Governors & Elections
Every region still held by its original nation elects a Governor once a month. Governors sit alongside their nation's leader as the body that proposes and votes on national policy. Each Governor wins office by making a pledge to improve their region, and voters remember whether they keep it.
Elections are decided by the region's NPC citizens, who vote for whichever candidate best matches their views. To win, you need to understand who lives in your region and what they care about.
Governors replace the old Congress. Anything that used to need Congress, like voting on policies or approving citizenship requests, is now handled by Governors.
The election cycle
Election day | The 1st of every month (game time, UTC) |
Results announced | At day change into the 2nd |
Term | From the 2nd until the next month's results are announced |
At day change into the 1st:
Every sitting Governor has their pledge judged (see Keeping your pledge).
Every NPC voter in each region with candidates casts their vote.
At day change into the 2nd, results are announced. Winners take office, every previous term ends, and unsuccessful candidates are cleared out, ready for the next election.
Any nomination made from the 2nd onwards goes into the next month's election. On election day itself, nominations go into the following month's election.
Standing for Governor
Go to Politics → Governors Office. The page shows the region you're currently in: its Governor, its statistics, the demographic make-up of its voters, the current candidates, and the date of the next election.
To nominate yourself, you must:
Be in a region that is held by its original nation. Occupied regions don't hold elections.
Be a citizen of that nation
Have patriotism towards that nation
Own a house in the region
Not already be standing in an election. You can only stand in one region at a time.
If you qualify, the page lists the available pledges. Choose one and click Make Pledge.
A sitting Governor can stand for re-election the same way. Standing again doesn't affect your current term. You stay in office until the results are announced.
Pledges
Each pledge is a promise to improve one of the region's statistics during your term:
Pledge | Statistic | Goal |
|---|---|---|
Improve Roads | Road level (0–4) | Higher |
Reduce Pollution | Pollution | Lower |
Increase Employment | Unemployment (% of NPCs in the region without a job) | Lower |
Reduce Poverty | Poverty (% of NPCs in the region living in poverty) | Lower |
Each demographic group feels differently about each pledge. Making a pledge immediately changes your standing with those groups. Whether you keep it changes your standing again at the end of your term:
Pledge | Demographic | When you pledge | If kept | If broken |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Improve Roads | Motorist | +10 | +5 | −5 |
Capitalist | +5 | +5 | −5 | |
Environmentalist | −5 | −5 | – | |
Reduce Pollution | Environmentalist | +10 | +10 | −10 |
Farmer | +5 | +5 | −5 | |
Motorist | −5 | – | – | |
Increase Employment | Socialist | +10 | +10 | −15 |
Capitalist | +5 | +5 | −5 | |
Conservative | −5 | – | – | |
Reduce Poverty | Socialist | +15 | +10 | −5 |
Liberal | +10 | +10 | −10 | |
Capitalist | −5 | +5 | – | |
Conservative | −10 | – | – |
Your standing builds up over your whole political career. Every pledge you make adds to it, and so does every vote you cast on a policy as a Governor, because demographic groups have opinions about policies too.
On the Governors Office page, once you're a candidate, the Demographics list highlights groups that like you in green and groups that dislike you in red.
How NPCs vote
Every NPC who is a citizen of the region's nation and lives in the region gets a vote.
Each NPC belongs to several demographic groups, with a strength in each one (see NPCs: How the Population Works). For each candidate, the NPC adds up the candidate's standing with each of its groups, weighted by how strongly it belongs to that group. It then votes for the candidate with the highest score.
Groups the NPC doesn't belong to don't count.
If no candidate scores at least 1 with an NPC, it abstains.
Candidates must still be active citizens of the nation on election day. Candidates who have gone inactive are left off the ballot.
The candidate with the most votes wins. If two candidates tie, the one with more political experience wins. A region with no votes cast doesn't elect a Governor that month.
A candidate who's popular with groups the region doesn't have won't win any votes. Check the region's Demographics panel before choosing your pledge.
Results
When the results are announced:
Every candidate gets an alert. Winners are congratulated, and unsuccessful candidates see how many votes they received.
A regional event announces the new Governor to everyone in the region.
The winner earns 5 XP (including 5 political XP), 25 prestige, 5 patriotism towards their nation and progress towards the Elected achievement.
You can browse past results under Politics → Election Booth, on the Governors tab. Choose an election to see each region's candidates, their pledges, their votes and share of the vote, who won, and whether the winner went on to keep their pledge.
Keeping your pledge
When you take office, the game records your pledged statistic as it stands at that moment. On the next election day, it's compared with the statistic at that point:
Kept: the statistic moved the right way during your term, or is already as good as it can get (roads at level 4, no pollution, or 0% unemployment or poverty).
Broken: anything else, including no change at all.
Either way you get an alert showing how the statistic changed and how your standing with each group moved. This happens before votes are cast, so a Governor standing for re-election is judged on their record first.
The Governors Office shows the current Governor's pledge, with the statistic as it was when they were elected and as it is now.
What Governors can do
Policies (Politics → Policies)
Governors can vote on every policy proposed in their nation, and can propose:
Tax changes
Building roads
Minimum wage
Cabinet budgets
Welfare rates
Revoking citizenship
Impeaching the nation's leader. Only Governors can propose this.
A policy is decided once every Governor and the nation's leader has voted, or after 24 hours.
Citizenship requests (Politics → Citizenship Requests)
Governors, along with the cabinet, approve applications from players who want to join the nation.
Your party's page (Politics → Political Party, Governors tab) lists its current Governors and candidates.
Changing citizenship ends your term as Governor and withdraws any candidacy you have.
Quick reference
Want to become a Governor?
Be a citizen with patriotism and a house in a region your nation still holds
Check the region's Demographics before choosing a pledge
Nominate any time before the 1st. Results are announced on the 2nd.
Already a Governor?
Work towards your pledge. It's judged on the next election day.
Vote on policies, since your votes also shape your standing with voters
You can stand again without losing your current term