443
OPERATION: SWIFT FURY IS A GO
Greetings, Americans.
This is the first time I address you as your Secretary of State. If you notice, I'm living in North Corea. You see, the Coreans are a freedom loving people, and they have asked me to help them remain free. I asked and, thanks to my wonderful commanders at the Training Corps, I was granted the ability to serve from Corea. So, that is why I am stationed in Corea with Corean citizenship.
Today is a day of great jubilee. After tireless negotiations, I am proud to announce something not before seen to our country and something I have worked towards for over a year: a national primary for the Presidency. This is not an every month occurrence, but I am extremely happy that under these circumstances, I could get enough people to agree to put aside partisan differences to work for this plan.
This plan is endorsed by all top 5 parties, the President and Vice President of the United States, the White House Chief of Staff, and myself, the United States Secretary of State. It is called, quite humbly, OPERATION: SWIFT FURY.

If you'll pardon the West Wing reference (Operation Swift Fury was a plan to retake an American Embassy in Africa in the episode Manchester I. I think it ties in nicely with the saving defending democracy theme we have going here), OPERATION: SWIFT FURY is a daring plan to hold the American presidential election before the mechanically coded date of August 5th. The goal behind this is to have as many votes we can to send to Croatia. By conducting the election on the 2nd of August, we will enable ourselves time to watch the candidates for the Presidency campaign and have plenty of time to talk about how amazing they are. After the poll is conducted, from 00:00 -> 23:59 on August 2nd, the winner of that primary will become the national unity candidate for this election cycle. This primary system is unique to this election for extenuating circumstances.
Once the unity candidate is selected, the top 5 Party Presidents will each select a blocker candidate. These blocker candidates will not seek the Presidency and will have a "VOTE FOR X" avatar on during election day. On election day, the winner of the primary and the 4 blockers will appear on the ballot. With luck, we will get people to not waste votes at home and they will feel safe voting abroad because their voice has already been heard domestically in the primary.
Voting will be done off-site on a website created by batterytime, the former Secretary of the Treasury and Director of the Congressional Budget Office. I will serve as Project Manager to oversee the process of the election. During the primary, I will invite 5 people, chosen by their Party President, to serve as election monitors on the first official United States Election Board. They will ensure that the process is fair and orderly.
To vote, citizens will have to be level 10 and have United States citizenship: the same requirements as in-game. The entire process is automated. Once your identity is verified via the now functional Erepublik API service, you will be allowed to vote. Once you vote, you will exit the polls. It is quite simple.
To be on the ballot, all you must do is send me a PM, in-game, with the simple message "I would like to be a candidate for the Presidency of the United States". If you wish for your Vice President to be listed with you, please either mention that in your initial message or send a completely new candidacy message, just as you did the first time, though this time mentioning your Vice President. I will not turn down any candidates.
I want to express the excitement with which I announce this project. 5 parties came together and agreed on something, which was quite good in and of itself. Further, we will be able to send votes, en masse, to support our Croatian brothers. Retaining the country's sovereignty is the first priority.
I will take questions in this article and will answer them on the forums. Tomorrow, I will write a Q&A article answering the questions from here and on the forums.

Harrison Richardson
This is the first time I address you as your Secretary of State. If you notice, I'm living in North Corea. You see, the Coreans are a freedom loving people, and they have asked me to help them remain free. I asked and, thanks to my wonderful commanders at the Training Corps, I was granted the ability to serve from Corea. So, that is why I am stationed in Corea with Corean citizenship.
Today is a day of great jubilee. After tireless negotiations, I am proud to announce something not before seen to our country and something I have worked towards for over a year: a national primary for the Presidency. This is not an every month occurrence, but I am extremely happy that under these circumstances, I could get enough people to agree to put aside partisan differences to work for this plan.
This plan is endorsed by all top 5 parties, the President and Vice President of the United States, the White House Chief of Staff, and myself, the United States Secretary of State. It is called, quite humbly, OPERATION: SWIFT FURY.

If you'll pardon the West Wing reference (Operation Swift Fury was a plan to retake an American Embassy in Africa in the episode Manchester I. I think it ties in nicely with the saving defending democracy theme we have going here), OPERATION: SWIFT FURY is a daring plan to hold the American presidential election before the mechanically coded date of August 5th. The goal behind this is to have as many votes we can to send to Croatia. By conducting the election on the 2nd of August, we will enable ourselves time to watch the candidates for the Presidency campaign and have plenty of time to talk about how amazing they are. After the poll is conducted, from 00:00 -> 23:59 on August 2nd, the winner of that primary will become the national unity candidate for this election cycle. This primary system is unique to this election for extenuating circumstances.
