Voter turnout was not even a historical high. The votes were divided between Maria Cortez and Max Powers along the two party lines. Maria"s win was neither a narrow nor wide victory, but she was the clear winner of the election.

Max Powers ran possibly the most negative and flamboyant campaign ever witnessed by the country in all of its history. Ads of the most creative type were run on TV, the internet, billboard signs, and all sorts of merchandise imaginable, from coffee mugs to hats. A zoo"s worth of animals were depicted in many of his ads, including scorpions, elephants, donkeys, and bears, all symbols of some sort, each animal representing some vague abstraction of fear, liberty, or Maria and Max the candidates themselves.

Some hated it, others loved it, more were indifferent. But people were genuinely confused.

Maria"s campaign, on the other hand, was almost too low-key. Maria stuck to her policy goals in debates, she held rallies that lasted one hour maximum, thirty minutes minimum. Her campaign team, headed by Paul, her trusted aide, implored her to, um, try harder.

"Mrs. Cortez! The polls! Ahhh!" Paul repeated this line in a panic so much, he even said it in his sleep.

"Calm down, Paul." Maria responded, every time, with the lightest of chuckles.

It wasn"t that Maria didn"t care about winning the presidency. In fact, she cared deeply. Especially since she believed with conviction that a Max Powers presidency would be a disaster for the country. Politics and government were serious business, and Maria sincerely believed that Max Powers and his style of politics would denigrate the republic. The thin line between entertainment and politics had to be preserved. Citizens had to take their government and their partic.i.p.ation seriously, because civic life had real, concrete impact on their lives. And it wasn"t just about paying taxes or obeying laws. Democracy was at stake here! Maria, however calm she appeared, was being eaten away by her fear of her potential loss, and Max Powers" potential win.

But it was this very reason that Maria Cortez felt necessary to run the most straight edge campaign possible. She could not emulate or even acknowledge Max Powers" style of campaign. If she were to win by reacting to Max Powers, the icon, the image, the man himself, it would be a pyrrhic victory. She could only hope that she would win, but her win must be done in a serious way.

It was a tricky thing to do.

Beneath the surface, Max Powers had been in damage control all throughout. He had a lot of skeletons in his closet, and it took constant redirection, or misdirection, in his campaign to turn attention away from these bones that were always about to poke into the public eye. Max Powers had made numerous and enormous promises to both the voters and his campaign "contributors". A victory unrealized, that is, his loss, would ruin him.

Strangely enough, none of the more d.a.m.ning evidence of Max Powers" grey area dubious legal activities ever came up during the election. The media was too focused on his antics. His campaign was scandalous, in a way, but no scandals rocked his run, per se.

Election Day came and went. Maria Cortez won.

She was the first woman to be president of her country.

Her husband, the First Gentleman(?), asked her, on the night of her victory:
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"How should we address you, President Maria Cortez?"

Maria smiled, and replied, "Call me Miss President."

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Fred watched Maria give her victory speech.

He smiled.