Elections, laws and public life

Choose Your Life, open Institutions, then City Hall to see the election stage and the date of the next change. A filing period lets candidates enter, a campaign period lets residents compare them and a ballot period opens voting.

Select each candidate to read what they say they would change. Some candidates may be labelled Townsfolk, meaning computer-controlled residents, so an election can still run in a quiet city.

Choose Vote while the ballot is open, review the name and confirm once. Your choice is private. The public can see the final totals after the election closes, but not which resident chose which candidate.

One account receives one vote and can field one candidate. Extra accounts or biography claims do not create another ballot.

During the filing period, open the office and read the eligibility and filing cost before becoming a candidate. One account can field only one candidate in an election and cannot hold several scarce city offices through different relatives.

A candidate campaigns to become better known and explain what they would change. Campaign actions use time and should connect to a real promise. Influence is the game's name for the support needed to put a law into effect; it comes from votes and service, not real-money purchases.

Losing is not an empty result. Votes can still build recognition and influence for a later campaign. Winning creates responsibility: the mayor can make choices that affect household money and public services.

At City Hall, choose Laws and select a proposal to see its current value and the proposed value. The everyday effect should be visible before the mayor confirms the change.

A mayor spends influence to put a law into effect. Each law then has its own waiting period before it can be changed again, preventing one office holder from switching the same rule back and forth.

After a change, follow the public record and your own bank statement or service pages. That is how you can check whether a promise became a result rather than trusting a campaign speech.

• Who pays more or less?
• Which service gains or loses support?
• When does the change begin?
• What will players notice in ordinary life?

City Hall, the Solano Ledger newspaper and relevant service pages show different parts of public life. City Hall shows the formal decision, the newspaper explains public consequences and your own pages show what changed for your character.

If a tax, benefit or fee looks wrong, begin with the law's start date and then check the matching line on your bank statement. A law passed today may not rewrite a payment that happened earlier.

Mayoral elections, voting and current laws are live. City Cabinet applications, appointments and commissioner work are not part of the public beta.

A Cabinet route or office record may be visible in some builds. Do not treat it as an available career, submit an application or plan around a displayed office while this guide says it is unavailable.

Use City Hall for the live civic choices. This guide does not link to Cabinet while that system is outside the beta.