USA Presidential Elections 2016

The 2016 USA Presidential Election was the USA's 2nd presidential election, and was held on November 8th, 2016. Club Penguin Mayor Megg Jean and former Governor of the Happyface State, Happyface141 won the election and were inaugurated as President and Vice President of the United States of Antarctica on January 20, 2017. This election was the largest in the USA to date, with a much higher voter turnout and a much fiercer election than in 2012. Many precedents were set among politicians for rules that hadn't yet been made about the election.

Incumbent President Spike Hike had campaigned for re-election, and was expected to win, until he suddenly pulled out of the race for unknown reasons in September. After that, the rest of the candidates scrambled to campaign harder to come out on top, with Megg and Happyface winning with about 38% of the public vote to Tenorio's 36% (with the other votes going to other candidates).

Initial Candidates
This is a full list of candidates running for president before primaries began. Names in Bold made it to and received votes in the primaries.

Grand Republicans Party

 * Spike Hike - Incumbent president of the USA; running for reelection. Nobody else in his party dared challenge his renomination.

Liberal Party

 * Polo Field - Vice President under current president. He struck rich in Mcdonalds City (50% of Liberal Vote) and almost lost to Megg in his home city of Club Penguin (28.5% to Megg's 28.3%).
 * Megg - Mayor of Club Penguin Island, aide to Spike Hike and Polo Field.
 * Happyface141 - The former Governor of the Happyface State, Happyface had retained high approval ratings throughout his term as Governor, introducing key liberal reforms in health care, equal rights and infrastructure. A formidable candidate.
 * Jonathan James - Former Mayor of Mcdonalds City. Another formidable candidate, but nobody except for his hometown knew much about him. He dropped after losing Mcdonalds City to Polo Field.
 * Richard Price - Former Governor of Eastshield and TV Show host. He also dropped out after not being able to win his home city and home state, both to Polo Field.
 * Cody Jackson - Secretary for Spike Hike.
 * Jack Johanson- Councillor for Snowville and husband of Milly Pie.
 * Agent Isai - President of Castrolla, promised to unite the USA. Technically ineligible to be president as he is already leader of another state, but he appeared on many ballots anyway.

Conservative Party

 * Donal Tenorio - world renowned player and millionaire businessman from South Pole City. He is infamous for his blasting statements, from temporarily banning all X-Antibodies from entering the USA to heightened police presence in Mcdonalds City. He is also a "proud member" of the CREAM SODA Party (A sub-party in the conservative group).
 * Joseph Crosby - State Councillor from Antarctic Peninsula, and younger brother of Ryan Crosby, vice president of Acadia. With his help, the state of Antarctic Peninsula has created new conservative laws while repealing liberal ones. Currently his is the second in the race, after Donal Tenorio, and has won primaries in his home state of Antarctic Peninsula, Trans-Antarctica, and the Happyface State.
 * Evan Insig - A former Micro Hard and Soft worker and a actor from South Pole City, Evan Insig announced his bid for the presidency when it all began, he is a strong conservative. He suspended his acting career to campaign. His campaign motto is "Unity, peace, prosperity." People say "he is a good candidate to win the Conservative vote." Though, not many people know who he is.
 * Mark O'Ruby - son of immigrants from Freezeland and the youngest candidate in the race. He was involved in a major accident at a young age, which caused him to become a partial cyborg. Thus, he is often nicknamed "the Robot" among other politicians and political pundits. He dropped out after losing his own city to Donal.
 * Fum Pie - Recently released from house arrest and a new arrival in the USA, Fum Pie led a doomed campaign, using the notable nickname of Fum! the entire time.

Democratic Socialist Party

 * Canary Hilton - Wife of the former governor of Eastshield and former member of the South Pole City council (not the South Pole Council).
 * Björn Sönder - former South Pole Council member for Eastshield. Originally from South Pole City and the son of immigrants from Sleetden. He is a self-avowed democratic Socialist who has become the figurehead of a grassroots movement in the USA. Though he's very popular among younger voters, it is predicted that Canary will beat him due to her vast political connections.
 * William Andrews - Councillor from Mcdonalds City. He dropped out after losing Mcdonalds City to Canary Hilton.
 * McCarthy Adams - An Antarctic Peninsula Councillor from Shiverpool. He dropped out after losing his state.

Other
Other than the political parties, a few individualists ran for president on their own.


