Concepts

Concepts are the important fundamentals of The Political Proces. When you first start a game, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you read through all of the information. Yes, it's an information dump, but it will be needed as you play the game.

= Getting Started =

Tabs and Menus
The layout of the game consists of tabs connected to menus. The most prominent menus in the game are the Office, Campaign, Politicians, Elections, Metrics, Profile, and News menus. These are the top-most tabs on the screen. Clicking on any of these tabs will open the corresponding menu. Each menu has sub-categories (tabs within the menu that open sub-menus. For example, there is a 'Jobs' tab within the Office menu that opens a sub-menu that displays all currently available jobs.)

Office Menu: this menu is where you will spend most of your time as a politician, when you are not campaigning. --The Summary sub-menu will show you all of your messages and schedule items related to your political office. Schedule items will include things like attending committee hearings or voting on legislation. --The Jobs sub-menu within the Office Menu is where you can find all currently available jobs. New jobs appear at the beginning of the year, and usually correspond to the elections occurring that year. Most jobs remain on the Jobs page for about six weeks before disappearing. --The Legislation sub-menu allows you to look at legislative news or create legislation of your own (only if you are a politician). To learn more about legislation, you can visit the Legislation concepts page.

Campaign Menu: this menu is where you will conduct all of your election campaigns. This is true for campaigns as a politician and as a party chair. To learn more about campaigns, look at all of the concept pages in the Elections category. To learn more about the Party Chair position, go to the Party Chair concepts page. --The Overview sub-menu displays important information about the current state of your campaign, such as campaign opportunities, campaign funds, name recognition, and metrics about voter enthusiasm and public opinion. --The Events sub-menu allows you to participate in campaign events such as door knocking, speeches, interviews, rallies, and fundraisers. See Campaign Events for more information. --You can learn about the other tabs in the Campaign Menu by looking at the relevant concept pages under the Elections category.

Politicians Menu: this menu shows you details about every active politician in the game, including their political history and their policy opinions. You can also visit the politician page to see the highest-ranking politicians in each category by clicking on the Rankings tab within the category. The Rankings menu orders politicians by their Political Points.

Elections Menu: this menu shows the results of the most recent elections, including primary elections. By default, the menu shows the elections that are connected to your district. For example, if you live in state house district 20, then when you click on the statehouse election tab, it will show you the election for state house district 20. To the right of that, there is a folder with two tabs: News Feed and Other Elections. Clicking 'Other Elections' will show you the results of all statehouse elections.

Metrics Menu: this menu shows metrics about the city, state, and nation. For more information, go to the Metrics concept page. One important metric is the government approval metric; it shows how much voters approve of the government based on different categories. A low approval rating can have a significant impact on elections.

Profile Menu: this menu shows data about your character. If you want to change your county, state, political party, or political caucus, you can do it in the Profile Menu. This menu also allows you to view your political history and statistics.

News Menu: this menu shows current news happening at the city, state, and national levels. Currently, the news menu is limited to news about legislation and elections.

Icons
There are five icons at the very top of the screen. From left to right they are: Name Recognition, Political Points, Approval Rating, Messages, and Schedule Items.

Name Recognition: this icon shows how many voters currently know who you are. If you click on this icon, it will show how your name recognition has changed over time.

Political Points: this icon shows your current number of political points. If you click on this icon, it will bring up a menu to show how much influence you have over other politicians (assuming you are an active politician). It will also show you how your political points have changed over time. For more information see Political Points and Political Influence.

Approval Rating: this icon shows your current approval rating (relative to your current political position - if you are a mayor it will show you your approval rating at the city level; if you are a governor, it will show your approval rating at the state level). If you click on this icon, it will bring up a menu that shows your approval rating at every district level. It also shows how your approval rating has changed over time. A low approval rating could hurt your chances of winning your next election. For more information, see Approval Rating.

Messages: this icon shows if you have any messages during the turn. Clicking on this icon will take you to the Summary Page of the Office Menu, where you can read your messages.

Schedule Items: this icon shows if you have any scheduled events. Clicking on this icon will take you to the Summary Page of the Office Menu, where you can see all of your scheduled events. Clicking on the Continue button next to the event will allow you to participate in that event. Whenever a new event is added to your schedule, you will hear an alert sound indicating that a new event has been added (this alert sound can be changed or muted in the Audio Options).

Choosing a Job
You can choose a job from the Jobs tab in the Office Menu. Jobs appear at the beginning of the year (week 1), but only if there is a corresponding election that year. For example, city council elections happen every four years, but the house of representatives has an election every two years. There is a limited amount of time that you can apply for a job before the job disappears from the menu. There are currently two general types of jobs: politician and party chairperson. In order to become a politician, you must win an election. The election campaign will begin once you apply to the position. If you want to play as a party chairperson, all you have to do is apply; once you apply, you will automatically be given the job. Playing as a politician allows you to write legislation and influence the budget. If you play as a party chairperson, you will not write legislation, but you will help elect the people who do write legislation. You cannot have more than one job at a time.

Saving and Loading
To save your game, you must open up the menu by either hitting the Escape button on your keyboard, or by clicking on the Menu button at the top of the screen (to the right of the News tab). Once the menu is open, you can click on the Quick Save button or you can click on the Save Game button. The Quick Save button will save your game under the name quicksave. Anytime you hit the Quick Save button, it will overwrite the previous quicksave file. If you click the Save Game button, a menu will appear that will allow you to save a new file or click on a previous file and overwrite it. To load a saved game from the main menu, select the game mode you want to play (Campaign or Dictator) and then click the Load Game button. A menu will appear displaying all saved games for that game mode. Click the one you want to play and click continue. You can also delete saved files from this menu. If you want to load a file while you are in the middle of a game, you can open the menu (hitting the Escape key or clicking the Menu button), and then click the Load Game button. Choose the file you want to load and hit continue. Warning: do not try to load a game while a pop-up menu is open (a pop-up menu is any menu that overlays the default user interface - such as a menu to vote on legislation, attend a committee hearing, or create a budget). Close pop-up menus before trying to load.

Game Options
Whenever you start a new game, there are several game options that you can choose. While in the character creation menu, there is a tab that says 'Advanced'. Clicking that tab will allow you to choose your starting position. For example, if you want to play as the mayor when the game begins (without having to win an election), you can click on the 'Advanced' tab and select Mayor under the drop-down menu for Starting Position. The default starting position is None; by default you start the game without holding a political office. After you have created your character and selected a state and county, a new menu will appear. This menu allows you to type in a city name and select your desired districts for school board, city council, state house, state senate, and congress. Some categories may have only one district to select. Below each district name is a table displaying the party demographics for the district. Party demographics represent the percentage of voters belonging to a specific political party in each district. Below all of the districts is an Advanced Options button, which allows you to change party demographics, party ideology, and other options for every district in the game.

Audio Options
The audio options menu allows you to set the volume for in-game sounds. It also allows you to select from several options for what sound you want to hear when you click a button, click a tab, or receive a message. You also have an option to turn off sounds. You can access the audio options by clicking the Options button in the menu (which you can access by hitting the escape (Esc) key or by clicking on the Menu button in the game).

