September 2023 Mod Elections

On September 1st, 2023, the September Mod Elections were held to elect moderators to r/AngryObservation. Every incumbent ran for reelection in their respective seats, except for NegativeOil, who ran on Mod Slot 5 instead of her Slot 3. This election had a record number of candidates, 18 in total.

## First Round

### Mod Slot 1

**xravenxx (inc.) - 33 (55%)**

GJHalt - 26 (43.3%)

Write-ins - 1 (1.7%)

The Mod Slot 1 election was a two person race between GJHalt and Raven, who is considered a strong incumbent. Previously, Environmental faced off against Raven, and was beaten by a 64 percent margin. Halt ran a hard fought campaign centered on improving community interaction as well as focusing Raven's moderation. The race was much closer than expected, with Halt leading for the first few hours. Eventually, many 'lurker' (users who usually are not very active besides commenting) votes came through giving Raven a much narrower victory compared to her last cycles. Raven won by 11.7 points, with 7 votes. This was Ravens narrowest victory, with her only other race coming close being her 48% plurality in the April 2023 slot 3 race. This was also a 43 point shift to the right from just months earlier.

### Mod Slot 2

**Trota123 - 24 (40%)**

**InsaneMemeposting - 18 (30%)**

Still\_Instruction\_82 - 16 (26.7%)

Write-ins - 2 (3.3%)

The race for Mod Slot 2 was a three way race between Trota, Insane, and Still\_Instruction. Insane was a popular incumbent who was majorly approved of in the sub, but announced he was leaving due to drama just before the election. Insane never retired his spot. Despite being inactive, Insane finished second even over active user Still. Insane never campaigned or posted yet garnered 30%, enough to force a runoff. The last cycle, Insane won by 28 points, and garnered 64% of the vote. This was a 34 point shift to the left. The cycle due to Trota's plurality, was pushed to a run off.

### Mod Slot 3

**ProfessionalDot - 38 (77.6%)**

Patty Macready - 5 (10.2%)

Write-ins - 6 (12.2%)

The race for Slot 3 was a subject of controversy due to user NegativeOil dropping out of the slot to run in Slot 5. The seat was vacated, leaving no incumbent. User Dot ran and won in a landslide, with his opponent only receiving 5 total votes. Dot ran on a campaign of keeping mod elections, which was the forefront of his campaign. Total, there was a 22.4% opposition vote against Dot. Dot's win was the largest victory in Slot 3's history, with a margin of 67.4 and a total of 33 more votes.

### Mod Slot 4

**NowDrawingArt - 44 (81.8%)**

aabazdar1 - 8 (14.8%)

Write-ins 2 (3.7%)

Slot 4 was another vacated slot, with previous slot 5 incumbent running for it. Art would go on to win the largest landslide of the night, as well as winning the largest vote total of the cycle. This was due to his popularity as a moderator and well known influence over the analytics of mod elections. This was a 67 point win, and outperformed NegativeOils margin from the last cycle by over 10 points.

### Mod Slot 5

**IllCommunication - 39 (30%)**

**NegativeOil -34 (26.2%)**

Randomuser795 - 16 (12.3%)

Chia - 12 (9.2%)

XGNcyclick - 9 (6.9%)

Brodlock2 - 8 (6.2%)

Jhansn - 4 (3.1%)

Wide - 4 (3.1%)

Prez - 2 (1.5%)

Write-ins - 2 (1.5%)

Mod slot 5 was a 10 way race, and was described as the most chaotic of all time. Right Wing Nationalist, IllCommunication, announced his candidacy and instantly became the front runner, dominating many polls. The incumbent was Brodlock2, who ended up finishing 6th, the worst performance for an incumbent since the start of the subreddit. This was notable due to Brodlocks previous win against incumbent Ed\_Durr, who narrowly ousted the controversial right winger by three votes. The race was labelled safe IllCom, until Oil announced his candidacy for the slot. Oil led in most polls done by Trota, and Oil led throughout most of the night, however, IllCom bounced back, inching out by 5 more votes. Due to the plurality, the race was subject to a runoff.

The campaign was particularly brutal due the IllComs style of accusing his opponents of crimes as well as being puppets of Andrew, a user IllCom had previously fought with for a few months when he joined. IllCom would accuse Brodlock or being Andrew, as well as Oil of being Andrew's vessel and gay lover. IllCom would post daily slandering Oil the minute he joined the race.

## Runoffs

### Mod Slot 2

**Trota123 - 28 (65.1%)**

InsaneMemeposting - 15 (34.9%)

Trota bounced back in the runoff, winning by a landslide. Insane underperformed his previous margin by 3 votes, yet still garnered 35% of the vote without any campaigning or posting due to his name recognition. Trota led throughout the night as the runoff began and won by a total of 31 points. Trota gained 4 more votes than what they received in the general.

### Mod Slot 5

**IllCommunication - 42 (58.3%)**

NegativeOil - 30 (41.7%)

IllCommunication over-performed expectations, winning by 16.6 points. Previous polls had him just a few votes short of winning in a runoff with Oil. IllCommunication became the first far-right user to win a mod slot and was noted for his outlandish campaign statements which created drama as well as slandered various users such as Oil, Brodlock, and Wide.