Is your President valid by Staff order?

I will preface this by acknowledging the no mixing staff and politics elephant in the room. It is my firm belief that staff and politics are inherently mixed as it pertains to this issue, and that this was done by the President and Co-Owner of the server as the first shot. While I understand the nature of the circumstances, this does not excuse the actions taken when these actions are against the exact rules that both owners and their staff team have reaffirmed a commitment to in recent days.

"Our Staff members are players who, in their own time, volunteer to help. Politicizing staff actions, for the sake of roleplay or otherwise, is strictly prohibited. There must be an undeniable separation between staffing and state and this is heavily policed."

I declared my intent to contest the June 2026 Presidential election on the 4th of June 2026 with Julia as my running mate. This declaration was made prior to recent events, prior to any form of protest or submission of invalid or otherwise not serious protest declarations. At the time of the declaration, both myself and my running mate met all requirements for contesting the election.

Overnight, while this little gnome was getting his 40 winks, the president and Co-Owner of the server Technofied made the following post on the Presidential Elections - JUNE 2026 thread on the forums, where declarations for the presidential election are to be made:

"Declarations before my post are hereby valid by Staff order. This post serves as the new date for end of declarations. Polls will open when the State Department is able to, and they are immune from legal challenges as a result of Staff actions."

As a sign of good faith, I am going to leave the matter of why a co-owner and current president saw fit to override the government in resolving the matter of the Presidential election proceedings. I am only interested in understanding what justifies doing so while also removing what could have been or should have been legitimate declarations, and why after doing so, practically no additional time was given to the citizens of Redmont to consider the upcoming election and submit or amend declarations for this election. Given the circumstances it is reasonable, I would have thought, to provide additional time before the closing of declarations and the polls being open for voting.

I would also have to assume that if the Government was allowed to handle this matter, as is supposed to be their remit, such considerations would have been considered and made in the interest of fairness and due process.

The elephant in the room here is that my running mate and aspiring vice president Julia is currently banned from the server and the discord. While this would normally be enough to disqualify a candidate from running, the president and Co-Owner that is acting as a representative and front man for these 'Staff actions' stated the following in the server announcements not long prior to these actions:

"The four players banned during this incident will be reviewed independently by Staff without either End or I's input. Please wait for further information to be disclosed on this subject"

I believe it was improper for the declarations for the presidential race to be closed when they were after a significant government shutdown and after the president has recently rejected both the house and senate's request for dissolution.

I believe it was improper for what may otherwise have been valid candidates for said election to have their declarations removed by staff action while the staff team has declared and ongoing investigations pending on one or more of the valid candidates declared for the election.

I believe it was irresponsible for staff to override the Government's remit in managing the election declarations and proceedings, and the timelines for closure of declarations and the opening of the polls.

Consideration is given where it is returned in kind, and I believe the staff actions taken in this situation does not allow me to extend sufficient consideration for their decisions and actions in this context.

What course of action is open to me here?

The president/Co-Owner has made it clear in their post in the election declaration thread that no path to litigation is open to me here.

A staff ticket is going to get me nowhere while the issue of my running mate is 'under investigation' with staff policies not allowing them to reveal any information from those proceedings (fair enough probably), but this prevents them from being able to consider or action such a ticket until this is concluded.

I cannot find a substitute running mate and re-submit a new declaration even if I wanted to, since the deletion of declarations and the rejection of future declarations was made with no notice while I was asleep and less than 12 hours since the re-opening of a nearly dissolute government.

The server rules do not allow me to even air these grievances, and while I will not be sharing these thoughts outside this platform in any way, I suspect this will still result in the removal of Gnomestack's affiliate status and access to the #news, as this is the second time I am guilty of mixing staff and politics on this platform under my authorship.

I apologize if my posting of these thoughts impacts our ability as a community here on this platform to express ourselves, but I cannot remain silent on this issue and I do not have another place to share my thoughts in the public nature that such an issue deserves.

Thank you, and Gnob bless the citizens of Redmont.

Edit: Tech has allowed me to talk about this off platform:

To clarify, you're welcome to discuss what I did in ⁠changelog re presidential elections as it affects politics directly @GnomeWhisperer