Election Difficulty
The game offers three election difficulty modes: Very Easy, Easy, and Normal. Playing Very Easy mode will allow you to win most elections without much effort. Easy mode will make elections slightly easier, but they may still require some skill to win. Normal mode is the default difficulty level. Changing the election difficulty can be done when the game is being set up - in the same menu where you enter the city name. It can also be changed at any time during an election by clicking the 'Difficulty' button under your campaign manager's portrait, in the overview tab of the campaign menu.

Character Customization
Character customization allows you to customize most politicians in the game. By default it is set to false. It can be activated when starting a new game, or by opening the menu, going to advanced options, and then clicking the Politicians tab.

To customize a character, go to their profile page and click the button that says Customize. You can change most features about a character, including their name, age, appearance, policies, and political history. Their political party can also be changed, but only if it is not an election year.

Character customization also allows you to replace party leadership positions at any time. Click on a party leader and then click the Replace button.

You can save a custom character as a Character Preset by clicking the Customize button and then clicking 'Save Character Preset' in the customization menu. You can save an entire group of characters (such as the entire House of Representatives) by going to the Advanced Options menu, clicking the Politicians tab, and then clicking 'Save Preset' under the appropriate group title. This is also where you load group presets.

= Elections =

Election Types
Below is a list of all elected positions that can currently be played. To play any of these positions, go to the jobs page under the Office tab. Jobs usually appear at the beginning of the year. Not all jobs are available at the same time. City elections do not happen the same year as federal elections. Senate elections happen every 6 years while House elections occur every 2 years.


 * School Board Member - creates policies related to city education, creates the school budget. Term length is 4 years.


 * City Council Member - creates city laws, creates the city budget in collaboration with the mayor. Term length is 4 years.


 * Mayor - creates city laws, creates the city budget in collaboration with the city council. Term length is 4 years.


 * State House - creates state laws and state budget in collaboration with the State Senate and the Governor. Term length is 2 years.


 * State Senate - creates state laws and state budget in collaboration with the State House and Governor. Term length is 4 years.


 * Governor - creates and approves state laws and state budget; writes the state budget in collaboration with the state house and state senate. The governor has the power to veto any legislation. Term length is 4 years with a term limit of 2 terms.


 * U.S. House - creates federal (national) laws and federal budget in collaboration with the U.S. Senate and the President. Term length is 2 years.


 * U.S. Senate - creates federal (national) laws and federal budget in collaboration with the U.S. House and the President. Term length is 6 years.


 * President - creates and approves the federal (national) laws and federal budget; writes the federal budget, which is amended and approved by the Senate and House. The president has the power to veto any legislation. Term length is 4 years with a term limit of 2 terms.

Campaign Basics
The election campaign takes place over the course of 44 weeks, starting on week 1 and ending with the general election during week 45. The goal of the election campaign is to increase name recognition, increase voter enthusiasm, and gain the support of likely voters. There are many methods to accomplishing these goals, which you can read about by reading the other sections in the Election Category of this document.

Campaign Overview
The Campaign Overview page is where you will find a general synopsis of how things are progressing in the election campaign. This is where you can see campaign messages, current name recognition, changes in public opinion, and other relevant information.

The campaign overview page also has a sub-menu with a portrait of your campaign manager. Under this portrait are several buttons that allow you to access your schedule, delegate marketing efforts, or withdraw from the election.

Campaign Platform
The campaign platform is a very significant aspect of the election campaign. It alone has the potential to determine whether you win or lose the election. Much care should be taken when deciding on a campaign platform.

The campaign platform expresses your top three priorities of your candidacy - the top three issues you want to address if you win the election. One of the best ways to win the election is to ensure that your campaign platform matches the priorities of the voters. To learn the priorities of the voters you can either do door-knocking and talk to the voters directly or you can conduct a poll.

When selecting your campaign platform you can also select a campaign promise. Currently, selecting a campaign promise does not have any effect on the election. If you win the election, the campaign promise will be added to your list of available challenges in the Office menu; if you complete it, you will gain political points.

You can change your campaign platform at any time by going to the Policy tab in the Campaign Menu.

Campaign Difficulty
There are many aspects influencing how difficult a campaign is to win. One of the key aspects is party demographics. If you are a traditional democratic in a district that is 80% republicans, it is unlikely that you will win the election.

Another aspect influencing campaign difficulty is the type of election. Lower level elections such as elections for school board or city council are easier to win than higher level elections such as Governor and U.S. senator. Candidates in lower level elections are less skilled as politicians and thus are not as effective at campaigning; they will gain name-recognition and influence public opinion slower than higher level politicians.

Campaign Events
There are currently five types of campaign events.

Door Knocking: this event involves introducing yourself to voters. You will gain name recognition and increase voter enthusiasm. You will also learn the opinions and priorities of the voters. For instance, if most of the voters are talking about crime, then crime is probably one of their top priorities.

Door knocking is the only way to learn about voter priorities and opinions other than conducting a poll. But, knocking on doors is free while conducting a poll costs money.

Speeches: speeches are given to organizations within the district; they are a good way to increase name recognition while improving your relationship with the organization. In order to receive a speech opportunity you must introduce yourself to Contacts - representatives of the organization. If you have a good enough relationship with the contact/organization, you will receive speech opportunities from them.

Giving a speech can increase or decrease voter enthusiasm, depending on whether the organization agrees with your policies. A speech cannot change public opinion because members of organizations generally have strong opinions about policies related to their organization. Increasing the skill level of your speech writer will improve the effectiveness of speeches and rallies.

Interviews: Interviews are a good way to increase name recognition. They also can influence voter enthusiasm and public opinion. Interviews are offered based on several factors: the type of election and the skill level of your press secretary. Lower level elections such as school board and city council do not usually have interview opportunities. A higher skilled press secretary is more likely to find interview opportunities.

Rallies: Rallies are a way for candidates to get voters excited about the election. Rallies increase voter enthusiasm and sway public opinion. They do not influence name recognition. Some undecided voters may attend rallies to help determine how they will vote. You can increase the attendance of your rallies by increasing the skill level of your Event Manager and your Event Coordinator.

Fundraising: Fundraising involves interacting with potential donors and asking them to make a donation to the campaign. This can be done through fundraisers or by contacting donors directly, in-person or on the phone. Donors are often asked to bundle donations from multiple individuals into a single contribution; doing this allows the campaign to efficiently bring in more funds. By having the candidate interact with donors directly, during fundraisers or over the phone, the donors will be more willing to donate than if they were solicited by direct mail or campaign volunteers. See the Finance section of this document for more information about how to raise campaign funds.

Opponents
The opponent's menu is a good place to find information about your opponent's campaign platform and policies. You can use information about their policies to fine tune your own campaign platform, to optimize the likelihood that voters will support you over your opponent. This is especially important in primary elections.

Marketing
Marketing is the best way to reach the largest number of voters, but it can be expensive. Marketing has several effects - it increases name recognition, voter enthusiasm, and public opinion. One thing to note about marketing is that it is not very effective at changing public opinion or voter enthusiasm. Voters do not pay much attention to campaign ads. Generally, the goal of marketing, aside from name recognition, is to change the opinion of undecided voters. Enough marketing could swing a close election to your advantage.

