Election Stolen! | The Starset Bulletin
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Election Stolen!
Supreme Republic of Man (SRM) elections are as commonplace as the wind blowing, or the sun shining. If I planned to write on one of them, I may as well begin to write an article every time I notice a new leaf springing up on my snake plant. Perhaps I should also consider it news every time my bus is late to bring me into the city. However, the recent election in Adelaide, Austro-Zealand is not just another faceless name in the endless cycle of useless bureaucracy in an unchanging political landscape.
The election was for the city of Adelaide, one of Austro-Zealand’s primary representatives in the SRM, one of the few bureaucratic positions with some actual moving power. The contenders were the well-loved Amelia Wilson and extremist Lee Garrison. Other names were on the ballot, such as Victor Alberetta and Zine Cartex, but they were not expected to come close to winning. Amelia Wilson ran on a quality of life platform, promising to help the citizens of Australia with their basic needs and improve access to funding for housing assistance and childcare assistance for those in need. Lee Garrison, as is standard for him, ran on a platform of control and legislation. His primary stated goal is to “place the individual over the bureaucrat”, a method bordering on pure anarchy for the country.
The voting for this election took place on September 16th, and results were officially announced three days ago on October 9th. Garrison reportedly won the election with 61% of the votes compared with Wilson’s 33%, and nominal numbers for the other candidates. This crushing defeat came at a shock to much of the country, but none more so than Wilson herself. Wilson has since alleged publicly that she does not believe these results to be an accurate reflection of the country’s voting populace. In an interview with Sara Mourase, Wilson shared the results of a predictive AI she’d run dozens of times in the weeks leading up to the voting. The AI compiles the public opinions on candidates, the assorted polling information, and the databases of registered voters in order to provide an accurate estimation of voting turnout. This same AI, created by GenCorp, has been used prior to six other recent SRM elections and has been able to accurately predict each of them within 5% of each vote. The results Wilson shared for her own election placed her and Garrison in a tight battle, wherein she won by a slim margin around 45% for her and 42% for Garrison on average. Based on the massive discrepancy between these results and the actual election, Wilson has announced her intention to challenge the vote and demand an investigation. She has alleged that Garrison, or his rabid following, has somehow inflated the vote and cheated his spot into the SRM bureaucracy.
This court case is expected to take months, if not years, but it will likely define the use of predictive AI in bureaucracy and election for years to come. GenCorp has declined to comment on the accuracy of its AI or which side of the election they supported.
-Emelix Nay’deth, journalist of the Starset Bulletin
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