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I have helped over 20 people get elected to congress for the first time. I wrote a how to guide a couple of months ago to capture some of the advice for new players who have asked for help. One of the people I helped, Bryan O Donovan, recently stopped playing the game and willed me a small fortune. I decided to use his funds to advertise this article in the hope of helping others to reach their dreams of being elected to congress in their country. Please Vote up and Subscribe to this newspaper, I will be publishing more how to guides in the future.


SUMMARY OF CONTENT
*Who Can Run?
*Where Should I Run?
*How do I Contact People Asking for there Votes?
*How do I ask Someone for a Vote?
*Who Should I Ask?
*Vote Management: What is it?





Who Can Run for Congress?
First congress representatives are called something different in every country, this article is generic. Only candidates from the top 5 parties in your country can run. You can apply if you’re from a smaller party but you will not appear on the ballot. You also need to be at least level 12 to run. Every region has a fixed number of elected candidates and there are wildcard candidates which go to the highest vote getters nationally. The amount of people a party can put on the ballot is based on the amount of fixed candidates for that region. If more people apply to run then the amount of fixed candidates then it is up to the party president to decide the night before the election who will represent their party the next day. If the amount is less then or equal the party president can not disqualify any candidate.



Where Should I run?
This is the first question you should ask and often the one that is over looked. First step is to ask your PP or party campaign manager at least a week before the election which area they would recommend. In large countries it is necessary to apply to run with your party president before the election, this can be done on the party forum. They can also advise you on the odds of getting elected.

There are 2 types of regions in eRepublik. High population areas, because they have the best hospitals, they usually contain 95% of the active population. It takes a lot of votes to get elected in these areas but there is a big population from which to ask for votes. Low population areas have bad hospitals and few active people live there. If you run in one of these areas you will probably have to ask people to move there to vote for you. It takes fewer votes but the voters will have to be more committed. These areas are usually easier for new players to get elected. You can look at past elections to get an idea of how many votes you will need.

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

The area you are living in when you register for congress will be the area you are running in. You do not have to live in the area after you have registered, so do not stay in low hospital areas after the election, but you do have to stay in the country. If you switch parties after the election you still remain a Congressman.

If there is a tie vote the winner is the player who has the most experience points. The cost of moving tickets is normally between 0.1 to 0.2 gold each. The cost could double right before an election, so buy tickets early. If you are asking people to move to vote for you it is usually common practice to donate two moving tickets to them. If you cannot 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 PM’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 candidate but in fact writing articles gets few votes if any and takes a good bit of time. Only about 20% of active players read articles and at congress election time there are a ton of them being published.

Advertisements- Have been proven to be rather ineffective when it comes to actually gaining you votes. They can be interesting to do and cost as little as 1 gold. You will be able to see how many people click on the advertisement. If you do an advert link it to a campaign article so when people click the advert it goes right to the article.

PM’s- A PM in eRepublik can be similar to a politician knocking on your door and asking for your vote in real life. This is how people get elected and meet new 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 do 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 too much about your real life, but a little always helps. Be honest in your answers to the questions and do not sound scripted. Keep the PM short and a little funny, 2000 characters is the maximum a PM can be but there should not be more then 1,000 characters in this kind of PM. Expect to answer a lot of questions back, it is a good sign when you get questions. Make sure you ask for there vote specifically and tell them if they have any questions you will be glad to help. When you write your clever PM asking for their 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 PMs out 3 or 4 days before an election. You should add to your friends list anyone you sent a PM to. You can usually spam about 50 PMs an hour. A good rule of thumb is send out 4 PMs for every vote you need to get elected. The day of the election or the night before is too late.


Who should I ask?
Identifying the people mostly to vote for you is sort of like the Onion in the Shrek movie, “core voters have layers”. You start at the centre and work your way out in layers. The centre of the onion is your target voters; they are people living in the region you are running in, of the same party, and the same or less experience as you. Most people vote for candidates in their own party, so you should start out by targetting people in your own party first. 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 target mostly newer players. After you identified your core then send PMs to these groups.
Brand new players, experience 6 or 7 you can usually find them working in level 2 or 3 companies. They know few people in the game and take little persuasion to vote for you and are likely to be living in poor hospital regions.
Small parties, they can not run their own candidates for Congress and could vote for you
Other parties, target people who live in your vote area and are under level 15 but in other parties. A lot of members at the bottom of party membership lists can be inactive. Checking there wellness or to see if they are working regularly will tell you if they are active. Make sure to target who you are asking for votes.


Vote Management, what is it?
Members of political parties try to work together to help each other get elected. 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 to the Government. To improve a party’s performance in elections different approaches are tried. They tend to increase a party's election count but can also infringe on individuals rights to choose and be selective in who gets support. It is important to know what strategies are being used in your party during an election.

Official candidates- Some parties have official candidates the party supports. They do this to get the best candidates elected. To get official support you should be active on the party forum and know the inner circle of the party well. Some parties have avators for the forum or the game for the official candidates. Make sure you know your party's stance on this. Official candidate lists are usually published in a party newspaper.

Moving candidates to spread out- Party presidents or campaign managers target certain areas and try to spread the candidates out to maximize their party's vote. If everyone in the party runs in one or two areas then the vote will be distributed between too many people and no one will get elected.

Voting late- Your party will usually ask some members to hold off voting till the end of the day. The amount of people who do this depends on the size of the country and party. This can be organized in two ways. First, the late voters act independently and 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 one or two votes to get elected. The people who do this are usually senior party members and sometimes running themselves and do not need to vote for them self. The second group of mobile voters is called a flying squad, this happens in large countries when a bloc of voters votes in the very end of an election as directed by a central team or person Every election 5 or 6 people lose by only a few votes in each country. Late voting is done to prevent this and maximise a party’s representation. Real life Americans are good at this because they live in later time zones and as a result tend to vote late.

Asking voters to Move- In order to get candidates elected in low vote areas it is necessary for voters to move. In some elections this is left up to the individual candidates and in some elections the party organizes who will be asked to move and vote for a particular candidate. Usually senior members of the party are asked to move and vote for a particular candidate. Junior members can get offended. It infringes on personal choice.

Spreadsheets on who needs votes- Communication is important on election nights to get votes where the party needs them. Parties put out spreadsheets showing election results. The purpose of this is to give voters information on who needs votes. A shared Google document is updated throughout the night and linked to an advert or shouted by the party org. Some parties try to use IRC, shouts, or party forum to improve communication in the party on election night.

List of active members- In some parties, the party president or campaign manager compile a list of active members, where they live, and who is low in wellness. This can be done manually by looking up all the members or through a special program. This list gets sent out to all candidates or divided up between the cadidates. This allows candidates to focus on whom to ask for votes. It prevents over lapping and targets the vote.

Blocking voters- if a party runs two very good candidates in an area and they only have enough votes to get one elected it can result in the vote being split and neither winning. Some parties prevent this by choosing one good candidate to represent the party and all the rest very bad with no hope of getting elected. The party president disqualifies good candidates the night before the election for the better good of the party.


Now you know how to get elected it is up to you to do the hard work. I am going to ask that anyone who uses the information in this article and gets elected to please send me a PM after congress elections and let me know it worked, I would like to hear from you..


Thanks to the people who have contributed to writing this:

Dylan, Bryan, AV, Acacia Mason, patti11, John G., Joe Newton

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