Hail, Columbia! (The Election of 1896, Round 2)

[Cranberry]

After an intense and close first round, two candidates are left for the runoff. One is a radical, one a socialist, narrowly beating a divided conservative opposition for second place. The establishment in the country and abroad is in shock, as the people decide on the course of their nation. One thing is for sure even now - the Commonwealth will look vastly different in four years time.

President August Vinzent Spies of Manitoba [Democratic]
The President is running for re-election to a second term in 1896. While being heavily popular within his won party's ranks and in his party's power base in the prairie, his term has produced criticism, both among more conservative members of society being opposed to his reforms, and among more radical elements, who thought the President had focused to much on farm issues, and too little on worker's issues. As for his agenda, the President promises a continuation of his program in his first term. His fields of reform are dealing around methods to tackle inflation, extended schemes to aid the impoverished and the installation of a national scheme for farmers to storage excess yields.

Labor Organizer Peter Jay McGuire of New York [ASWI]
For most of their history, Labor parties and organisations in the Commonwealth of North America were splintered, weak and ineffective. Vaguely organised around their intellectual mastermind Henry George, there existed dozens of labor organisations and parties around the nation, all more or less aligned with the Democratic Party. This however changed in 1894 with the first "American Council of Labor" taking place in Pittsburgh, inviting members of all those Labor societies across the nation, and led by Henry George. In light of the recent Socialist International in Paris, the labor organizers and activists for the first time rallied and united themselves, forming the "American Section of the Workers' International" on the first of January 1895. Their presidential candidate is Peter Jay McGuire of New York, who is running due to Henry George's personal illnesses, and who is attempting to keep a band of socialist, social democrats, marxists and others (but not anarchists) together. Their platform is thus a mixture of socialist policies vaguely united under the term "Americano-Marxism" or "Georgism", and includes support for the Spiesian reforms, the introduction of a national health and unemployment insurance as well as a six-hour work day.

[Intell]

McGuire for labor.

[Cranberry]

Bump

[Maxwell]

McGuire. I'd be fascinated to see how his Presidency would go.

[Zioneer]

Wow, this is pretty lopsided.

[Cranberry]

Voting is closed, thank you for your participation!

August Vinzent Spies was re-elected to a second term. Since my computer is broken and I'm just online on my tablet, I can't make a map - Harry, could you do that? Many thanks.

Instead of the map, I'll just have to give you a few newspaper headlines of December 15 (the second round taking place in the first week of December, and the Electoral Comission publishing the final results the evening of December 14 this year), 1896:

""HERR PRÄSIDENT" RE-ELECTED TO SECOND TERM" - The Franklin Tribute
"SPIES DEFEATS MCGUIRE - NATIONS CHOOSES PRESIDENT" - The New York Times
"RADICAL DEMOCRAT BEATS RADICAL SOCIALIST - WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION ENTAIL?" - The Boston Herald
"PRESIDENTE SPIES RE-ELEGIDO CON UN MARGEN ENORME" - El Diario di México
"MONSIEUR SPIES GAGNE LA DEUXIÈME TOUR DES ÉLECTIONES PRÉSIDENTIELLES" - Le Monde du Montreal
"AUGUST VINZENT SPIES ZUM ZWEITEN MALE IN DAS AMT DES PRÄSIDENTEN GEWÄHLT " - Die Presse von Dakota

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

A truly fascinating result. The 20th Century is going to be the most eventful yet!

Since my computer is broken and I'm just online on my tablet, I can't make a map - Harry, could you do that?

Sure, no problem.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

And here we are (the first map shows the winner of each province, the second map shows the popular vote margin):