There are 4 types of marketing: television ads, radio ads, internet ads, and direct mail. Television, radio, and direct mail all influence name recognition, voter enthusiasm, and public opinion. Internet ads influence only name recognition. The direct mail option allows you to send direct mail to voters in a specific party. This allows you to target the kind of voters you want to influence.

There are two categories of ads: general ads and attack ads. General ads focus on promoting your campaign policies. Attack ads focus on rejecting the policies of your opponent, thus improving voter support for your policies. Attack ads also influence voter enthusiasm for your opponent. If the majority of voters oppose the policy of your opponent, then the attack ad will reduce voter enthusiasm for your opponent. If the majority of voters support the policies of your opponent, the attack ad will increase voter enthusiasm for your opponent. So, when running attack ads, try to select an opponent policy that the majority of voters oppose.

The skill of your marketing director will influence how effective your marketing campaigns are. You can delegate marketing by going to the marketing tab in the campaign menu and clicking on the delegate button below your marketing director's portrait. This will bring up a menu where you select how much money you want to spend on marketing and then the marketing director will decide what kind of marketing to do. (This may be less fine-tuned, and thus less efficient than if you did the marketing yourself.)

Whenever you do marketing, a results page will appear to display the results. It will show you how much your name recognition has changed and it will show changes to public opinion. The public opinion displayed corresponds to the content of the marketing campaign. If you did a general ad about the economy, the public opinion section would show how public opinion has changed for all economic policies; if you did a specific ad about minimum wage, the public opinion section will show how public opinion about your minimum wage policy has changed.

Staff
Staff members can play an important role in your campaign, especially during higher level elections. The role of each staff member is described in the staff menu tab. To increase the effectiveness of your staff members, you can provide them with training. Training costs money, and once a staff member's skill level is above skill level 1, you will have to pay them a weekly salary. The salary increases as their skill level increases. You can see a staff member's skill level by visiting the staff page and looking at how many highlighted stars are next to their name. At the beginning of each new election, staff skill levels are reset to 1 star, so you will have to retrain them at the beginning of every new election.

Volunteers
Volunteers can be used to increase name recognition, improve voter enthusiasm, influence public opinion, or raise campaign funds. The number of volunteers you have is based on the number of field offices you have. Each field office you open has a weekly expense. There is a limit to the number of field offices you can open, based on the size of the election.

You can change volunteer activities or increase/decrease your number of field offices by going to the volunteer tab in the campaign menu. The skill level of your volunteer coordinator will determine how many volunteer hours are provided by each field office. In the volunteer menu, you can click on the Delegate button below the portrait of your volunteer coordinator and he or she will adjust the volunteer activities automatically based on the current needs of the campaign.

During presidential campaigns, you will need to hire a state director in each state where you want to open a volunteer field office. No volunteer activity will happen in a state unless that state has a state director. You can hire a state director in the volunteer menu. (This is necessary only for presidential elections.)

Finance
The finance menu, within the campaign menu, shows how much money your campaign is bringing in and how much money your campaign is spending. There are two types of donations: individual donations and PAC donations.

Individual donations come from direct fundraising activities (which can be done from the Events menu), online donations, and any fundraising assigned to your volunteers. The skill level of your New Media Director influences the amount of online donations.

PAC donations are donations from Political Action Committees. PACs will donate funds to the candidate's that best represent their interests. To view a PACs interest, you can go to the Contacts page, and click on the tab that says PACs. There are two types of PACs - ideology PACs and party PACs. Ideology PACs will donate to any candidate who shares their ideology, regardless of party. Party PACs will donate only to candidates who belong to their party. The amount that a PAC donates depends on the size of the election and how much they trust you.

Conducting Polls
Polls can be used to learn various information relevant to the election, such as voter priorities and public opinions about different policies. Polling can be fairly expensive, especially for lower level elections. Combining multiple questions into a single poll is usually more cost effective than doing multiple polls.

Contacts
There are two types of contacts: contacts for organizations and contacts for PACs (Political Action Committees). Organizations are groups of people with specific sets of values and interests. To learn about organizations you can introduce yourself to the organization's contact and attend an event. If the organization/contact likes you enough, they may provide you with speech opportunities.

PACs provide donations during election campaigns. They give donations to the candidate that best represents their interests and values. To learn the interests of each PAC, introduce yourself to the PAC's contact (in the contact page under PACs).

Primary Elections
A primary election is an election between two or more candidates from the same political party. It is used to determine which candidate will represent the party in the general election. Often times, the primary election is the most difficult part of the election campaign. Some districts significantly favor one party over the other, so winning the general election may be fairly easy. Winning the primary is difficult because your opponents generally have very similar ideologies compared to you, so determining how to get an advantage over your opponent can be difficult. During primary elections it is important to familiarize yourself with priorities and public opinions of your party so that you can tailor your campaign platform to represent the values of your party.

General Elections
A general election is an election between two opponents to determine who will become the new elected official. In many instances the result of the general election is predictable. In districts where a large majority of voters belong to one party over the other, the candidate who belongs to the majority party usually wins. In districts where party demographics are more balanced, general elections could go to either candidate. When general elections are likely to be close, it is important to focus on independent/undecided voters: they may be the key to determining who wins the election. It is also important not to alienate voters from your own party; if you move too far away from their values, it will hurt voter enthusiasm, which decreases turnout. Another way to get an advantage in a general election is to have higher turnout among your party compared to your opponent's party. Increasing voter turnout requires increasing voter enthusiasm.

Independent Voters
In this game, independent voters represent undecided voters. They could vote for the candidate from either party. By default, 5% of voters in each county are independents (undecided voters). This can be changed in the advanced options. Ideologically, independent voters have ideologies and public opinions that are averaged between the values of both parties. For example, if 70% of democrats support policy A and 50% of republicans support policy A, then 60% (the average between the two) of independents would support policy A.

Voter Enthusiasm
Voters are most enthusiastic about candidates who share their priorities and policy opinions. The best way to optimize voter enthusiasm is to select a campaign platform that represents the values of the greatest number of voters. You can also use marketing and other strategies to influence public opinion; the more that public opinion matches your policies, the more voter enthusiasm will increase. Voter enthusiasm also comes from interacting with voters; holding rallies or knocking on doors can increase voter enthusiasm, even if you have already maximized voter enthusiasm based on ideology.

In general elections, voter enthusiasm with your own political party will influence the turnout rate of your political party. The more members of your party that turnout to vote, the more likely you are to win the election. The effect that voter enthusiasm has towards voter turnout is relative to voter enthusiasm for the average political candidate. A voter enthusiasm rate of 65% might be good if the average voter enthusiasm is 60%. (You should not expect to reach a voter enthusiasm of 100%). Often, the approval rating of politicians is a good indicator of the average voter enthusiasm. Click on the politicians tab to find the approval rating of politicians.

Voter enthusiasm plays a big role in determining how independent voters will vote. The candidate with the largest voter enthusiasm amongst independent voters will receive a large percentage of independent votes.

During primary elections, the candidate with the highest voter enthusiasm will benefit from more votes, but policy still has the greatest effect on which candidate will win. Voter enthusiasm is currently based on how many voters support the policies that the candidate presents to the voters. A candidate presents policies to voters through volunteers, door knocking, interviews, speeches, and marketing. If you present policies that 100% of voters support, then you will have 100% voter enthusiasm. Often, opponents may select a campaign platform (top 3 priorities) where their policies provide a significant agreement with the voters, producing high voter enthusiasm. But, while the policies might match voter policies, the top 3 priorities they select may not match the priorities of the voters. If their priorities do not match, their election score may be lower than your election score, meaning that you can still win a primary election even if your opponent has a higher voter enthusiasm score. Also, you can use marketing to run attack ads against your opponent, which will lower your opponent's voter enthusiasm.

