The Civil Liberties Party has lost the presidency, and with it the point of the four Senate votes it spent last week’s election assembling.
President Lucas of the Solidarity Party takes the office on the automatic runoff, 31 to 25 over the Civil Liberties Party’s Merman Hiller, with lewashed vp of the Revolutionary Organization for Social Equality elected Vice President. Turnout was 65 valid votes. The certification is provisional.
The blocking four no longer blocks
The Senate returned on 2 August has eleven seats. Overriding a presidential veto takes eight of them, so four together can make eight impossible — and the CLP holds exactly four, counting the independent Sirius it backed.
That arithmetic was never really about the Senate. It was about the veto, and the veto belonged to a CLP President. It now belongs to a Solidarity President with a ROSE deputy.
The seven other senators do not need to reach eight if nothing is being vetoed. The bloc that looked decisive on Sunday is, as of last night, a bloc in opposition.
The score round
Thirteen candidates stood. Every ballot scored each of them from 0 to 5, and the maximum any candidate could take from 65 ballots was 325.
| Candidate | Party | Score |
|---|---|---|
| President Lucas | Solidarity Party | 152 |
| Merman Hiller | Civil Liberties Party | 135 |
| Chief Judge Tech Support | Independent | 94 |
| Your Local Blink | Senatus Populusque Romanum | 75 |
| The Medium Q | Revitalize! SimDem | 69 |
| Attorney Lorduck | Revolutionary Organization for Social Equality | 68 |
| mypenjustbroke | Momentum Party | 51 |
| Director Jay | Fucking Best Party | 45 |
| Sunber9999999999999999999999999 | Independent | 42 |
| Solus | Civil Liberties Party | 40 |
| Dapper frog | Independent | 22 |
| duckarmy24 | Independent | 18 |
| Jaymino | Civil Liberties Party | 14 |
Lucas led on 152 — a little under half of the theoretical maximum — with Hiller second on 135. Those two went through.
The runoff
The runoff ignores the scores and asks one question of each ballot: of the two finalists, which did you score higher? Ties count for nobody.
Lucas led it from the first partial count and never trailed: 12–6 at 21 votes, 24–13 at 42, 27–25 at 60. With five ballots left the Commissioner did them one at a time. The 61st expressed no preference — both finalists scored 1. The 62nd went to Lucas, which put the result mathematically beyond Hiller’s reach, and the count was called there. The remaining three also went to Lucas, for a final 31–25.
Nine of the 65 ballots scored the two finalists level and counted for neither. In a race decided by six, that is a substantial abstention.
There was no upset between the rounds: the candidate who led the score round also won the runoff. STAR permits the reverse — a candidate can lead on total score and lose to someone more voters ranked above them — but it did not happen here.
The cabinet, including the man he beat
President Lucas named a cabinet within hours. Most of it requires Senate confirmation: mypenjustbroke as Attorney General, thyme at State, Scandinavic at the Treasury, korez989 at Expansion.
Two appointments need no vote. Merman Hiller — the Civil Liberties candidate defeated in the runoff — is named Chief of Staff, “given that he agrees when he wakes up”. And the Secretary of Defence is listed as “Obliterated, position destroyed”.
The Expansion post has now changed hands twice in a fortnight, having been vacated by resignation on 30 July and filled by a Chief of Staff who moved across from the office Hiller is now being offered.