CoM presidential election, May 2019

The May 2019 Presidential Election is scheduled for Saturday, May 25, 2019. This will be the fourth presidential election to occur in the Community of Mappers. Members will vote to either elect a new president and vice president or reelect the incumbent president and vice president. If no majority is reached by any given candidate, the winner shall be decided by the House of Representatives.

President Chouan will not be seeking reelection.

Procedure
The process for electing the President of the Community of Mappers is laid out in the Electoral Manifesto of the Community of Mappers. Presidential elections occur every odd-numbered month (January, March, May, July, September, November). Election channels are to be opened exactly two weeks ahead of the election at 0:00 (UTC). This isn't an absolute requirement, but it is implored that the channel is opened as close to this time as possible, especially the presidential election channel. The latest time a candidate can declare their candidacy is nine days after the election channel opens. The vote occurs on a Google Form. The title of the form is required to have the same title as the channel. If the form does not have the same title, the form is invalid and will not be counted for voting. The first question on this form is required to be "What is your Discord name?" This is meant to be a deterrent for voter fraud. On every candidate, you are given the ability to write-in a candidate. The ability to edit your ballot after it is cast is disabled.

Campaigning
All three candidates, especially Infraction and Sapphire, have begun vehemently campaigning. A public debate was scheduled for Saturday, May 18, 2019, which would have been broadcasted by Mapping News Broadcasting (MNB). However, soon after this was declared, both Royal and Infraction dropped out the presidential race. Therefore, the debate was cancelled.

Controversy
On May 15, 2019, Ceplio told Sapphire in DMs that he was going to retire and he was going to announce it on either May 19 or May 20. Ceplio told Sapphire he would have to find another running mate. Sapphire would eventually pick Chouan to be his running mate. But, unbeknownst to Sapphire, by the time Ceplio would announce that he was retiring, the election chat would have already closed and no new candidates could join. Ceplio being Sapphire's running mate was one of the main reasons that every other candidate dropped out of the presidential election.

Ceplio's Announcement
On May 19, 2019, the news was announced that Ceplio would be retiring and Chouan would be Sapphire's running mate. Ceplio used a quote from YourFriendlyNeighborhoodGeorge (George) to preface the announcement, "I love this server, you guys. It's quite ironic, actually. I have the benefit of being relatively social in real life, and yet this is my favorite place. To be so isolated, yet so horribly pleased. I love this server. Because, despite its flaws, it's good. It's the best."

Infraction VS. Ceplio
This announcement caused a lot of controversy and outrage in CoM. It led to claims of corruption and the beginning of the first use of the new lawsuit system. On the same day, Infraction announced that he would begin the process of suing Ceplio, Sapphire, and Chouan on grounds of corruption and, specifically for Ceplio, not being able to speak in #may-2019-election channel and redeclare his candidacy. The same day, Sapphire provided evidence to Infraction to prove his innocence, which in the process, proved Chouan was innocent as well. The evidence provided to Infraction was screenshots of all of Sapphire's and Ceplio's DMs since when Ceplio first told Sapphire he was retiring. Now, the only case that remains is the case against Ceplio.

#WRITE-IN Movement
After Ceplio announced his retirement and controversy started up because of it, Infraction and Royal both tried to redeclare their candidacy. But it was too late, the election chat was closed for the election in six days. This would spawn the #WRITE-IN movement where "unofficial" presidential candidates are attempting to get voters to write in their name instead of the official candidates listed on the bill.

President Chouan Resigns
On May 24, 2019, President Chouan resigned eight hours before the May 2019 Presidential Election at 16:00 UTC. This left Sapphire without a running mate. Sadly, the bill for the elections is not able to be updated after five days before the election. This leaves Sapphire's Vice President up to write-in candidates. Sapphire has urged people to write in Infraction as his Vice President, which only 12.5% of the voters did. This result was still enough for NotInfractioN to be elected.

Voting
The voter turnout on May 25, 2019, was one of the worst in CoM history. Only 8.16% of the server voted in this election. This is because of the string of messups that occurred in regard to ballots which turned off many voters.

Results for President
Sapphire Mapping - 54.2%

BlackBird-12.5%

Ceplio -12.5%

NotInfractioN - 12.5%

Snoweble - 4.2%

No Candidate - 4.2%

Results for Vice President
NotInfractioN-12.5%

Volatile-8.3%

iiighh-4.2%

No Candidate-75%