Voter enthusiasm is cumulative; every interaction with voters adds to the total voter enthusiasm. The more you interact with the voters, the less effective each additional interaction will be at influencing voter enthusiasm. Seeing a single television ad is less effective at changing voter opinion if voters have already seen 100 television ads.

Voter enthusiasm is 'reset' at the beginning of each new election campaign. When it is reset it is equated with your current approval rating with each party, relative to your current name recognition. This represents the fact that some percentage of the population has already formed an opinion about you based on your previous actions and policies. This opinion will be be the basis for your voter enthusiasm, but voter enthusiasm can change quickly. Interacting with more of the population, multiple times throughout the campaign, will change voter enthusiasm. In many elections, you will interact with the population so frequently that the initial voter enthusiasm will have almost no effect on the election.

Voter Turnout
Voter turnout is based on four factors: the default turnout percentage, voter enthusiasm, the government approval rating, and rally attendance.

Default Turnout Percentage: each county in the game has a unique turnout percentage based on real life turnout values. Turnout in midterm elections is generally much less than turnout during presidential elections. Turnout percentages for each district can be changed in the advanced options menu.

Voter Enthusiasm: high voter enthusiasm can increase voter turnout. Low voter enthusiasm can decrease turnout. If voters are not enthusiastic about their candidate, they are less likely to vote.

Government Approval Rating: a low government approval rating can result in an increased turnout among voters belonging to the minority party. A low government approval rating makes the minority party more enthusiastic about voting the majority party out of office, making the minority party more likely to turnout and vote.

Rally Attendance: Every time you attend a rally, voter turnout will increase relative to the size of the rally audience. The idea is that, once people have attended your rally, they will be enthusiastic about voting and will be more likely to vote. Essentially, 100% of people who attend your rally will turnout to vote. Since some of the audience members would have voted regardless of your rally, only a percentage of the audience actually increases voter turnout in your district. Every rally you attend will increase voter turnout.

Effects of Turnout: Voter turnout has the potential to change elections. The more you can increase the turnout of your party, the more likely you are to win the election. Depending on the type of election, voter turnout could influence elections other than your own. If you are running for president, the voter turnout in your election will influence all elections. If you are running for senate, voter turnout for your election will influence every election in your state. It is important to increase voter turnout as much as you can because, even if your election is easy to win, increasing voter turnout may help one of your party members win in a competitive election.

Voter Enthusiasm vs Rally Turnout: The effect of rally turnout is contingent on voter enthusiasm. For example, if rallies increase turnout by 2%, and voter enthusiasm increases turnout by 5%, then total voter turnout will be 5% (not 5+2 = 7%). If turnout from voter enthusiasm is -2%, and turnout from rallies is 5%, the result would be -2%+5% = 3% voter turnout, which would be added to the default turnout value.

Name Recognition
Gaining name recognition is essential for winning an election. If the voters do not know who you are, they will not vote for you. You can increase your name recognition by knocking on doors, running marketing campaigns, giving speeches, and increasing the number of volunteers you have interacting with voters (by increasing the number of field offices you have, or by increasing skill level of your volunteer coordinator). You may notice that the rate at which your name recognition increases becomes slower as your name recognition increases. This happens because many of the voters you are contacting are already familiar with your name. For example, if you have 0% name recognition, that means that no one recognizes your name and thus 100% of the people you contact will increase your name recognition, but if you have 80% name recognition, that means that only 20% of the people you contact do not recognize your name, which means that only 20% of the people you contact will increase your name recognition.

Presidential Elections
Presidential elections have some major differences compared to all of the other election types. First, it requires campaigning in multiple states; each state has unique ideologies, so each state may require different campaign tactics. Second, the primary process involves multiple primary elections that occur over many weeks. Candidates receive delegates when they win an election. Whoever has the most delegates at the end of the primary season will become the presidential nominee for their party. Depending on the type of primary, delegates are either distributed proportionately or as winner-takes-all.

Primaries are also categorized as open primaries or closed primaries. An open primary means that anyone can vote in the primary - this means that independents can vote in a democratic or republican primary. Closed primaries limit participation to voters who are registered as a party member. To find out whether a primary is open/closed and whether it distributes delegates proportionately or as winner-takes-all, you can visit the Campaign Map tab, click on a state, and see such information at the top right corner of the map.

Winning early primaries is important because it will significantly increase your national name recognition and it will increase donations. Most candidates focus their early campaign efforts in Iowa. Iowa is the first state to have a primary; winning there will significantly boost a candidate's name recognition and increase the likelihood of winning future primaries.

If you are playing as a republican, it is valuable to note that some states are winner-take-all states. All delegates from that state go the candidate who wins the most votes. It might be a good strategy to focus on winning winner-takes-all states because doing so will quickly increase your delegate count. Also focus on spending your campaign resources in large states, since doing well in those states will provide a large amount of delegates.

General election strategies: unless the presidential election is determined by popular vote, it is important to understand that some states do not matter from a strategic perspective. States with a large democratic majority are always going to vote for the democratic candidate and states with a large republican majority are always going to vote for the republican candidate. You should focus your resources on states that have an equal number of democratic and republican voters (these are known as swing states or battleground states).

Campaign Map
The Campaign Map is a tab used during presidential elections (it will not appear during any other type of election). In the campaign map tab is a map of the country. When you click on a state on the map, the overview page next to the map displays information about the state - including your current name recognition in the state. It also displays voter enthusiasm in the state, support for player policies, and how public opinion has changed in the state. The map itself displays some information at the top right of the map. This information includes the number of delegates distributed during the primary, how delegates are distributed (proportional or winner-take-all), and the week the primary occurs.

Election Tab
The election tab is devoted specifically to displaying the results of the most recent elections. This includes election campaigns that are currently in progress. The election tab is a good place to visit if you want to watch the presidential election process.

Gaining Voter Support
Winning elections requires gaining voter support. Voters support candidates who share their priorities and policy opinions. When selecting your campaign platform, try to select priorities that the majority of voters share. During the campaign process try to learn voter priorities through door knocking and conducting polls. You can always change your campaign platform and policies in the Policy tab.

You can also try to change the priorities and policy opinions of voters through marketing and other campaign events. But, the majority of voters have strong opinions that are unlikely to change (at max you can change public opinion by 10%). By the end of the election campaign, your goal is to have more voter support than your opponent. You can see how much voters support your current policies by viewing the 'Support for Candidate Policies' section in the campaign overview page. This shows only the support for specific policy categories, and not individual policies within those categories. To learn about individual policy opinions, you will need to conduct a poll, or knock on doors to get a general sense of voter opinions.

