How to guide for getting elected to congress

I posted a VERY VERY rough draft of a guide to getting elected to congress. the thought would be to send this as a google document to new members running for congress. I know it is long but figured more info is better then less. I have not reread this and need help. can some of the senior members take one section and re right it and post below. I will edit post with your changes. the goal is to get this finished by sunday night and sent out. It is a good bit of work and would apreciate the help. thanks

How To Guide for getting elected to congress

What does the Job Entitle?
If you are fortunate enough to be elected you will first receive 5 gold, and that's where the rewards end! You will have to sign in on the <a href=http://ieforums.hobbittown.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=69>Official Irish Forum sign in section</a> to first gain access to the private Dail (congress discussing area) which is where you will debate government issues which are sensitive to national security, which is why this Dail is private and for TD's eyes only, the public Dail is where you will discuss and debate more day to day issues eg. taxes, every vote that passes through erepublik MUST be voted on for 24 hours in one of the Dails.

Where Should I run?
You should usually check which area is best of you to run in by asking the PP several days before the election. The party president or campaign manger might ask you to change the location you are running in to spread the party members around.

There are 6 regions in Ireland you can run it. They can be spit into two groups. Cork, Dublin. And the NE are the high population areas. Because of the best hospitals 97% of the active population lives in these areas. It also means it takes a few more votes to get elected and more people run. SE, NW, and Shannon are the Low population areas and few people live there. You will need about 4 or 5 votes to get elected there and will have to ask anyone who votes for you to move there to vote.

If you are going to run in a High vote area put your name forward right as soon as possible. In a low vote area wait about two days before the election and see which area you have the best chance of getting elected. Look at how many other party canadites are running in each of the low population areas and choose the one with the fewest.

If there is a tie vote the winner is the player who has the most experience points. There is often ties in the low vote regions so it is better to have the more experienced players running there. The cost of moving tickets is normally .2 gold each. The cost could double right before an election. If you are asking people to move to vote for you it is usual common practice to donate two moving tickets to them. If you can not afford to do this ask the party president or a senior member of the party for help. They would be more then willing to donate the tickets or gold to you.

How do I contact people asking for votes?
There are several ways. Write articles or manifestos, put out advertisements, or send Pam’s.

Article- You can write an article if you own a newspaper. It costs two gold to start a newspaper. Some people state that this should be a must for any canadite but in fact writing articles gets few votes if any. Only about 20% of active players read articles and at congress election time there are a ton of them.

Advertisements- Have been proven to be rather ineffective when it comes to actually gaining you votes, you are best off avoiding advertising.

PM’s- PM in erebublic can be similar to a politician knocking on your door asking for your vote in real life. This is how people get elected and meet n we people playing the game. If you want to get elected for the first time you have to send out PM’s. You can cut and paste PM’s so you can spam them out to a lot of people.

Comments on others articles and posts in forums- these are generally good things to do to get noticed in the game but don not translate into votes. The people who notice you are usually running themselves.

How do I ask for a vote from someone?
Pretty simple, you need to tell potential voters three things about yourself. Who you are, why you want to be a congressman, and what you will do if elected. Do not get too serious answering these questions, remember most people play the game for entertainment. You should try to connect with the voters by finding out some common interest. Do not tell people to much about your real life but it is OK to tell things like, what county or country you live in, and what you do for a living or level in school. Be honest in your answers to the questions and do not sound scripted. Make sure you ask for there vote and tell them if they have any question you will be glad to help. When you write your clever PM asking for there vote it is a good idea to send it first to a senior party member and ask them for feedback before spamming it out. Send PM out 3 or 4 days before an election. The day of and election or night before is too late.

Who should I ask
Three groups of people you should ask for votes. First inside you party. Most people vote for canadites in there party, so you should start out by targeting people in your own party. When a player reaches about level 15 or 16 they have made some friends in the game and are likely to be voting for one of them. So you should send PM to people in your party who are of a similar experience level to your self. The second group you should ask for votes in brand new players, experience 6 or 7.

Vote Management, what is it
Political parties try to work together to help each other out. The success of a party can be measured in how many people it gets elected to congress or more importantly how many people it gets elected that contribute the government. To improve a parties performance in elections different approaches are tried. That tend to increase a parties election count but can also infringe on individuals rights to choose and be selective in who gets support .

Official canadites- other parties have official canadites the party supports. They do this to get the best candits elected. The IFP has never done this, the freedom in the party name means something. Everyone will get some support from the party.

Moving canadites to spread out- We ask canadites to move to run in other areas based on population in any area. If everyone in the party runs in one or two areas then the vote will be spread between too many people and no one will get elected.

Voting late- The party president will usually ask about 6 people to hold off voting till the end of the day. These voters will log in under an organization and see the results of the election. They will then move to an area and vote for a party member who needs on or two votes to get elected. The people who do this are senior party members and usually running themselves and do not need to vote for them self. Every election 5 or 6 people loose by only one vote. This is done to prevent this. These late voters can get up to 4 people elected in the last hour. Real Life Americans are good at this because they live in later time zones.

Asking voter to Move- In order to get canadites elected in low vote areas in is necessary for voters to move. Some elections this is left up to the individual canadites and some elections the party organizes who will be asked to move and vote for a particular canadite. Usually on senior members of the party are asked to move and vote for a particular canadite. Junior members can get offended. In some elections people have been asked to move to a region and vote for any canadite in that region they would like.

Spreadsheets on who needs votes- the party puts out a spreadsheet showing election results. The purpose of this is to give voters information on who needs votes. The Google document is updated through the night and linked to an advert or shouted by the party org.

List of active members- the party president or campain manager will compile a list of active members, where they live, and who is low on wellness. This list gets sent out to all canites or divided up between the canadits. This allows canadites to know who to ask for votes.

What to expect on the election day?

When election day does come it will seem like it is taking forever for you to get votes, best not to panic and contact one of the Irish Freedom party senior members asking for help, they will likely still have not voted and may consider voting for you, on the other hand if you find yourself with a lot of votes quite quickly it is best to shout thanking people for voting for you but asking them to now vote for another IFP candidate, as you are already safe, be polite, patient and selfless and you will be elected.

Written by:
Moo, Dylan

deleted

Thanks Dylan for re writing. I copied and pasted your updates into the original post. can you delete your comments above. can I get more feedback or additions form other members.

If your doing the spreadsheet again this time, please allow me access, im pretty much always on, and can update the spread sheet every 15mins or so

sounds great, but i can edit anything if you want it

That's great. A couple of members that I think hadn't run for Congress before contacted me to say that they would be running. This will be very useful to them.

John S, please edit anything you think needs editing. John G. I will save as a goggole document and send you the link.

Make sure when your sending it as a google doc that you give him edit privileges !

Good job Moo

Nice Tutorial Moo ^_^ thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Good guide mate fair play