2nd Liberstein Presidential Election
On March 2nd, 2019 in Liberstein, The Council voted to have a private referendum for President. President Joseph Von agreed to accept any outcomes from the election.
The Background
March 1st, 2019 Curtis Haschak, the newest member of the Liberstein Council declared that he would like to run for President after Von's first official term (in 2021). Another new Councilman named Chase Foreberger also said he would like to make a run for President. Come March 2nd Von said that a vote should be placed in the council to have a private referendum as a semi-official Presidential election. In what some news outlets described as a "barely legal, hardly democratic private election," the referendum passed with 6 in favor, 1 abstention.
The Election
The Council agreed to run a two week campaign in the Council before coming to a final vote on March 16th, 2019. As time went on, The Council then decided to open up the vote to the public in this portion of the campaign after seeing the public outcry and protests. Von did not participate as he was worried more with the workings of the government and met with a small committee he formed to make sure that there would be a smooth transition in the event that he lost the referendum. This worked out in his favor. Many voters saw this as a perk to have a hard working President who was more concerned about his people and government than putting his name in the news and running for re-election.
| Name | Party | Councils Served | Campaign Slogan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Von | Progressive | 4 | N/A |
| Curtis Haschak | Progressive | 1 | "Progressing the Party" |
| Chase Foreberger | Libertarian | 1 | "Moderating the Nation for All" |
Haschak ran on a very Progressive campaign platform in which he promised to legalize Marijuana and set aside "public farm space" to create a strong, and healthy environment. Foreberger ran his campaign on a very moderate platform in which he proposed stricter gun laws, some environmental protection policy, but also a hardline conservative economic system.
| Candidate | Voter Percentage |
|---|---|
| Joseph Von | 94% |
| Curtis Haschak | 2% |
| Chase Foreberger | 4% |
The Results
After the votes had been tallied at the end of the day on March 16th, President Von had won the election with a landslide 94% of the vote. He made a statement afterwards in which he said, "I trusted my people, and they trusted me. I kept hard at work preparing them for anything, and they prepared me for a happy future as President of this Great nation." Von refused to have an expensive inaugural ceremony, and allowed his opponents to remain their position in the Council.