If a large majority of voters already support your policy, it may be difficult to convert the remaining voters. Imagine that you contact 100 voters and 90 already support your policy, leaving 10 who oppose your policy. If you can convert 10% of opponents (the actual conversion percentage may be higher or lower), then out of 100 voters, 10% of 10 opponents, is 1 voter converted. This means that out of every 100 voters, you will convert 1%. But if support for your policy is lower - say 50% - then 10% of 50 opponents could be converted, which is 5 voters. 5 voters out of 100 is 5%. Thus converting voter opinions becomes more difficult as more voters support your policies.

Public Opinion
In this game public opinion is used to represent the extent to which voters support your policies. It can change, at most, by 10% in either direction. It is limited to 10% beacuse most people have strong opinions that cannot be changed. As an example of how public opinion works: if 50% of voters support a policy by default, then a public opinion value of +10 would change voter support to 60%; a public opinion value of -10 would change it to 40%.

Public opinion is relative to your policies, which means that if it increases (represented by blue), more voters support your policies; if it decreases (represented by red), less people support your policies.

Some campaign events, such as marketing or interviews, will display public opinion on a results page. The public opinion displayed corresponds to the content of the event. If the event was a marketing campaign about your economic policies, the the public opinion section represents public opinion related to your economic policies. If the event is an interview, then the public opinion section represents public opinion related to the top priorities of the community. (Interviewers ask questions that are important to the community).

Public opinion may influence elections other than your own. For example, if you are running for senate, the changes you make to public opinion will influence all elections in your state. If you increase public opinion for a policy, it will benefit every candidate who shares that policy. Even if you are likely to win your election without changing public opinion, changing public opinion may still be a good idea because it will help other candidates in your party. Any changes you make to public opinion will permanently change public opinion once the election has ended. 50% of any changes you make will be added to the default public opinion. For example, if, by default, 60% of voters support increasing the minimum wage, and you increase public opinion by 10 points, then at the end of the election, 50% of those 10 points will be added to the 60% default, changing the default to 65%. If you do the same thing during the next election, the default will change to 70%. So, while each individual election limits public opinion changes to 10%, over the course of multiple elections, you can change public opinion more than 10%. Changing public opinion in this way has two effects: it will continue influencing future elections and it will influence future politicians. New politicians will base their policies on public opinion values at the time of their election. These policies will persist for the remainder of the politician's career, even if public opinion changes.

Party Chair
The party chair is a playable position where you are responsible for overseeing elections of political party members. You get to choose a party platform, select candidates to run in each district, and choose the policies of new party candidates. You also have limited resources to try to change public opinion or increase voter turnout. This position is available at the beginning of each year and can be found in the Jobs tab of the Office menu. The lowest level of the position starts at the city level, where you will be in control of school board, city council, and mayoral elections. For every party member who wins their election (in your jurisdiction), your political points will increase. As your political points increase, higher level party chair positions will become available. Once they become available, they can be found in the jobs tab of the office menu at the beginning of the year. One feature of being party chair is that you can select new candidates to run in elections - either to challenge incumbent party members who you dislike, or to challenge candidates in the opposing party. When you select a new candidate, you can choose all of their policies. This can be strategic because it allows you to adjust the candidate in a way that makes them more likely to defeat their opponent. For example, if the candidate is running for election in a conservative district, you can choose to give them more conservative policies, making them more likely to win. But, the policies you give them will influence how they vote on legislation. Once a candidate is established, you cannot change their policies. This means that you cannot change the policies of incumbents or former politicians. To learn a districts priorities and values, you can conduct a poll - this information will help you choose party policy and the policy for individual candidates. Some party chair positions contain hundreds of districts, which is a lot of candidates to select. You do not have to select a candidate for every district, and it is not recommended. Some districts are impossible to win, so there is no reason to select a candidate for those districts. If you do not select a candidate for a district, a random candidate will be selected during the primary election process. Voter Turnout: You have the option to increase voter turnout using campaign resources. Your efforts are not the only thing that influences voter turnout. For example, if there is a presidential election, voter enthusiasm for the presidential candidate could influence turnout. Effectively, if presidential voter enthusiasm created a negative voter turnout, your positive voter turnout would have been added to that value - either making the negative turnout positive, or making it less negative. Suggestion: not all election years line up, which means that it is possible to switch between different party chair positions (by going to the jobs page). For example, city level elections never occur in the same year as state and national level elections. So, if you are a state level party chair, when it becomes times for a city level election, you can go to the jobs page and switch to the city party chair and manage the city elections for that year. When it is time for a state election, you can go to the jobs page and switch back to a state party chair.

Customize Elections
Any election in the game can be customized if you have set the Allow Character Customization option to true. This option can be found in the Advanced Options (Politicians Tab). Advanced Options can be found by opening the menu and clicking the Advanced Options button.

Elections can be customized by going to the Elections Tab and then clicking the Customize tab. Customization allows you to add candidates to any election, and remove the incumbent from the election. When adding candidates to an election, you can either create new candidates, or you can choose current politicians to run in the election (so long as they live within the district). This means that you can do things like tell a member of the House of Representatives to run for Senate. For most primary elections, there is a limit of two candidates per party. The presidential primary has a limit of 20 candidates per party.

Persistent Politicians
A persistent politician is any politician who is defeated in an election and chooses to run for election again. Only a small percentage of politicians will choose to run for election after being defeated. To change the rate at which politicians become persistent, you can go to the Advanced Options (Politicians Tab) and adjust the persistent politician sliders.

= Budget =

School Budget
The school budget is drafted by the school board member with the highest rank (the most political points). Other members of the school board have an opportunity to create amendments to the budget; a vote is held to accept or reject the amendments. After the amendment process ends, the budget is enacted into law. Revenue for the budget is based on school property tax revenue; school board members can increase or decrease revenue by creating tax legislation that increases or decreases the school property tax rate.

City Budget
The city budget process starts with the mayor. Each city department sends a budget requests to the mayor. In the mayor's budget, the mayor proposes how much each department, and each program within the department, should receive. The mayor also proposes changes to tax policy. The mayor's proposed expenditure cannot be greater than the mayor's proposed revenue. Once the mayor has submitted the budget to the city council, the highest ranking member of the city council (based on political points), gets to create a new version of the budget. The city council member can accept the mayor's budget as it is or can completely ignore the mayor's budget. The other city council members have an opportunity to make amendments to the new version of the budget. Once amendment votes end, the budget is enacted into law. There is no vote on the completed budget by the city council or the mayor because, if they voted against the budget, there is currently no means to create a new budget process.

State Budget
The state budget process starts with the governor, who receives budget requests from each department. The governor creates a proposal for how much funding each program should receive. The governor also proposes whether tax policies should be changed. The budget must be balanced. The governor's budget then goes to the state house and state senate budget committees. The chairs (highest ranking members) of these committees create there own versions of the budget, based on the governor's budget. Once each chamber has created a budget, a conference committee is brought together to average out any differences between the state house budget and the state senate budget. The resulting budget, called a conference report, is enacted into law. (In real life there would be a vote on the budget, but the game does not currently have a procedure for dealing with the possibility of a budget not being enacted, so the budget is enacted automatically.) Currently, the player cannot influence the state budget unless the player is the governor or the chair of the Appropriations committee.