Once the unity candidate is selected, the top 5 Party Presidents will each select a blocker candidate. These blocker candidates will not seek the Presidency and will have a "VOTE FOR X" avatar on during election day. On election day, the winner of the primary and the 4 blockers will appear on the ballot. With luck, we will get people to not waste votes at home and they will feel safe voting abroad because their voice has already been heard domestically in the primary.
Voting will be done off-site on a website created by batterytime, the former Secretary of the Treasury and Director of the Congressional Budget Office. I will serve as Project Manager to oversee the process of the election. During the primary, I will invite 5 people, chosen by their Party President, to serve as election monitors on the first official United States Election Board. They will ensure that the process is fair and orderly.
To vote, citizens will have to be level 10 and have United States citizenship: the same requirements as in-game. The entire process is automated. Once your identity is verified via the now functional Erepublik API service, you will be allowed to vote. Once you vote, you will exit the polls. It is quite simple.
To be on the ballot, all you must do is send me a PM, in-game, with the simple message "I would like to be a candidate for the Presidency of the United States". If you wish for your Vice President to be listed with you, please either mention that in your initial message or send a completely new candidacy message, just as you did the first time, though this time mentioning your Vice President. I will not turn down any candidates.
I want to express the excitement with which I announce this project. 5 parties came together and agreed on something, which was quite good in and of itself. Further, we will be able to send votes, en masse, to support our Croatian brothers. Retaining the country's sovereignty is the first priority.
I will take questions in this article and will answer them on the forums. Tomorrow, I will write a Q&A article answering the questions from here and on the forums.

Harrison Richardson

Good article.
Primarymaxxxx
And great idea. We'll see how it works
wow nice
KREMS FOR PRESIDENT
ADMIN BUY FOOD!
<a href="http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/admin-buy-food--1467900/1/20">http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/admi[..]/1/20</a>
Voted
Awesome! I hope it works!
Interesting.
People please take part in this system. I know it seems strange, but our bro's in Croatia need our help.
perfect plan
Swift furry. Yiff.
My first thought: it sounds like something Pierric would be interested in.
...and this plan reeks of corruption and/or a power-grab.
big vote for this...eCroatia needs your help against PTO...HAIL eCROATIA HAIL eUSA....<3
How, Dell?
I'm not running. Of course, because I announced it, people automatically assume that I'm in it for my own betterment. Sorry that I do, indeed, work for the betterment of the country.
There is no possible corruption. This plan is probably more pure than in-game elections.
WOOOOO THE BUTT LEGITIMIZES THIS ENDEAVOR.
Thanks HR for making this work and I am glad the Top 5 all agreed. Today is a good day for Team eUSA \o/
Methinks that thou protest too much.
I can see a dozen different exploits.
Not to mention that whoever wins your off-site popularity contest will still need to win an in-game election.
voted
"Not to mention that whoever wins your off-site popularity contest will still need to win an in-game election."
Yup, no need to mention this.
This is what we should have in congressional elections.
Let me start listing exploits.
1) There is no possible way to get this information to every possible voter. All that you're going to get are the Power Voters, the forum regulars, the political class, and other choice groups. This allows YOU to control who the electorate is. 2/3 of the voters are going to be left out of the loop causing mass-confusion.
2) There is only one candidate actively campaigning right now. This instantly gets rid of a level playing field because nobody else was in "the know" about this plan until now.
3) I am reminded of the old election day joke "My party votes today, your party vote tomorrow. Come back then."
4) What if you get a rogue blocker?
5) You are telling people who didn't participate in the super-cool-happy-funtime (your) election who to vote for, more or less.
6) This is not about Croatia. This is about insiders controlling the process. Don't dare use the strawman tactic that this is in the name of helping them.
I can continue, but I'm likely to have my login time out.
I hope it goes over well, but I can sadly see it failing pretty easily due to selfish people.
Voted
I've been wanting primaries even since the butthole hater trolls were too selfish and didn't let them happen the first time.
>Citizenship: North Korea
I warned CIA about you cuz you are potential terrorist.Furthermore, you are living in a communist country which implies you do not believe in gravity, besides, obviously you are a commie.
1) People who can't read a mass message PM are better off not deciding who the president is.
2) No one stopped anyone else from campaigning
4) 1 blocker per party is not a lot. We can find more than 5 trusted people who are willing to resign/get impeached if needed.
6) Insiders? Explain more?
I've been wanting this since the PEACE invasion of North America, I'm glad it's been done.
@gonzo23 - I thought Catholics didn't believe in gravity, i.e. Mel Gibson.
voted, this is the first idea I've actually liked from this government
#6 again- Now, We have conspiracy theories in eRepublik too?
