crunchy conservatives' and 'labor lefties'. They're fiscal left and social authoritarian, although generally not that extreme.
the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) are basically the equivalent of moderate-to-mainstream Democrats. Fiscal center-left and social libertarian, they're one of Atlasia's biggest parties (the ACA and CDP are also fairly large).
the Social Democratic Party (SDP) are basically the equivalent of more extreme Democrats plus groups like the Greens and Socialists. They tend towards fiscal leftist and social libertarian. A bit smaller than the first three.
and last, the party I belong to and helped found, the Free Democratic Party (FDP); think moderate Libertarians, or like the parties' namesake in real-world Germany (the SDP and CDP are also named after German parties), or Israel's Shinui party. We're fiscally conservative and social libertarian. About the same size as or maybe slightly larger than the SDP, but smaller than the other three parties.
Some of the smaller parties that may or may not exist at present include:
the Atlasian Monster Raving Loony Party (funny party that loves pies)
the Progressive Conservative Party (centrist)
the Practical Liberal Party (I'm not sure, but the founder's kind of nuts)
the Communist Party (a mixture of genuine Communists and right-wing jokesters)
the Jesus Christ Party (only one member and never sent anyone to elected office, but the oldest active party in Atlasia, founded by a guy named Jesus)
the Originalist Party (apparently believes in a strict interpretation of both the Constitution and the bible)
the States Rights Party (another long-lived one-man party, this time a Southern right-populist party, founded by a guy named StatesRights)
Rally for the Republic (I think centrist)
Also keep in mind that Politics is less stable here than the real world. When I joined the forum in September of 2004, the only parties that existed then and still exist today are the JCP and States Rights. Heck, even the government itself is somewhat less stable, there have been several coup attempts and revolutions (I even participated in one of the larger ones, a Midwestern secessionist movement back in October), the first (and largest) was way back in May 2004. At present, the major crisis revolves around Puerto Rico.
Also, the parties are less doctrinaire and more willing to support multipartisan tickets than the real world. I, an FDP member, am the Lieutenant-Gubernatorial candidate underneath an SDP member, the current Lt. Governor and Gubernatorial Candidate Speed of Sound. Such things happen all the time.
here's a list of current members of govenment and the present Senate agenda:
Agenda of the Senate | Government Directory 
