One strategy out of four
Once your opponent is set, you choose a strategy in the war room. Door-to-Door builds votes through organization but costs a lot of stamina. Media Blitz runs on your Media skill and raises campaign costs by 30%. Policy Pledges leans on your Policy skill for a small stamina cost. Go Negative wins 4 points if it lands and loses 4 if it does not, and your Integrity drops either way.
A strategy's effect depends on how your skill compares with the typical candidate for that office. A Media Blitz that worked for city council can turn negative in a race for the legislature.
Where the votes come from
Your vote share starts from Approval and Fame, then a list of factors is added and subtracted: the state of the economy and your district, how much people distrust politics, and whether your political line rallies your base and reaches the middle. Unexplained flaws cost votes through opposition research, and the bigger the race, the more they cost.
General and local elections come every four years, the presidential election every five. If you were cut from the nomination, you can still run as an Independent.
The vote-count broadcast
When polls close, the exit poll is announced first, and exit polls can be wrong. Then the district tiles fill in one by one, the lead swings back and forth, and the race goes from "likely" to "called" to the final stamp. The next morning brings the newspaper headline, the margin, the nationwide result and the reasons you won or lost.
Every place name is fictional. City council races count by neighborhood, the presidential race by the nine regions of a fictional peninsula, and the same night shows the nationwide picture: 300 seats in the legislature or 17 governorships.
The mid-count reversals are not staged. Regional results are scattered around the real outcome, so the lead can change hands, but the end always matches the true result.