Federal Budget
The federal budget process starts with the president creating a budget based on budget requests from federal departments and programs. The president may also propose new laws, changes to current laws, or changes to tax policy. The changes proposed in the president's budget may influence the creation of new laws. Once the president submits a budget to congress, the budget committee of each congressional chamber will begin working on a budget resolution - a document that states how much money should be collected by the government and how much money should be spent. The budget resolution also specifies how much funding should go to each budget category such as the military, education, or health. An amendment process occurs and the budget resolution is sent for a vote. If each chamber's budget resolution is approved in different forms, a conference committee (made up of members from both chambers of congress) is brought together to create a conference report (to average out the differences between both budget resolutions). If the conference report passes both chambers of congress, it is enacted as the new budget resolution, otherwise the old budget resolution continues to be used. The budget resolution is not a law, and thus does not have to be approved by the president. It is a guideline that limits the kinds of laws that congress can create. For instance, the budget resolution would prohibit the creation of any legislation that decreases tax revenues to a point below the limit authorized by the budget resolution, or it could prohibit legislation that would increase expenditure above the limit authorized. Once the budget resolution process ends, the appropriations process begins. Each sub-committee of the Appropriation's committee creates an appropriation bill for a particular category of government spending, such as the military or education or health care. Funding in the appropriation bills cannot exceed the budget limit authorized by the budget resolution. Each appropriation bill goes through an amendment process and then a vote is called to pass the appropriation bill. Any differences between the house bill and senate bill are averaged out in a conference report. The appropriation bill is then signed into law by the president. (In real life the president could veto an appropriation bill, but in this game there is currently no procedure to deal with the presidential veto of an appropriation bill, so the president automatically approves the bill.)

Mandatory Expenditure
Mandatory expenditure refers to any program that, by law, must be funded. The amount that these programs are funded is determined by law in the form of eligibility rates and benefit amounts. Mandatory expenditures include things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps.

Discretionary Expenditure
Discretionary expenditure refers to any program that can be funded at the 'discretion' of congress. Congress can fund such programs as much or as little as desired. Discretionary expenditures include things like the military and NASA.

= Legislation =

Creating Legislation
Legislation can be created from the Legislation page under the Office tab. The player must hold a political office in order to create legislation. The current status of all laws (whether they are active or inactive) can be viewed within the Laws tab, under the Metrics page tab.

Legislative Process
At the city level, once legislation is created, it is sent to the city council for amendments. If any amendments are created, a vote is held to accept or reject the amendments. Then, the city council votes on whether to accept or reject the full legislation. If the majority of city council members accept the legislation, it is sent to the mayor to be signed into law or vetoed. If the mayor vetoes the legislation, it can still become law if it has support of 2/3 of the city council members, in which case the veto is overruled and the legislation is enacted into law.

At the state and federal levels, the process is slightly more complicated. When a bill (legislation) is created, it is sent to the committee that has jurisdiction over that legislation. The chair (highest ranking member) of that committee can decide whether the legislation will receive a hearing. If the chair denies the bill a hearing, it will not become law. Otherwise, the legislation will go through an amendment process within the committee and the committee will vote on whether they support or oppose the legislation. If the majority of the committee supports the legislation, it will be sent to the chamber as a whole for amendments and a vote. If both chambers of congress support the legislation in identical form, the legislation will be sent to the governor (at the state level) or the president (at the federal level) to be signed into law or vetoed. A 2/3 majority vote can overrule a veto. If both chambers of Congress pass a different version of the legislation, a conference committee will be assembled (consisting of an equal number of members from both chambers) and the bills will be made equal; the resulting legislation is known as a conference report. The conference report is then voted on by both chambers of congress and, if it passes, is sent to be vetoed or signed into law.

= Player =

Player Profile
The player profile can be accessed by clicking on the 'Profile' tab at the top of the screen. The profile shows your character's current stats and political history. The profile page is also where you can go to change your current county, state, party, or caucus.

Name Recognition
Name recognition refers to how many people know who you are; it is very important for getting elected. Your current name recognition can be viewed at the top left of the screen, next to the icon that looks like two people (the left-most icon). If you click on the icon, it will bring up a menu that shows how your name recognition has progressed over time (base on 1 year intervals). To learn more about how name recognition influences elections, look for name recognition in the elections category of this document.

Political Points
Political points represent your experience as a politician. They are earned by winning elections and creating legislation. Higher level elections are worth more political points. The number of political points you have relative to other politicians will influence several aspects of your political career. For example, committee selection order is based on political points; if you have low political points, you may not get your desired committee. The politician with the highest political points in a committee will become the Chair or Ranking Member of the committee (Chair if they belong to the majority party and Ranking Member if they belong to the minority party). You can view your current political points at the top of the screen, next to the icon that looks like a star. If you click on the icon, it will show you more detailed information about your political points and your current influence. See the Influence Category in this document for more details about how political point influence the game.

Approval Rating
Your approval rating reflects how well liked, and trusted, you are by your constituents (the people you represent as a politician). Your approval rating will increase or decrease based on how you vote on legislation. For instance, if you support legislation that your constituents oppose, then your approval rating with those constituents will decrease. Your approval rating is also influenced by the overall government approval rating (which can be seen in the overview page of the Metrics tab). If the government's approval rating increases while you are in office, your approval rating will increase.

Your approval rating is one of the factors that influence how voters vote in elections. If you have a low approval rating, it means that the voters do not trust you to represent their interests, meaning they will be less likely to vote for you. Your approval rating also influences how likely you are to be challenged in a primary election (if you are an incumbent).

Character Presets
You can use the same character across multiple games by saving a character preset. This can be done in the character creation menu by clicking the 'Save Character Preset' button. If you have activated Character Customization, you can save a preset for any character by going to their customization menu and clicking the 'Save Character Preset' button.

It is also possible to save entire groups of characters (such as the entire House of Representatives) by going to the Advanced Options, clicking the Politicians tab, and then clicking 'Save Preset' under the appropriate group title.

Favorite Politicians
You can specify favorite politicians by going to a politician's profile page and clicking the button that says 'Add to Favorites'. All favorite politicians can be found in the 'Favorites' tab within the 'Politicians' Tab. This allows you to track specific politicians throughout their career. To remove a politician from the favorites list, click on the 'Remove from Favorites' button.

If a favorite politician does not currently hold a political office, they can be added to any custom election. When customizing elections, favorite politicians can be found by clicking the 'Add Former Politician' button.

= Influence =

Political Influence
Political Influence is based on two factors: your political points and your relationship with other politicians (specifically your relationship with each caucus). Both of these can be viewed by clicking on the star-shaped icon at the top of the screen. Your relationship with caucuses is based on how frequently you vote in line with the views of the caucus leader. Before each vote, caucus leaders will hold a press conference to communicate how they intend to vote. This press conference will be visible in your schedule before the vote (under office tab --> summary tab).

Political influence is used to influence how other politicians vote. Whenever you create legislation, your political influence has the potential to change how politicians vote. Two conditions must be met: 1) the politician must have less political points than you, and 2) you must have a good relationship with the politician's caucus (a relationship better than 60%). If both of these conditions are met, the politician will support your legislation.

Your political influence also has another potential benefit. If your influence is high enough, you may become the leader of a caucus, or you may become a party leader. If you are the leader of the caucus, every member of that caucus will vote as you vote, for all legislation (not just your own). If you are the leader of a party, all members of the party will vote as you vote (so long as you have a good relationship with their caucus). If you are the Speaker of the House, all politicians will vote as you vote, regardless of party, so long as you have a good relationship with their caucus. If you are the president or governor, all politicians in your respective legislature will support your legislation, so long as you have a good relationship with their caucus, and more political points. If you are mayor, city council members will support your legislation if they belong to the same party and have less political points, and you have a good approval rating with your party.

