Zombie voter complaint thread

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I do tracking and calls on discord for every election. I also do a comprehensive entrance poll for the presidential elections that is published like RL networks exit polls. Sometimes some of this gets relayed to the forum. I've also hosted several debates.

However, stuff I did years ago like pre-election surveys and live tracking of turnout by party are rare or non-existent because of the way the game works in this day and age:

1. Candidates are recruited at literally the last minute
2. Many People either refuse to respond to polls or submit troll responses.
3. Candidates agree to debates but then back out of them, sometimes right in the middle of the debate. I do try to plough through but sometimes I have had to call it off.
4. Both sides hold most of their votes until the final hours, making knowing turnout or winners largely impossible until the end.
5. Turnout in major elections has dropped from 200 or more to not even 120, making polling even harder because there are less voters to potentially be respondents.

There isn't a perfect panacea to change all this, but it does need to be addressed in some form.
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There's also several frustrations I have with elections and the broader game:

1. Unlike 1-3 years ago, I am the only one tracking stuff. There is no one being a 'second tracker' on the forum or elsewhere for me to check numbers with.
2. People get active for stuff like "Lincoln Seceding!", "New Constitution!", "New Attempt  to Ban McDonalds gaining steam!" or most recently "Labor is literally destroying the game!", but fail to stay active for the game as a whole.
3. People get themselves elected to legislative jobs but then fail to write bills, debate, or sometimes even show up to vote. I shouldn't be the only one writing bills for Lincoln.
4. People blatantly fail to even try to do other important jobs. Kaiser, in his last few months as Governor of Lincoln, and LT, still Southern Governor, typically fail(ed) to sign bills. Yes, we have inaction clauses, but they're supposed to be last resorts, not the usual business. Election results sometimes go uncertified forever (*cough* South this time *cough*) - yes it hasn't effected any super competitive race yet, but one day it will if we let it. Heck, I'm not supposed to be the one running Lincoln Elections - the Governor is supposed to, or a direct appointee. I only end up doing it because it's what the succession rules currently require of me, and the people who are supposed to do it are MIA. This has happened a bit in the South too by the way, with Reagente running some elections. And don't even get me started on the drama of the continual troubles filling the GM roles.


Sometimes people respond to this with "[insert rl excuse]". Well, yes, I get it, things happen, yada yada. But when you're using this as your way to avoid ever taking any active role in the game, including when elected to office, then why are you even here?

Sometimes people respond to this with some complaint about me or [insert other personality here]. That's great - Me or LT or whoever isn't running the domain. Start your own polling company. Run your own debate. Sign up to be a GM team member. Run for office. Write a bill. Debate a bill. Don't just sit there and complain, or wait for a constitutional crisis to force action. Do something.

If you are signing up for the game, you should be devoting an hour or two a week to doing game-related activities - particularly if you've been elected to office. No one is asking for you to sign off every evening to the game. If everyone just sat down for 2 hours a week - 17 minutes a day - and devoted attention to furthering our democracy in some concrete way , this game could be great again. Whoever you are, I know you spend 17 minutes a day and more playing video games or watching Netflix or watching Twitch or sitting around deciding what to do next or maybe even just typing complaints to the forum about why you aren't more active. Take some of that time and use it to better the game.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Honestly, the ideal world would be two trackers, one posted on discord, and one on the forum. Presumably run by different people so it isn't one person doing everything, so they can check each other's math, and so that the coverage isn't biased in any one direction.

Me posting my discord trackers to the forum, which has happened from time to time, only solves the issue of "I can't join discord!". It doesn't solve the fact that I'm stuck doing everything election-related on top of running Lincoln basically on my own, with either set to collapse if neglected. It doesn't solve the fact that this game clearly has no contingency plan if I for some reason can't do DDNN some weekend.

That being said, October's stuff will go on the forum in some form. Doesn't change the fact that other people should do coverage also.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

4. People blatantly fail to even try to do other important jobs. Kaiser, in his last few months as Governor of Lincoln, and LT, still Southern Governor, typically fail(ed) to sign bills. Yes, we have inaction clauses, but they're supposed to be last resorts, not the usual business. Election results sometimes go uncertified forever (*cough* South this time *cough*) - yes it hasn't effected any super competitive race yet, but one day it will if we let it. Heck, I'm not supposed to be the one running Lincoln Elections - the Governor is supposed to, or a direct appointee. I only end up doing it because it's what the succession rules currently require of me, and the people who are supposed to do it are MIA. This has happened a bit in the South too by the way, with Reagente running some elections. And don't even get me started on the drama of the continual troubles filling the GM roles.

Ftr as the sitting Lincoln governor, if you want the role of election counter and to become the official "said appointee" just let me know and I'll nominate you for that

If you want to nominate me for that, that's fine, if you want to do it, that's fine also. I just don't want to be figuring out what's supposed to happen on election eve.