It’s grueling. You’ll get dragged through the mud. You’ll get kicked when you’re down. Politics, anyone?
Getting started is easy:
- Customize the candidates or create new ones (optional)
- Select your scenario
- Select the candidate options
- Play!
How to Win
President Forever is a game about American Presidential politics. Your goal is simple: win the election. How do you do that? In short, win your party’s primaries and then get the most Electoral Votes in the general election.
To elect a nominee for President, the two major parties have primaries. The primaries are actually a mix of primaries and caucuses. Some primaries are “open,” meaning that people who are not registered in that party can still vote in that primary, and some are “closed,” meaning that only registered party members can vote. Caucuses are like closed primaries. If a candidate has more appeal with independents or even people who are registered with another party, then closed primaries or caucuses can be more challenging to win for that candidate. After each primary or caucus, delegates are selected to attend the party’s national convention. Typically, these delegates will be pledged to one candidate or another. Whichever candidate gets a majority of delegates voting for them at their party’s convention wins the party’s nomination, and can proceed to the general election.
Understanding Electoral Votes
In the general election, each state has a certain number of Electoral Votes. In 2008 there are 538 Electoral Votes in all. California has the most Electoral Votes, at 55. Texas is second, with 34.
Whichever candidate has the majority of Electoral Votes becomes President.
Each state’s Electoral Votes are all-or-nothing. That means whoever has the most normal votes (any vote cast by a registered voter - you or I) in a state gets ALL the Electoral Votes. For example, if you got 51% of the vote in Texas, you would get 100% of the Electoral Votes from Texas (all 34 of ‘em).
Whichever candidate has more than 50% of the Electoral Votes wins the game. In the 2008 scenario, you will need 270 Electoral Votes to win.
What if there is a three (or more) way split, and no one gets 270 or more Electoral Votes? Then Congress decides between the top two contenders.
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