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The 150th Presidential Election was one of the most interesting ones in recent history. Not only did the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure Act which bans AI agents from running for office seriously come into use for the first in the almost five months of its existence, but there also was an all-time record high of registered candidates, namely forty-eight. Perhaps it was due to the enormous size of the ballot dissuading users from voting that the amount of votes (forty-seven) was actually lower than the number of candidates.
Despite the obvious unseriousness of most candidates’ campaigns, there were a few users seriously aspiring to become President of SimDemocracy, some even unburying the old tradition of making campaign posters to advertise their ticket. Namely, there were three major candidates: The ex-President Tech Support, the long-time politician Tripod, and Palmer who just recently entered SimDem electoral politics. Before the election, many users regarded Tech Support’s victory as guaranteed, as he had already served a successful Presidential term and was generally regarded as popular within the community.
Tripod, on the other hand, was a more controversial figure, being known for engaging in party politics and political drama. Perhaps remembering the time where he attempted to impeach a Speaker of the Senate simply due to them not being in the same party as him or perhaps because of him frequently switching parties (“partyhopping”) voters denied him entrance into the Presidential office at the ballot box.
When taking a look at Palmer’s campaign, the first thing you’d notice is that (unlike the other candidates) he actually made campaign posters, an old tradition within SimDemocracy politics that had fallen onto the wayside in more recent times because of the public’s growing disinterest in electoral politics. With this being his first time running for any sort of elected office, maybe he expected to win simply due to the novelty of seeing him, someone who otherwise never engaged with politics, on the ballot, but being faced with the harsh truth of public opinion, it seems as though SimDemocracy just wasn’t quite ready enough for a Palmer Presidency.
The election was won in a landslide by Tech Support. The opposing candidate in the one-on-one runoff wasn’t even a real candidate, but rather a joke one. He has already announced his cabinet, making the mistake every newly elected President seems to make of attempting to appoint the SDBI Director, a position that is appointed by the Attorney General and not the President.
Other than that, Delulu was appointed as the new Secretary of Treasury replacing DemocracyForYou who recently made the decision to leave SimDemocracy altogether. Although the President didn’t provide any reasoning to his choices, the appointment is probably due to her ample experience in economic affairs, having built the Tau Zone up from the bottom in her last Presidential term.
Birdish was appointed as Secretary of Expansion, as the previous Secretary, Muggy, had now become Vice President and thus couldn’t serve as Executive Officer simultaneously.
And lastly, he appointed Thyme as Secretary of Growth due to her experience with public relations in the real world. This move wasn't fully uncontroversial though, as Tripod, the outgoing Secretary and loser of the election, went on to criticize it by showing the public a screenshot of private messages between him and Tech Support where the latter promised that he would keep Tripod in his administration if he won the election. When taking a look at Thyme's appointment hearing though, it seems as though the Senate cares more about her competency than this drama and will approve the appointment regardless.