QUOTE (Synner @ May 14 2008, 12:09 PM) 
Presidential elections were held less than a year later, once the legal mess of an assassinated President and a missing Vice President was sorted out and some semblance of order had returned to the UCAS. The elections for Seattle Governor were suspended for close to a year and a half (Lindstrom's term was supposed to end around the time of the Crash, in 2064), during which time Seattle was in a state of emergency (like many parts of the country) following the Crash 2.0.
People seem to be underestimating the magnitude of the Second Crash. For the first six months of 2065, the country and the world were still reeling: networks and communications were in shambles; numerous areas of the country were without power, entire grids were down thanks to Winternight's EMP cascade; the UCAS was burying and greiving not hundreds, but tens of thousands of people; no government institution was untouched and critical figures were MIA or dead; there had been at least one secret coup and more attempts in several North American nations; important figures in government were unaccounted for, and others were arrested for treason; almost everyone lost someone they knew, family or friend; the economy, corporations and production lines had ground to a halt and faced an uphill battle to get back in gear—hard when all the elements of the infrastructure, the logistics of supply and demand, and even the usually dependable wageslaves were all still working their way through the aftershocks. The megacorps were more resilient, but they too took a while to shake off the hit, and when they did they focused on themselves, their citizens, and their bottomlines.
Elections weren't on anyone's mind, and in crazy messed up world most of the shell-shocked survivors were happy just to have a stable authority figure at the helm (be it in Washington or in the Seattle Governor's office).
During this time Governor Lindstrom's mandate was extended for the duration of the emergency with the support of the United Corporate Council and federal emergency authorities. Elections were held in mid-2066.
People seem to be underestimating the magnitude of the Second Crash. For the first six months of 2065, the country and the world were still reeling: networks and communications were in shambles; numerous areas of the country were without power, entire grids were down thanks to Winternight's EMP cascade; the UCAS was burying and greiving not hundreds, but tens of thousands of people; no government institution was untouched and critical figures were MIA or dead; there had been at least one secret coup and more attempts in several North American nations; important figures in government were unaccounted for, and others were arrested for treason; almost everyone lost someone they knew, family or friend; the economy, corporations and production lines had ground to a halt and faced an uphill battle to get back in gear—hard when all the elements of the infrastructure, the logistics of supply and demand, and even the usually dependable wageslaves were all still working their way through the aftershocks. The megacorps were more resilient, but they too took a while to shake off the hit, and when they did they focused on themselves, their citizens, and their bottomlines.
Elections weren't on anyone's mind, and in crazy messed up world most of the shell-shocked survivors were happy just to have a stable authority figure at the helm (be it in Washington or in the Seattle Governor's office).
During this time Governor Lindstrom's mandate was extended for the duration of the emergency with the support of the United Corporate Council and federal emergency authorities. Elections were held in mid-2066.
I don't know...
I still think that if they put off the gubernatorial election that long, it would just be begging for surrounding (and other) nations to challenge UCAS control of Seattle, and there'd be no advantage to it. I mean, if people are legitimately as concerned about the crash as you say, why wouldn't the powers that be just have the election on schedule, or slightly thereafter, and just not worry about tallying a correct result (because they can just Diebold themselves up some favorable election results, anyway).