SWIFT FURY - Aftermath

Day 987, 13:57 • Published in USA USA • by Harrison Richardson

As I write this from the beach, looking out over the ocean, I realize how much all of your lives suck as compared to mine right now. Then I remember that I'm writing an article while I'm on vacation. That is a new level of sadness. Or dedication. I prefer to call it dedication.

The primary did not go through without a hitch. Think, can something this big reasonably go off perfectly? There were a good few problems, and I'm sorry that it had to go down like that. We prepared daily and hourly for the problems and we did our best to address them as they came up. For example, we never originally planned to give people with foreign citizenships the ability to vote. We realized how foolhardy this was and we went to change it immediately. Thanks to some quick coding by Blazix, we were able to add the provisional ballots mechanism so those without US citizenship were able to vote without a problem. We were more responsive to the problems than the admins have ever been, as seen with their lack of a response to the API problem. So, let's address a few points:

1) The Election Board. This was my idea and was something I wanted to add legitimacy to the project. If I were at home, the EB would have done a lot more of validating resuls and the like. It was my vision and thus, since I was only running the election via proxy, the EB didn't work as I had intended it to. I originally wanted the EB to have master access to the voting results so that every party would be able to view the results in real time. I was told that this process would have given a broad , limitless amount of power to the EB and that was something I, and many others, were not comfortable with. In the interest of security, we decided against giving the EB this power. This wasn't communicated to the EB well enough, and is my fault, so for that I apologize.

2) The API went down. This was impossible to predict, though in hindsight, I should have known that the admins would do their best to mess us up. We held the primary on the 2nd rather than the 1st because we wanted to give the candidates enough time to campaign effectively. The situation was managed the best we could, I think, though in the future if we did this process I would be sure to announce it on the 25th, instead of the 26th (this was because I had to wait for all parties to confirm their acceptance) and hold the primary on the 1st and not the 2nd. Live and learn. For this, I apologize.

3) People felt disenfranchised. As far as I can tell, this was going to happen no matter what. Just as in real life, problems happen on election day. I have worked election day in real life for 3 years now and I've seen a lot of problems. I can say, without a doubt, that we address, react, and predict the problems infinitely better than they do in real life. it wasn't perfect, but it was also our first attempt at holding an outside primary. We did many, many things right and did a few things wrong. As expected, the wrong overshadowed the right, which is fine and legitimate. We must work to fix the wrong and maintain the right so that, in the future, this process maintains a viable alternative if we ever need to use it again. Among the things I want to work on for the future is using our national forums to hold voting. API registration is required on the forums, so legitimacy via API will still be ensured, but we won't have to query the API so much during the day, leading to much less reliance on the qwerky API and more on our strong server. Also, we will hold the primary a day earlier so we have a day to extend voting if we need to.

4) To those concerned about the process for returning to America after the Croatian elections, let me explain that to you. I want to be clear that no one will be required to stay in Croatia. Congress will not turn down a legitimate request for citizenship. However, we urge those who want to to stay with their Croatian citizenship. The battle for their country does not end after the 5th. It will be waged in the coming weeks and months as they fight to maintain their freedom. Those who wish to come home, I offer a few tips. One is that you should sign up with Rod Damon's Strategic Air Command. This will allow you to show up on their internal ATO lists and will help when you want to get citizenship back home. The Immigration Enforcement Team will use this ATO roster as a means for legitimizing citizenship requests. Being on this list will ensure that you get your citizenship back as quickly as possible. If you're a member of the military and you didn't sign up on the ATO list, the easiest way to confirm your citizenship will be to list your Commanding Officer's name in the citizenship application infobox, so that the team can follow up with your CO and your application can be approved once they confirm your status as an American.

In closing, I want to thank everyone that made this possible. Inwegen, for calling me at 3 AM to explain to me the situation and for his continued support in all facets of the program. Alexander Hamilton for his faithful management of the program in my stead. Batterytime and Blazix for their coding and continued support. Killing Time for offering his server so that we can accomplish this primary. All top 5 PP's and blockers for doing their part to ensure that we keep illegitimate candidates off of the ballot and making the process as smooth as possible, even though I know that the game didn't want it to be very smooth. Krems and Fionia for agreeing to this process, and especially Fionia for not creating a stink even though the results went against her. She could have cried wolf and some of her points may have been legitimate, but I respect her for not doing that and respecting the results of the primary. I respect that she realizes that we all did our best and we had the fairest election we could under the circumstances, and I respect that she realizes Croatia is more important than our petty domestic differences. Fionia, while we often disagree on almost everything, has made this a better country and for today, for a wide variety of reasons, she has my respect and she deserves yours too.

I am truly sorry that the process wasn't perfect, but we did the best we could and we will continue to work on perfecting the process so that, if ever needed in the future, the problems we saw today will not happen again. This was the first time we've ever held a primary outside of the game, and as far as I am concerned, it was a resounding success. We got a country to unite for a common goal, and for me, that alone is a major accomplishment. We have freed up hundreds of votes for our friends in Croatia and, while we may lose, we will go down fighting side by side with our brothers. A handful of days ago, I (and you all, by extension) made a promise to Croatia. We made a promise to act and not just spout rhetoric. On the 5th, we will show to Croatia the other side of the American machine. We will show them the resolve, the ingenuity, and the fervor with which we fight to defend our own country and that of those who support us.

Thank you all for your time,
Harrison Richardson
United States Secretary of State & Project Manager, Operation: SWIFT FURY