Has anyone actually lost?

i rig the elections....people who dont vote with me....dont vote period.

Just my evil way of winning the senate vote.

Yeah I've lost a couple of times. Usually I've got my taxes set too high - I lower them a week before the election, then raise them back up - and I get voted out. Very annoying...

On occasion. Usually, when my popularity rating is below 60%

Nope. Never. i keep my approval at 100% all the time (i never let my planets get above 5 bil pop most of the time).

I've never lost, my approval is always at around 80-90.

i have when i started, hasnt happened for some time now

Nup never. I usually have around 70-80% approval.

No I haven't lost the senate vote before. My approval is usually 80%+ on all the games I play.

...I want people to love me!

Its kinda weird having the people taxed at amazingly high levels and still getting 78-82% of votes Yes, I think it is too simple

Yes some times If have your popularity too low over the period of the government term and you will lose. However generally win next election.

The 2nd game I played I lost several votes and went bankrupt... of course I had no ideas what the hell I was doing then.

Now any PQ 10 and above has the minimum of 15 billion and PQ 20 and above are 30 plus billion with a 100% approval.

I have never lost an election, but then I never change my gov't from Imperial until my Morale rating is under control. I wait until my Spending is (permanently) at 100% and my tax rate is high enough to ensure positive cash flow while morale is 75% or better, and then I consider changing governments. I probably should change sooner but your political party can cause issues if you change too soon.

For instance, in my current game, I chose to play as the Yor using the War Party. This political choice give several combat related bonuses, but at the expense of your economy that the default Party bonuses give. With the default PP, every planet you colonize starts with 100% morale out of the gate. With the War Party, if you start above 75% morale, consider yourself lucky! Early on it was a struggle keeping the treasury green and the citizens happy, I had to closely monitor the tax rates and spending and adjust them repeatedly until my infrastructure kicked in.

Cheers,
Reaver

A lost one once on my first game at Suicidal. It surprised me since I had 65% popularity (and I never, ever went below 50%). I wonder if the difficulty level modifies the election results?

I keep my planets at 100% morale to get the 100% bonus to population growth and production bonuses. Early in the game your population is low so even at high tax levels, your income will be low. Set spending at 100% and set your tax level as low as it takes to get 100% morale.

You will be in the red for the first 12-18 months of the game while you:
(1) grow your population,
(2) build up morale from building entertainment centers, researching morale techs, and mine morale resources,
(3) build your income from researching economic techs and build Stock Markets, mine economic resources.
Use your initial 5 billion, tech trading, and money anomallies to cover the deficit.

In my current game I'm playing on level Masochistic, gigantic map, everything abundant, 9 opponents, and very fast research. By Feb 2226 (i.e., early second year), I had a small surplus with tax rate around 53% and 100% morale, 26-30 planets, 2X the population of the Torians and 3-4X the population of everyone else.

nearly lost, won by a single vote....
When it comes to research , there is a subtle trade off between farming, entertainment etc...when it winds up a duel of influences, and your forced to eek out a few more point through pop is when I usually see my votes start sliding the wrong way. This is when I run tax around 30% though, when I boom the population and run it lower, my votes are never an issue.

By the time I research democracy and open up the elections, I've usually made sure that my planets have at least one nicely upgraded entertainment centre. So far I've never received less than 75% of the vote.

Hell, I get screwed ovver if I'm evil 'cause good civs and neutral civs vote in the same general direction: To hell with the bad guys by giving them a 1 route trade limit...Bastards...

I never lose because the morale thing is totally gay. You can build virtual reality centers like crazy and set your tax to 80% and still have 95% approval. Us Canadians complain at 14% tax, now imagine getting $3000 monthly pay and having to give 2400 to uncle sam. Stardock should really look into this.

Stardock should really look into this.

Um, no? There's no reason whatsoever to assume that GC2's tax slider is at all similar to real-life tax rates. It doesn't account for highly obvious things like cultural differences and the uses of the money.

Why would a race of robots be as bothered by high taxes that go into producing ships? Why would a hive mind culture be bothered by high taxes that all got spent improving the homeworld?

Even ignoring cultural differences, there's also the very important matter of where the money goes. Unlike real governments, we USE the tax money in GC2. Imagine getting $3000 per month and giving $2400 to the government, but getting food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, protection from aliens, aphrodisiac spray (  ), transportation, and rapidly improving technology in return. If my citizens made $3000 per month, they'd have $600 per month to spend as they please, with no expenses. Sure they'd have more if taxes were less, but they're still getting a dang good deal.

YEah, I've lost a few elections, usually when I've just switched to Republic and forgotten to drop my taxes first.

I guess I, too, am among the shamed few who lost an election. I was desperate for money, set the taxes a little bit too high, and forgot about the elections. Ouch.

I lost one once. I was in a rut with the Drengins closing in on my homeworlds so I had to pump out a lot of ships at once. So I kept my treasury between -500 and 0 for a while, and then the elections came. Damn hippies.

~Nero