2012 11 07

Wed Nov 7 2072 The UCAS election proceeded as expected. The Technocratic Party pushed through its 11th hour legislation to get widespread voting by matrix. The results were unclear as the polls opened. The screamsheets and airwaves have been abuzz with election coverage and ads, ranging from stirring patriotism to the dirtiest smears to hard-nosed pragmatism. The people took their ballots, physical and digital, and made their wishes known. For the first hours, things went smoothly. Vote counts became easier with instant electronic tabulation, far better than even the best drone systems that previously provided the first ballot count could manage. Emotions ran high, but they always do. Then the vote counts stopped updating. "Technical difficulties," said a senior official in Michigan. "There's a glitch we're hammering out," an expert from Cross Applied Technologies said. Unrest grew. Had CATCo dropped the ball on voting? After 21:00 Denver time everything went silent. The matrix exploded with rumors. The news analysts filled the lack of data with speculation. The candidates largely blamed Angela Colloton's Technocratic Party, she blamed hardware and software. The world waited for results.