 * Deez Nats - Was originally an anonymous candidate who mysteriously had 6% of all of the USA's votes in only 3 days. The candidate was revealed to be a big-browed penguin who somehow managed to run for president as a joke. After her identity was revealed, she was arrested and was sentenced to standing in front of the Coffee Shop on Club Penguin Island for a day while wearing a Mwa Mwa Penguin's outfit.
 * Bernie the Tour Guide - Wants free tours for everyone. FEEL THE BERN 2k16, FREE TOURS FOR ALL! He might join the political race to freedom.
 * Penghis Khan - entered the race, but never gained many supporters, to his dismay. Though, everyone in West Pengolia did say they would vote for him (even if it was to avoid a fish-slapping), so that's something.
 * Darktan II - Running a second time, this time "with business in mind". Darktan tried to use his role in opposing Nightmare during the Nightmare Epic as leverage, although it was pointed out he was on her side in the first place. Again, nobody voted.
 * Unholy Revolver of Absolute Destruction - The Square Islands representative...? One of the workers nominated the URAD as a joke, and it somehow pulled in 127 votes before being pulled off the election because it wasn't old enough.
 * Daniel Marsher - A terrorist determined to mock the other politicians as much as possible, including arguing with every little thing they say and shouting literal gibberish. He doesn't expect to actually win. His motto is "Grabelfmriheusvwhdr dodelmahpe" which nobody knows the meaning to. He drops out due to low chances to win, and being a terrorist (literally.).
 * Feey1 - sent in a request from his plantation in Maverick to be put on the ballot... and he was. Though, not a lot of penguins voted for him as he did almost no campaigning.
 * Captain B - Captain B entered for reasons unknown and miraculously received large amounts of support from Antarcticans all over the country (see below).
 * Uhh... some guy. - A mysterious, yet popular candidate who is always seen wearing a suspiciously long trench coat. Rumored to actually be an unknown number of chicks standing over each other to pass as a grown penguin.
 * Paul Randolph - A request. If he won the primaries/election, he will be the youngest president in history. He will run in the Primaries a second time.

Potential Candidates
Characters that were thinking of running for president.


 * TurtleShroom, recently gaining a seat in the South Pole Council for Mattress Village, considered running for President. That is, until he decided such a ceremonial position would serve him no good.
 * Penstubal hinted in March 2016 that he may join the race as an independent candidate. Despite heavy popular support from Moon Islandic penguins living in the USA and from Snowinian diaspora, as well as large scale liberal and social democrat support, on April 9th, 2016, he announced he will not participate in the election and he endorsed Bernie the Tour Guide.
 * Mcdonalds394 was rumored to run as well, but he denied it. He was also rumored to win the 2020 election, which he replied It with "It's true."
 * Octavius Businessmun has stated the he may run for president.
 * Foreign leaders such as Kaiser Swiss Ninja and President Brant Esser were also rumored to join the race, until a new rule was made that the president can't already be a head of state elsewhere.

Beginning
President Spike Hike announced in January 2016 that the USA would be having presidential elections in November of the same year, and he also announced that he would be seeking re-election. Though nothing in the Constitution states that there has to be Presidential elections (the first presidential election was in 2012), Spike Hike chose to follow in former President Billybob's footsteps and hold an election after a four-year term was completed. Soon after Hike announced this, creatures from all over Antarctica, were registering to run for the office. Since there weren't many rules, penguins from inside and outside the USA were signing up.

Political parties were also being created based on similar ideals, with the main parties being the Liberal, Conservative, Democratic Socialist and the Grand Republicans. Very few candidates signed up under the Grand Republicans Party since that was the party Spike Hike was running under and nobody wanted to compete with him. Some of the candidates that started off strong in the race were Mark O'Ruby, Senator Joseph Crosby, and Donal Tenorio from the Conservative Party, Vice President Polo Field, Club Penguin Mayor Megg and former Governor Happyface141 from the Liberal Party, South Pole Council member Björn Sönder and former SPC member Canary Hilton from the Democratic Socialist Party, and President Hike in the GRP. Bernie the Tour Guide and "Deez Nats" also ran as independents and became quite popular from the beginning.

Around May 2016 is when the race really kicked off, and candidates started traveling nation-wide and even to the Free Republics to campaign against members of their own parties. Certain creatures (thought to be the rich and powerful of the USA) came together to lead each of the parties, and announced that the number of candidates would be thinned out by having primary votes across the country, to see which candidates from each party citizens wanted to see as president. Then, the mysterious leaders of each party would announce a few creatures that could run from each party. Tenorio took off after his announcement, and gained massive popularity fairly quickly in the Conservative Party. Björn Sönder also became very popular among younger voters instead of Hilton, despite Sönder being one of the older candidates in the election. Vice President Field was also one of the most popular candidates early on from the Liberal Party.

