2012 11 07 1

Wed Nov 7 2072 Washington is simmering on the edge of riots on the morning of the day after the election. Security forces, public, private, and hybrid are out in force in many cities, especially after quiet Worcester, Massachusetts erupts into violent demonstrations against "military dictatorship and vote suppression." Slowly, bits of truth leak out. In New York servers crashed and the hard copies of votes were mysteriously misplaced. Ontario and Nova Scotia both found evidence of widespread magical tampering with voters who showed up in person. Exit polls and results don't match up well anywhere, and Novatech's ace deckers uncover evidence of widespread unauthorized access attempts in the matrix systems. Sure, most of those guys ended up with their brains dribbling out their ears after the IC got to them… but some of the tampering seemed to come from within CATCo software. Fingers are pointed. Accusations fly about who thought trusting a Quebecois company with UCAS interests was a good idea. Haeffner, ever the elder statesman, pleads for calm. Results will be found, all will be made right. The country will not fall into the hands of those who have not been backed by the people. But the candidates, civil until now, turn on each other like rabid dogs. The Normalcy party thunders against the mages' involvement, Michelle Diego, narrowly the front-runner in the final polls, delivers a speech to her American National Party supports on the need to clean house with ominous, militant overtones. Nadja Daviar remains conspicuously silent.