Senate Elections

The Senate Elections (more accurately Parliament Elections, as the members do not represent individual states) are an event during Season 2 of the Eminent SMP. Declared by Snowseek shortly before she wrote the Constitution of Snowden, she intended to have a group of 3 or 5 legislators elected by the people. These legislators would then have the power to pass laws, declare festivals, plan events or community builds, engage in diplomacy with other factions (or serve as diplomats), and even act as judges in the soon-to-be constructed Supreme Court.

## Campaigning

The campaigning phase of the elections, beginning on May 7, initially went smoothly. Around 11 or 12 players from the SMP signed up for the campaign, though several of them, including BigDrew, dropped out of the race within two days. Howard constructed a giant "Vote!" sign in the sky above Snowden. He, Mcgillcud, and Harvey put up signs across town to advertise their campaign. Many players including Ayln created propaganda for the Discord server. Harvey found a way to dupe himself and he also made map art to further promote himself, as well as building a room entirely constructed of that map art.

## The First Debate

Snowseek began holding debates on May 8. The first debate was between Howard and Hotshot, held on a wooden stage near Baboosh's house. Snowseek acted as the moderator and allowed the candidates to present their positions. She noticed that they had extremely similar platforms, including lowering taxes, expanding the -x Nether Highway, and commencing the mysterious Open Wither Foundation. However, Hotshot suddenly withdrew his weapons, boxed Howard, and held him for ransom, threatening him to force him to step down from the elections. Baboosh began to grief the debate and chaos erupted. Hotshot attempted to flee with an ender pearl but was killed by kinetic energy. A nuke was detonated and the entire area was temporarily annihilated, including Salamander's farm, and Howard perished in the explosion. Due to frustration with how the event was handled, Howard relinquished his campaign, much to Snowseek's despair.

## The Second Debate

The second debate occurred on May 9 between Wolfy and Hotshot. This was held off the nether highway, which was an important campaigning issue for most of the candidates. Whereas Hotshot continued his platform that he had discussed in the previous debate, Wolfy specifically argued that he would like to protect new players. He would offer them food and gear so that they don't get killed by the server veterans. This was a clear criticism of how Hotshot and Moneymelon had been behaving. Wolfy became more heated and eventually concluded that words were not enough. He spawned a wither that destroyed the platform as well as a part of the nether highway. Several players in the audience perished during this event, including Chey. Wolfy then pledged his support for Harvey, and it was revealed that the Chaos Insurgency actually sponsored the debate.

## The Vote

Voting for the Senate (which would function more as a Parliament, since individual provinces/states were not represented) started on May 12th and ended on the 14th. The main contenders were Berny, Harvey, Ayln, MoneyMelon, Mcgillcud, Wolfy, Salamander, and Hotshot, which excludes any contenders who left the race early, like BigDrew. Voting proceeded through a ranked choice voting system where people ranked their candidate 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. place. Candidates with the least # of 1st place votes would be eliminated and then those votes would be reallocated to the voters' 2nd place choice, and this elimination would continue until there were 3 winners. Finally, the winners were announced: Berny, Harvey, and surprisingly Wolfy won the election. Allegations of election fraud arose almost immediately. This ultimately led to Empt's Downfall, where King Empt was violently overthrown and replaced with AlphaDove.

Howard's "Vote" art in the sky above Snowden, and signs for the candidates (7 May 2021)Edward, the presidential dog, tamed by Snowseek in honor of the Senate's construction (7 May 2021)Harvey's map art next to the entrance of the Senate (7 May 2021)Dupe Harveys assembling with Moneymelon and Bendy in front of the Senate (7 May 2021)Harvey's map art room, promoting his Senate campaign (8 May 2021)Senate Election Results (14 May 2021)