2022 August Garfcord Election

The 2022 August Garfcord Election was held from July 29th to August 19th, where participants formed parties for the first time and ran candidates for the office of Garfminister & Vice Odie.

The elections were ridden with various controversies; which visibly had an effect in polling and propaganda was utilized to an effective degree in hampering the success of several parties (most notably the Ellis - Fatcat ticket & the Ellis Swag Party). Coalitions and merging, especially that of LCOM played a pivotal role in the election as well.

Walter White was elected Garf Minister on August 19th by the final runoff election.

## Election Participants

### Performers

Shalodey, Chloe, Neil, Clacky, Yashika, & others

## Initial Elections

Initially; the first elections were conducted as government-sponsored "polls"; but became legitimate after several parties were disqualified due to low participance and the election effectively turned off into several runoff elections.

This was the first election done in Garfcord; the results above. Turnout: 6.9%

This survey saw the emergence of the Big Boobs Brotherhood as a major party. Turnout: 5.3%

Survey #3
 Ourple Rockers Coalition | Yashika | 32
 GP196

This survey saw many of the minor parties disband and merge with the larger parties due to general discouragement about competing. Turnout: 4.9%

## Final Elections

With the initial elections concluded, the runoff election was held on August 19th; with only three options: Leftist Capybaras on Meth (LCOM), the Gay Waluigi Party ( a rebranded Ourple Rockers), and a miscellaneous third option Turtle neglected to give a party or candidate. Turnout: 23.6%

Elections
 Gay Waluigi Party | Yashika | 186
 N/A

## Controversies

### "Two-Party System"

The elections were criticized for effectively creating a two-party system; however proponents of the elections claim that there were in fact, multiple parties, and it was only through several runoff elections that the minor parties were rendered irrelevant.

Additionally; proponents also point out that most of the third party candidates had dropped out of their own volition, therefore not a fault of the electoral system but of their own.

Opponents state that the merging of parties "ruined" the election and created the megaparties of LCOM and the Ourple Rockers. The electoral commission of Garfield (aka Chloe) has remarked that merging is a distinct part of the electoral process, especially considering most of the parties had just come into existence several days prior to the election, and would have "inherently happened". She places the blame of the effective duopoly on the parties that willingly dropped out or failed to fill out forms, which, as demonstrated by #2, still had a considerable share of the vote.

Chloe attributes the success of LCOM largely due to the fact that the Ourple Rockers from the start of the election lacked a funny name, didn't put candidates down until the final two elections, and failed to politically consolidate their power with the BBB; leading to a split ticket in Survey #2 which led to BBB voters being disenfranchised in the last two runoffs.

### "Funny-Name" based voting

Another element of criticism has called out the fact that the polls and votes were essentially decided by inactive users who voted for the funnier names- without regard to their policies. The Electoral Commission of Garfield (aka Chloe) has stated that "...this is, essentially inevitable", and that she did her best to prevent such a thing happening by including the party leaders of each party/coalition. It should also be noted that these complaints only surfaced after the landslide victory of LCOM in poll #2/#3 and the final elections; suggesting possible bias factoring into them.

Furthermore, LCOM's voterbase throughout polling was more consistent, while the voterbases of the Opposition seemed to simply pick the better name. This is likely due to LCOM's political maneuvering and the use of a discord for coordination. Chloe notes that "...had the Big Boobs Brotherhood not merged with the Ourple Rockers, they would have easily defeated LCOM. Lurkers like funnier names; and Gay Waluigi as a party name wasn't particularly funny compared to [Leftist] Capybaras on Meth."

### Option Three

Chloe has placed criticism on the choice of Turtle to use a third miscellaneous option in the final election. She believes that this option took votes from the Gay Waluigi Party & Artemis, and effectively ruined their chances even more at their bid for Garfminister.