Blazix has a point. Impeachment of the candidate is easy, and finding 5 people you trust enough not to retreat all of the US in there 24 hour presidency shouldn't be hard. I would, however, like to see people within 24 exp able to vote. That way, people who COULD have voted on the 5th can vote on the 2nd.
BTW, shouldn't it be "OPERATION SWIFT FURY IS A GO!" Why the colon?
If this succeeds, I think we are looking at the new way presidents are elected. We will see much more support from the more organized nations in support of other nations in political struggle.
Awesome
Worth a try. Count me in for the fun on the 5th.
"This is about insiders controlling the process."
I don't know how much you pay attention to things, but I can pretty much assure you that I have strong doubts Bradley Reala and Fionia are backing this in order to manipulate the process just so Krems can likely be elected president.
This seems pretty legit.
>North Corea
>Corea
stopped reading after that...
lol
You think you'll better to vote as fighting?
USA: 650 fighters, 2928 fights, 106126.66 dmg, 36.25 d/f, 4.50 f/f, 1.24 k/d
(and you fought vs kids, not our soliders...)
"I want to express the excitement with which I announce this project. 5 parties came together and agreed on something, which was quite good in and of itself. Further, we will be able to send votes, en masse, to support our Croatian brothers. Retaining the country's sovereignty is the first priority."
fu*k...I like this...
It is time to have some payback for Croats!
WE NEED THIS
This is an amazing idea, one problem for me though, the API system doesn't work half the time, quite often I verify and then it takes me to the next page and submit, then it makes me verify again, which means I never get pass the API system which means I can't vote and if I have this problem I'm sure so do others.
Congrats, interesting plan!
North Corea?
North Corea?
North Corea?
North Corea?
North Corea?
North Corea?
Corea?
Corea?
Corea?
Corea?
Corea?
Corea?
C
C
C
C
C
C
I just now found this via the forum, perhaps you should invest in some advertising/shouting to get this out to the general public ahead of time so that they aren't surprised and feel as though you're stealing their vote.
Personally, I think this idea has merit. It can accomplish the same thing, while freeing up the majority of our population to go help allies and such.
@Dell: Chill. If you feel or have evidence later on that insiders are controlling the elections, come out with it then. There's no point dramatizing it right now, it's just going to get you slammed down as a lone conspiracy theorist. If you're honestly concerned, just keep an eye on it.
We may not have saved Croatia on the battlefield but by all that's digital we can save her on the hustings!
Any word on help getting to croatia? I can probably get $ for a moving ticket of the citizen fee but likely not both (upon v2 launch I could not work for a week so cash is low still)
@Dell on the bright side if things do cockup you can become a croatian for good
Korea
omg you want to "help" someone and you don't know their name
Korea
when you get to croatia, contact me for some q5 homemade brandy
Wait, wait, wait a minute. Koreans don't really use the name Korea nor Corea. North Korea uses Chosongul, while Sourh Korea uses the name Hanminguk. Thus both Korea and Corea are incorrect.
<b>Long live Deomcratic People's eRepublik of Chosongul!</b>
Also no happiness for capitalist infiltrators (such as writter of this article).
As for eCroatia, if you wish us to send some votes, we will obey your command and go there to take the citizenship.
PLEASE LEARN TO SPELL KOREA!
Then I will learn not to use caps lock...
Americans never cease to amaze me with their spelling mistakes.
hail eUSA
hail eCroatia
Chill out on the Corea-Korean thing people. It obviously takes an English master like yourself to identify that spelling error which is totally not an intentional joke.
Obviously the American government is so corrupt at this point that it is literally letting America fall apart in the name of our "allies" real or imagined danger. First of all, as an American politician you should make America your number one priority. To hell with some quasi-state on the other side of the globe. To hell with Croatia which spams progaganda at us 24/7. America comes first. Any real ally would understand that a nation's first priority must be its own self-interest. Sure lets send all our troops abroad to fight indecisive battles and let all our regions be taken over.
The American government has been an utter failure since I joined the game a few months ago. We've been going down hill faster and faster. I remember some communist nutjob ranting about how the game should include the ability for revolutions. I'm amazed to say I almost agree with him at this point.
Long Live American self-interest!
I mean seriously, Mr. Richardson, do you actually believe that we should ignore our own problems and save some nation which obviously has no real citizens in it or a supposed ally which does nothing but insult us? I had some respect for you before. Now, I'm just discusted.
Oh, and now that I've actually read the article and not just the first paragraph, I have something more to say.
This sounds like some scheme Robespierre and the like would have put up during the French Revolution to maintain power. Seriously a "unity" candidate? What is this the USSR? Good god, the whole top 5 parties are completely corrupt. They are using Croatia as a distraction for us while they actually seek to gain the ability to control the elections. Seriously, there is no reason to even have an early election. None. Zero. Perhaps 2/3 of the people are corrupt enough to want to have a dictatorship, in that case, unprincipled democratic mob-rule shall reign supreme in America, rather than a principled republic.