Party Leadership
Being the Speaker of the House or the Senate Majority Leader grants you a unique privilege - the ability to grant or deny hearings to all legislation. Essentially, if you do not like a piece of legislation, you can deny it a hearing and prevent it from becoming a law. (This does not apply to appropriation bills). You can become the Speaker of the House or Senate Majority Leader by being a member of the majority party and having more political points than any other member.

Caucuses
Caucus are groups of politicians who share a similar ideologies. To view each caucus, and its members, visit the Politicians tab, select either the House tab or Senate tab, and then click on the Caucus tab. Caucuses are limited to the State House, State Senate, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate. Having a good relationship with caucuses is an important step in accomplishing your political agenda. (See Political Influence for more information about how to influence legislation.)

You can change your caucus at any time by clicking on the 'Change Caucus' button under the Profile tab. You can become the leader of a caucus by being the highest-ranking member of the caucus (based on political points). You cannot be a caucus leader and a majority leader at the same time, if you are the majority leader and the highest-ranking member of your caucus, someone else will become caucus leader.

Committee Chairs
The committee chair is the highest ranking member of the committee (who belongs to the majority party). The highest-ranking member of the minority party is called the Ranking Member. The committee chair is a very influential position because the chair gets to decide which bills receive a hearing. If a bill does not receive a hearing, it cannot become a law. (If the player is the Speaker of the House or the Senate Majority Leader, then the player, and not the committee chair, decides if a bill receives a hearing.)

Protégés
A protégé is a politician who shares all of your policy opinions and can run in any election that you choose (so long as it within their district). This essentially allows your policy opinions to be represented in more than one district at a time. The number of protégés that you are allowed to have increases as your political points increase. Below is a list showing how many political points is required for each additional protégé:


 * 100 points = 1
 * 250 points = 2
 * 500 points = 3
 * 2,500 points = 4
 * 4,000 points = 5
 * 20,000 points = 6
 * 30,000 points = 10
 * 35,000 points = 11
 * 40,000 points = 12
 * 60,000 points = 13
 * 100,000 points = 14
 * 110,000 points = 15
 * 150,000 points = 16
 * 160,000 points = 17
 * 1,000,000 points = 50

Once a protégé reaches 70 years old, they will retire at the end of their current term. They will be removed from your list of protégés. The list can be found in the Office menu, under the Protégé tab. When deciding in which election you want your protégé to run, you can look at the Districts page in the Politicians menu to see which politicians are not seeking reelection in the upcoming election. If an incumbent is not seeking reelection, a message will appear below the district's party demographics (this information will appear between weeks 2 and 19 during election years).

= Metrics =

How Metrics Work
Metrics are a way to measure different aspects of the world. For instance, there could be a metric for road quality that measures what percentage of roads are in good condition. Or, there could be a metric for how much revenue is collected from income taxes. This game has many metrics, which can be found under the metrics tab. The metrics tab displays the current value of each metric and the value of metrics as they have changed over time.

How metrics work: metrics are updated once per in-game year (at the beginning of the year). There are many factors that can influence the value of metrics, from laws, to poverty rates, to the number of retirees, to how much funding a program receives during the budget process; each metric is different. One of your main goals as a politician is to improve metrics and increase the government's approval rating (assuming you want your constituents to be happy). (See Government Approval for more information.)

Government Approval
The government approval rating is a measurement of how happy citizens are with the government. There are multiple approval categories that add up to create the total government approval. These categories and total government approval ratings can be found in the Metrics tab, in the Overview tab. One of the best ways to learn what is upsetting your constituents is to look at the government approval categories. If a category is colored red, it means disapproval. Each category displays the metrics that are contributing to its rating; look at those values to see which metrics need to improve. If a category is colored gray, that indicates acceptance, and if the category is green, it represents approval. Different categories have different weights in terms of how much they influence overall government approval; if a state does not care about education, then having a low education approval rating will not significantly impact the overall government approval rating.

Government approval has an impact on politician approval; if the government approval rating decreases, all politicians associated with the government will see a decrease in their approval rating (for instance, if the city government approval rating decreases, then the approval rating of city council members and the mayor will decrease).

The government approval rating also has an influence on elections. If government approval falls below a specific rate (usually somewhere around 75%), it will increase the likelihood of the opposition party turning out to vote in the next election. For example, if Republicans hold a majority in the state government, and the state approval rating is less than 75%, the number of Democrats who turn out to vote will increase, increasing the likelihood that the Republicans could lose the majority. This might not have much of an effect if the state has a large majority of Republicans, but if it is a swing state, it can have a big impact. This also applies to the federal government approval rating; if voters are discontent with the federal government, it could increase opposition turnout in state-level elections (if the elections are the same day as the federal elections).

= Ideology =

Politician Ideology
Each politician has a unique political ideology, which can be divided into two major categories: fiscal ideology and social ideology. Fiscal ideology refers to the politician's opinions about fiscal policy and how the government should manage money (whether it should increase or decrease taxes, whether it should adjust spending levels). Social ideology refers to a politician's opinions about social issues and other non-fiscal policy.

Politician ideologies are based, in large part, on the politician's district and party. If a politician is a republican from a liberal state, the politician is more likely to have a moderate ideology rather than a conservative ideology. If a politician is a republican in a very conservative state, the politician is likely to have a very conservative ideology.

Each politician's ideology is very detailed and includes opinions about policies related to minimum wage, teacher salaries, universal health care, tax rates, climate change, and many more. All of these policies influence how politician's vote on legislation.

Politicians also have political priorities, which reflect how they want to spend their time as a politician. Some may want to focus on improving the economy or improving education or reducing crime. These priorities are unique to each politician and the conditions in their district. A politician's priorities can change as metrics improve or worsen over time.

The caucus that a politician chooses to join will be based on the politician's ideology.

District Ideology
A state's ideology is based, in party, on the ratio between party demographics. A state with a large majority of democrats will produce slightly more liberal candidates. This does not just apply to the democratic politicians from the state; republican politicians will also be slightly more liberal than politicians in states with a Republican majority. (This applies only at the state level and not at lower-level districts - if a state has a Democratic majority, a republican majority city will still be more liberal than a city in a republican majority state.)

A district's ideology can be changed in the advanced options menu (which appears at the beginning of the game when selecting a city name, and which can be found in the general menu once the game has started.) The advanced options menu is a good place to fine-tune district ideologies. By default, two democratic states may be very similar in the game, but in reality, one might have very progressive voters while the other may consists of labor-union conservatives. Making that distinction can be done in the advanced options.

Party Demographics
Party demographics refers to the percentage of the population that belongs to each political party. In this game, each county has unique party demographics based on how its population voted in multiple elections. Party identification based on voter registration was not used because voters often vote contrary to their party identification. This is especially the case for voters registered as independents; most independent voters lean towards one party over the other and rarely vote for independent candidates. By default, 5% of each county is made up of independent voters. In this game, independent voters represent undecided voters. Their ideologies are based on the average between democratic and republican ideologies. To learn more about how independent/undecided voters vote, see the Independent Voters section of this document.