First Primaries
In the first primaries, held in June 2016, many candidates dropped out after seeing that citizens in the nation, their state or even their own city wanted a different candidate from their party to be the nominee. Some of the dropouts included Jonathan James (L), Richard Price (L), Mark O'Ruby (C), Fum Pie (C), William Andrews (DC) and McCarthy Adams (DC). Some candidates also didn't receive enough votes for them in the first primary, and were thus disqualified by the leaders of their parties or election officials. They include Agent Isai (L), Paul Randolph (C), Darktan II, Daniel Marsher and Feey1 Pie. After the first primaries, Spike Hike came out very popular, and with the highest rating of any candidate (96%) due to being one of the only major candidates in the GRP. Donal Tenorio was still leading the Conservatives, especially since two of the popular Conservatives (O'Ruby and Fum) dropped out of the race. Joseph Crosby was boosted to second, and the relatively unknown Evan Insig was boosted to third in popularity in the party. Hilton and Sönder were about even from the SDP, as were Polo Field and Happyface from the LP, with Megg coming in behind at third. Bernie the Tour Guide and Deez Nats took a major lead above other independents.

After the first primaries, Paul Randolph (who was disqualified in the Conservative Party) announced he was running as an independent, after Donal Tenorio started receiving major backlash about things he was saying, such as deporting all X-Antibodies, and building a wall on the US-Polaris border and making them pay for it. Donal still retained the lead in his party, but it started shrinking as members of the party started denouncing him and giving more popularity to other candidates like Crosby, Insig and Randolph.

Second Primaries
The second presidential primaries took place in August 2016, after the remaining candidates had more chances to campaign. Cody Jackson and Jack Johansson from the Liberal Party pulled out of the race following these primaries, and all independents except Bernie the Tour Guide, Deez Nats, Paul Randolph and Penghis Khan were disqualified because they didn't receive enough vote. While Spike had maintained his almost 100% hold over the Grand Republican Party and 40% of the total vote, votes for the other parties shifted quite a bit. Though Tenorio still had a lead over other memebers of the Conservative Party, Crosby and Insig were much closer than the last primaries due to recent controversies surrounding Tenorio, with Tenorio and Crosby reportedly being within 5% of each other. Among Liberals, surprisingly Megg had surpassed Polo Field and taken the lead, with Happyface still barely behind in third. This sudden boost might have come from former Democratic Socialists who had abandoned both Canary and Björn to vote Liberal instead. In the Democratic Socialist party, support was going down, but both candidates had about the same amount of support.



Party Conventions and afterwards
In late August, the mysterious leaders of each party met up to decide which candidate(s) would represent them in the election. Polo Field, Megg and Happyface were chosen to represent the Liberals, Tenorio, Crosby, and Insig were chosen from the Conservatives. However, the Democratic Socialists Party had an unexpected result. While many expected that Björn Sönder would be chosen as the candidate, or both would be chosen, the mysterious board of the party chosen only Canary Hilton. This enraged many Sönder supporters, who would later switch to support Spike Hike despite Sönder endorsing Hike, as well as Hilton later on. It was also later discovered that one of the Democratic Socialist party board members was Canary's husband, George; And as such the candidate choice was probably rigged.

In mid-September, Spike Hike suddenly announced that he was pulling out of the election, which shocked many but opened the doors for all of the other candidates. After this announcement and due to the political polls saying that Megg's lead had grown even more, resulting in Polo Field pulling out by saying the following quote:

"...and then I realized that Megg would seems like a good candidate for president. She told me that she thought the resignation of [Spike Hike] might give us the lower hand, as I was the [vice-president] of Spike Hike. Therefore, I have announced I will pull out the race."

- Polo Field

Meanwhile, Megg started to look for a Vice Presidential candidate, and realized that the two most qualified penguins were those that she had been campaigning against- Polo and Happyface. Her political advisers told her that while Polo may be a good VP, the nation would be more receptive to an "open" ticket than a "Club Penguin" ticket. Due to Megg gaining a large lead over him in the polls due to the former Björn Sönder supporters, and wanting a unified Liberal party, HF accepted the position, and Megg announced it in early October. Polo and Spike also endorsed her campaign, giving her the upper hand of the election.

