The Middle-earth General Election! (Main Thread)

[Jubal]

Five - the inevitable monarchists that Tolkien might actually have approved of finally turned up.

[comrade_general]

This whole thing confuses me greatly. Can you summarize what I need to do?

[Jubal]

I will PM or summarise in threads what you need to do at every stage, fear not

[Clockwork]

What criteria do we use to decide how the peoples we're representing vote? Given that each race is more than likely monarchists and nationalists, half of them are isolationist and a fair number are warmongering, I can really see only two of the current parties being voted for at all.

[Jubal]

I would give the following guidelines:
- Don't assume that your people will all vote the way their aristocrats would vote, and remember that by and large in LOTR you only see the aristocrats.
- Instead think about lifestyles - what is an ordinary horse-breeder in Rohan likely to want from life? What about a pub landlord in Bree? Or a small businessman in Dale? Initially they might well be social conservatives (though I'm not sure they all would), but they may well also be amenable to voting for things that will actually make them better off.
- Nationalism and internal warfare I think we should semi-discount - Gondorians may be more likely to vote for fellow Gondorians, but obviously if you assume everyone's priority is to break back up into their own kingdoms the whole thing breaks down a bit. So yeah, regionalist sentiment I think will exist but vary, and some people (like the Dorwinions or the Dwarves) will be much more in favour of integration because yay for decent long distance trading.
- That said, run with stereotypes to an extent; this is supposed to be fairly light-hearted. In the CTS version we had Rohirric voters parodied as Top Gear viewing heavy road-users which was hilarious and worked well.

Does that make sense?

[Clockwork]

Excellent, just wanted it cleared up.

[Jubal]

HUSTINGS ROUND IS GO!

[Glaurung]

I'll vote.

[Jubal]

Yay!

Constituencies duly dealt 

[Eadfrith]

Sign me up to vote,
Ideally a nice Rural/Urban split - perhaps a mix of eriador and south east (though i question whether Harad should be enfranchised)

[Jubal]

Done

2 more people needed!

[Tiffmeister]

I'll vote! Doesn't look like there is much choice in constituents anymore, so I'll take whatever is left and will try to vote accordingly. SSS is freaking awesome and needs more votes though, so I'll probably be slightly biased

[Jubal]

Is not a case of choice so much - we can happily have multiple people per constituency!

You will be voting in West Gondor, and Upper Anduin (because they're the last left with 0 voters), and also Nurnen, in former Mordor.

[Eadfrith]

Quick question: I know orcs are enfranchised, but what about women? And serfs? And what is the minimum voting age?
Given that this whole democracy thing is a new idea, I assume low levels of voter apathy, but I need to work out my constituency demographics.

[Jubal]

Women and serfs are all enfranchised, there is no property qualification. The minimum voting age is adulthood, defined differently by species.