= Other Concepts =

Advanced Options
The advanced options menu allows you to change many of the metrics in the game. These metrics include party demographics, ancestry demographics, political ideology, and poverty rate. Advanced options can be changed from the city naming menu when the game starts, or from the general menu at the top of the screen when the game is already in progress.

Political History
Each politician has a unique political history that can be found under the history tab in the politician's profile page. Any time they win an election, the political office is added to their history. Your character's political history can be found under the profile tab.

Besides individual political histories, there are also histories for specific political offices that allow you to see every politician that has held a specific office since the beginning of the game. These offices include the president, governor, mayor, speaker of the house, and the Senate majority and minority leaders. To look at these histories, go to the corresponding politician page and click the button that says 'History' (above the portrait of the current officeholder).

The game also records the political office history of every district where the player might hold office. This includes the school board, city council, state house, state senate, U.S. house, and U.S. senate. For example, if your character lives in state senate district 2, then the game will display every state senator who has held office in state senate district 2. These political office histories can be found by going to the districts tab under the office tab,and clicking on the 'History' button below each district.

=Redistricting=

Introduction
The redistricting process happens every 10 years, during years that end in 1 – such as 2021, 2031, 2041. The game simulates the process on week 47. (Redistricting can be turned off in the Advanced options – under the Nation tab). During the redistricting process, congressional, state house, and state senate districts are 'redrawn' based on demographic changes over the previous 10 years. In real life, this demographic information is collected during the Census. Each state has different methods for redistricting. Some use the state legislature to draw new districts and some use an independent redistricting commission.

State Legislature Redistricting
If one political party has complete control over the state legislature, and the governorship, they may attempt to gerrymander districts in their state. Gerrymandering is when districts are drawn in a way the disproportionately benefits one political party – or group of people – over another political party (or group of people). This makes the districts less representative of the state at large. Some states have laws that attempt to reduce the likelihood of gerrymandered districts, but state legislatures will often ignore these laws. Redistricting laws, the impact they have on gerrymandering, and the range of gerrymandering can be adjusted in the advanced options.

Independent Redistricting Commission
When an Independent Commission is responsible for redistricting, districts are generally representative of the state at large. If the state is 50% democratic and 50% republican, then 50% of the districts will favor democratic candidates and 50% will favor republican candidates.

Default Redistricting Calculations
At the very beginning of the redistricting process, the game will create 'Default' districts for each state based on the demographics of the counties within each district. This process is not very sophisticated because it has limited information about the districts. This can result in districts that are significantly different from the initial districts. One of the main factors that contributes to this is the counties that reside in each district. The game does not know what percentage of the county resides within the district, so it just divides the county’s population by the number of districts that contain the county, and adds that population to each district. The counties the are contained within each district can be adjusted in the Advanced Options (in the U.S. House tab). The default redistricting calculations also take into account whether any state will gain or lose congressional districts (based on population changes). Once the default districts are calculated, the game sends them to the state legislature or independent commission for further redistricting.

Redistricting Opportunities
There are several circumstances in which a player will have an opportunity to participate in the redistricting process. If the player is a governor, has a protégé who is a governor, is the party leader of the state house/senate, or has a protégé who is the party leader of the state house/senate, then the player will be allowed to participate in the redistricting process for the applicable state(s). This assumes that the state uses the legislature for redistricting, and not an independent redistricting commission. Also, at least one of the chambers of the state legislature must have a majority party that aligns with the player’s political party. If this is not the case, the player will still have the option to veto any redistricting plans proposed (assuming the state allows governor vetoes and the legislature does not overrule the veto). If the player successfully vetoes a redistricting plan, the redistricting process will be sent to an Independent Redistricting Commission to complete. (This is not necessarily how it always works in real life, but is a simple solution for the purposes of this game). These redistricting opportunities become available on week 47 of redistricting years, and will appear in the player’s schedule (in the Office Summary tab). If you skip the redistricting opportunities, the state legislature will automatically complete the redistricting process. If you are governor (or your protégé is governor), you will have an opportunity to veto whatever plan they propose.

Redistricting Menu
If you accept a redistricting opportunity, you will be presented with a menu to make adjustments to each district. Every district will contain 100 blocks, representing 100% of the population of that district. The blocks are colored based on the political party demographics in that district. If 50% of the population is democratic, then 50 of the blocks will be blue (representing democrats). Each party has two types of blocks, dark blocks and light blocks. The dark blocks represent voters who cannot be moved from the district (in order to simulate geographical limitations of the redistricting process); the light blocks represent voters who can be moved. (These limitations can be adjusted in the advanced options where it says Redistricting Range (Player) (In the Nations tab)). You can use sliders or buttons to add and remove voters (blocks) from each district. Whether or not the state legislature will accept your districts is indicated by the Continue button at the bottom of the menu. If it is blue, the state legislature accepts your districts; if it is red, they do not. If you continue when the button is red, the redistricting process will be sent to an Independent Redistricting Commission.

Automated Redistricting
In the Redistricting Menu there is an “Automate” button. If you click on this, it will bring up a new menu where you can select what type of automated redistricting you want to do. If a button is grayed-out, it means the legislature will not accept that option. One of the options is the “Previous” option; it will attempt to use the districts from the previous redistricting year. Due to changes in demographics, some of the districts may need to be manually adjusted to account for the state becoming slightly more democratic or republican over the previous ten years.

Effects of Redistricting
During the redistricting process, some districts may become unfavorable for their current incumbent. If this is the case, the incumbent will likely choose to move to a more favorable district. This can also be interpreted as the incumbent being drawn into a new district. If two incumbents share the same district, they will likely compete against each other in the next election.

Redistricting Analysis
On week 49 of redistricting years, the game creates a redistricting analysis. This shows how districts have changed relative to the previous districts. The menu can be accessed from the player’s schedule (on week 49) or from the Politicians --> Federal --> U.S. House --> Districts tab (There will be a button called Redistricting Analysis). A similar button is available for the state house/senate districts.

Advanced Options
Within the Advanced Options menu, there are multiple locations where you can adjust redistricting variables. Most of the general redistricting variables can be found in the Nations tab, under the section with Voting Laws. In the States tab, you can find options to adjust redistricting laws specifically for each state. In the U.S. House tab, you can make adjustments to specific congressional districts – including the number of districts each state has, and which counties reside within each district.

Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is the process of creating districts that over-represent one group of voters over another, giving one group of voters disproportionate influence. For example, if one political party makes up 50% of a state's population, but draws districts that give their party 70% of the representatives, that would be considered gerrymandering. During redistricting years, the game has a mechanism to evaluate whether gerrymandering has occurred. If it has, the game adjusts the approval rating of those individuals responsible for gerrymandering - the governor (if the governor has veto power) and the state house/senate majority leaders. It decreases approval from independent and opposition party voters; it increases approval from the majority party's voters. The value of over-representation that the game uses to determine gerrymandering is 15%. If the percentage of districts that favor one party are greater than 15% of that party's voter percentage, the game considers it gerrymandering. In the example above, 70% of districts favored one party, but that party made up only 50% of voters. Since that is a difference of 20%, it is considered gerrymandering.