Over the course of October, many new scandals about Tenorio were brought about by the media, and Megg at presidential debates. New accusations included not paying money to the IIRS since it was created due to him not releasing his IIRS tax returns, negative things he's said in the past about puffles, and things so extreme as being "BFFs" with Kaiser Swiss Ninja, who is mostly considered an enemy of the USA, due to making "frequent business deals" in the confectionery business. Later in the month, Tenorio announced that his Vice Presidential choice would be announced after he won the presidency, prompting Joseph Crosby to pull out of the race a few days before election day in an attempt to get on Tenorio's good side (due to Tenorio's now large lead in the polls). However, after his loss Tenorio stated that he would have chosen Penghis Khan as his VP due to their similar opinions on certain things such as walls (and their egos). By the time election day came, most of the media and polls were biased against Tenorio, and said Megg would win with a "yuuuuge" lead over Tenorio, while neutral parties said it was "anyone's election" due to both candidates having significant cons.

Election Day
When the first votes started to be counted, the media expected Megg to "win" (have more people vote for her than Tenorio) in every state except Pengolia, where Penghis Khan were expected to lead. However, as more and more votes came in, it started to look like a tie race between the two, with a "silent majority" voting for Tenorio, including those that were upset with the "CP Insiders" who had held the office since 2008, those that dislike Polaris for breaking away from the country, or those that have heard what a terrible job Megg has done as CP's mayor, and were afraid that she'd continue her policies in the whole country.

When the last of the votes came in, the Megg/HF ticket had about 38% of the public vote, to Tenorio's 36%, which was closer than anyone expected, Megg or Tenorio supporters. The media later reported that her victory was most likely due to her choice of Happyface as her VP, as a 73% majority of people in the Happyface State voted for Megg. Tenorio led in Pengolia, while Penghis Khan got a surprisingly high number of 38% of votes in the state. Tenorio also led in Weddell. Surprisingly, Club Penguin and the Sub-Antarctic Islands were much closer than anyone expected, with many voting against Megg due to her terrible Mayorship.

Though Canary Hilton seemed promising early in the election, by the time election day had come she had lost most of her support. After Björn was declined the nomination, most of his supporters went to support Liberal party members instead of Canary, and her own support dwindled after the news came out that her nomination was rigged. She only received 8% of the vote. The other four candidates, Bernie the Tour Guide, Evan Insig, Deez Nats and Penghis Khan received 8, 5, 2 and 1 percent of the votes, respectively.

After the Election
Afterwards, many voters were interviewed and asked who they voted for and why. Many Tenorio voters (82% of them) said they didn't actually like him, but they were more afraid of what Megg would do to the country. Likewise, many Megg voters don't like how she's run Club Penguin but believe she was a better choice than Tenorio. Other Megg voters, and a lot from the HF State, said they did so because of the former King and Governor who she chose as her VP, believing at least he could be a good leader. While voter turnout was higher than any other national election, most voters enthusiasm was abysmal, saying that both candidates were just "eh" and "not great". However, most are happy that the country has elected it's first female president. Everyone is glad that the election is over, and hope that Megg will actually be a good president.

After his loss, Tenorio went on to call the election "rigged" and encouraged his supporters to riot, which some did though there were mostly peaceful protests. Tenorio and many others also complained on Chitter and caused a "Chitter Civil War". Many hashtags, such as " # liberalconspiracy", " # CPconspiracy", and " # riggedelection" trended on Chitter for the remainder of 2016 and early January 2017. In Acadia, many believed their enemy, Dorkugal, was commissioned by Megg to hack the voting machines in her favor.

Believing the election was rigged, along with many other factors, such as ever-growing distaste for the United States of Antarctica, and the FRU, contributed to Acadia leaving the Free Republic Union shortly after the election, through a majority vote in the parliaments of both countries. This was criticized by many countries, who called it a "violation of democracy", as Acadia had voted in a referendum early in the year to remain in the FRU. Acadia also threatened to take military action against the USA, to "restore democracy", causing many troops to be moved to the Acadia-USA border.

Most of the complaining and whining stopped by the time Megg and Happyface took office in January 2017. Megg said on November 24th that Tenorio was not fit for to be Treasurer and that she wouldn't choose him. However, due to his ego, he caused a second Treasurer election after Megg took office to secure the position, and replace the "nincompoop" Barrick Abanana. He stated this was so that he could "still help the country by fixing its economy"- and making sure everyone knows it's him fixing it and not Megg.

After losing, Canary accepted the fact that she lost the election and said that "I should let her grow with honor and dignity." Countless others didn't agree, striking against the presidency of Megg, and said that Hilton should've won.