Mr. Richardson, to preserve any credibility and integrity you and the United States government has left, please address my doubts and what seems to be other people's doubts based off the negative comments here. I may be wrong, I do not keep up fully with the politics of the game, but I think that I've drawn at least a decent conclusion based off of my knowledge.
Thank you,
loserhailose
KREMS FOR PRESIDENT
hail USA
hail CROATIA
Help us, we haven't guns, golds and foods for the war against PHOENIX... please donate something and fight for eCroatia
Hail and vote
HAIL ME !!!
Но ћирилица, но воте !!!
Korea
Yeah, great idea, let's destroy our democratic process in order to help an ally.....
Um, i think we can come up with a better plan.
Just a one notice: there is no RL North Koreans in there, because they don't have an access to the internet in their country
@loserhailose
you're not just a looser, but a hater as well pfffffff
@marcus
we are in some deep sht right now, and we were always prepared to make sacrifices for you, so I think we deserved this... plus, I doubt your governement is planning to make this a permanent thing...
Methinks this is a good idea :>
This should work fine. Thanks alot for helping to organize this.
This is absurd, what good will North Korea do us? If you want to pto for America, good for you, but don't lie and bs everyone into thinking it is some sort of humanitarian mission to save nonexisting people from tyranny.
@Marcus Patterson
dude with thinking like that we don't need your help,,,i bet that you were the first one who said in battle for Slavonia fu*k them i am not doing any kamikazes....correct if i'm wrong....eCroatia deserves even more but we would be happy if you only help us against PTO...but i see that we are doomed....with allies like this that's so normal
lol Democracy on the trial.
How admins feel about this?
Oh and Harry, it's a poor trolling, North Korea WANT YOU?
lolchina!
loserhailose: please learn about erepublik before you start wasting your time with role-playing
Genious plan. Hope it works.
@Marcus Petterson
lol, arent you the guy that was offering votes to the highest bidder. guaranteed win i think you called it
Nice idea to help Croatia.
But this will disenfranchise 2-clickers. (Maybe it doesn't matter because the V2 war module is driving away 2-clickers in waves anyway.)
As part of the campaign, this article needs to be printed in every major paper in the country ... especially the pols who support it. A reference in the DoD orders wouldn't hurt either.
west wing ftw
boated.
This is a good idea.
I'll sign up.
This is an awesome idea. Will be participating, but I agree that this needs to be published all over the place if it's to work effectively.
"..some communist nutjob ranting about how the game should include the ability for revolutions.."
Cool.
Yay for no inter-party bickering!
How come nobody in this game knows how to spell KOREA correctly??? It's with a "K" not a "C".
VOTE + SUPPORTED FOR eCROATIA!
Voted
Support Croatia
<a href="http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/america-croatia-needs-you-1468313/1/20">http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/amer[..]/1/20</a>
We all know how to spell 'Korea'. 'Corea' is just a running joke in the eUS.
Dell Fargus' "Let me start listing exploits."
I'm seeing a lot of, but not absolute, partisanism here. Doesn't give me any confidence that this is going to be conducted honestly.
A full required deployment of ALL Military and Militia branches would put the number of voting bodies required in place to accomplish the mission in Croatia. You want to do an extraordinary measure for the extreme dire circumstances, try that one before having the general population and the game mechanics turned upside down in this manner.
One mention of Corea in an article about helping Croatia and the discussion has another sideline track.. get a grip, readers.
Ok I tried to read this 6 or 7 times but I am distracted easy.
Is this something to do about a great ass?
By "remain free" in reference to North Corea, you must mean "less Russian / Serbian / Bot".
Also, what Technician said.
I absolutely endorse this idea. I further recommend that if it is successful, we look at ways to implement it in the future, perhaps even on a regular basis.
So this shows how 5 people can decide among themselves who the next president will be. Much like the RL USA.
It'll be useful in times of crisis like now.
Maybe an altered version would work all the time.
COREA COREA COREA
Krems for president, lets save croatia!
ahhah.. omg.. PTO of croatia will be done by usa alone )) don't forget to give them back their country after a year or two.
there is commies waiting to ake over eCorea and when they do corea is doomed no one will be able to get in or out!!!
there is commies waiting to ake over eCorea and when they do corea is doomed no one will be able to get in or out!!!
Kind of weird to have someone that is a dedicated member of a party to run the election page.
Oh well, batterytime is teh awesomest and he's in MY party so.. no complainin here
V
the primary is here:
<a href="http://bt.erepdata.com/vote/">http://bt.erepdata.com/vote/</a>
dont worry when it asks you for password you are logging on the the eRep API