Sidestory: Captain B ruins everything
One day, someone from the political staff was putting up posters asking penguins to vote for the elections, when he was ambushed by The Four Unknown. The group was about to just go on their way, when Wally noticed the penguin's bundle of election propaganda(?). When he read the details, something compelled Captain B to run for president, and due to the election's inspection system being so ridiculously flimsy that it let the gun into the fray, he was added to the ballot.

During his speeches, B was cited to be both "absolutely brilliant" and "completely insane" at the same time. Some of his quotes include:

"I'm gonna make everythin' different, and yet all the same! There! Now everyone's happy, amiright?!"

"Oh, what, enemies? Yeah that's fine, I'll just take 'em to carbo-NATO! BOOYAH!"

"Hey everyone, you all ready to play the game of "attempt to pick a leader that will most definitely lead us all into complete destruction"?!"

"There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free- uh, sharpener, line?"

"What's my strategy for our world, you ask? Well first, we're gonna meticulously develop a well-thought-out system for years! And then, we're gonna scrap all of it, and slap our problems in the face!!"

It should be noted that B has pretty much never actually spoken about politics in a manner that indicates that he actually knows the situation of Antarctica, and yet he was able to grab the attention of supporters from every other party - perhaps because that's exactly what they might've wanted in a leader.

One of the election's most interesting events occurred during one of B's ramble-speeches: all of a sudden, an Adelie penguin divebombed him, and the two engaged in hand-to-hand or lack thereof combat, causing a massive scene. Authorities attempted to intervene, but then the rest of the Madagascar Penguins and the Four Unknown joined in, resulting in complete chaos. Witnesses claim that the situation was "barbaric and uncivilized... and yet the most wonderful moment ever." During the ruckus, the penguin that initially attacked B was reported to have screamed "COVER YOUR EARS! YOU FOLKS AREN'T ACTUALLY GONNA LISTEN TO THIS TRANSLUCENT RIPOFF, ARE YA?! HE'LL DRIVE YOU INTO OBLIVION! FIRST HE GETS ELECTED, AND THEN BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, THE LEOPARD SEALS COME FOR OUR HEADS!!" towards the crowd.

Despite the fact that he clearly was not presidential material, B collected support from other parties like a reasonless black hole. In a pre-election survey, everyone who dropped their previous candidate in favor of B stated that they knew that there was something clearly wrong with him, but claimed that something about him pulled them in. The entire voting system was completely trashed as voters essentially threw their votes away, confusing every other candidate (except for Daniel Marsher, who seemed pretty happy, and the unknown tall guy, who reacted as if what was happening was completely expected). Fortunately, B was not elected president, and the Four Unknown vanished from public sight after the election ended.

Statistics majors have attempted to remove B from the equation to see what the election would've looked like had he not been there. This isn't very accurate since it's generally hard to judge who used to support which candidate (when asked, some penguins had already forgot), but the results seem to indicate that the voting results would've been completely different had B not screwed with actually important political matters with severe consequences. Many of the candidates reacted negatively to these results, most notably Tenorio, who called B "plastic junk" (and was later found knocked out and stuffed in one of the Ski Lift chairs).

Primaries
* - Independents appear on the ballot and are considered qualified only if they get at least 500,000 primary votes.

Mcdonalds City
McDonalds City was an important caucus in the race, since most of its' 350,000 or so citizens were registered voters. Almost noone voted for the Grand Republican Party (Spike Hike) since they all think he wants to "wipe them out of existence". Insig surprisingly pulled his biggest victory yet, getting 79% of the Conservative vote. After that, there were a few close votes. Polo Field won the Liberal vote with 30%, over Jonathan James' 25%, Megg's 16%, Happyface's 12%, etc. The Democratic Socialist Party had Canary Hilton with a close victory of 48.5% over Björn Sönder's 40.8%, with William Andrews coming in at a measly 10.7%.

In the end, Evan Insig, Polo Field, and Canary Hilton were the winners in McDonalds City. Jonathan James and William Andrews dropped out of the race due to losing their city.

Add more, like South Pole City, Club Penguin, Shiverpool, Inland, or other important cities in the USA!'

Trivia

 * There's nothing in the constitution that makes presidential elections necessary, with 2012 hosting the first presidential elections in USA history. However. Spike Hike decided to host one in 2016, since "it's only fair", in his words, to give others a chance to run against him for the job. Spike also said it "keeps him busy".
 * In comparison to the previous election, this one has a lot more candidates, with a few of them being... rather questionable.
 * This is inspired by the USA's irl election.