By the time polls closed in California, Alaska and Hawaii, most of America had already gone to bed. If you were in line at 6:00 p.m., you were entitled to cast your vote...and many polling places reported staying open until past midnight to accommodate the crowds. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. representatives worked through the night to tabulate all results, in preparation for a formal announcement scheduled for 4:55 p.m. (EST) on Wednesday, November 5, 2008.
The most sophisticated computer system in the world had been created to record all votes instantaneously, raise 'red flags' on 'questionable' ballots, and confirm that every vote cast was legitimate. Voting irregularities had plagued American election days for most of its history; O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to establish a foolproof system for spotting discrepancies and weeding out potential fraudulent votes. It was probably the most comprehensive and accurate tabulation in the history of U.S. elections. Voters were given various options that made it quick and easy to vote a split ticket, enter write-in candidates of their choice, or simply decline to vote for any candidate if they so chose. For all twenty-five resolution on the ballot, people could vote "Yes", "No", or "Undecided". Only the "Yes" and "No" votes would be counted.
In every time zone, polls had been forced to stay open late so that record numbers of voters could participate in the first-ever truly democratic election. This time there was no electoral college that would decide the winners. This time, the people would speak - and their decisions would stand. In the last federal election, more than 121 million voters turned out to split their votes between George W. Bush and John Kerry. It had been a very close popular vote. After all polls closed, the final results were astonishing:
198,765,432 citizens had cast ballots. a 64% increase over any previous national election!
Four hundred fifty-five individuals were elected to Congress who had never served in any public office before. They came from all walks of life: teachers; bakers; janitors; barbers; accountants; newspaper publishers; dogcatchers; firemen; tailors; cashiers; factory workers; mothers on welfare; nurses; bartenders; mechanics - such a diversity of talents, instead of the usual hum-drum of political science majors, attorneys, and 'career politicians'. Of those 455 new public servants, 227 were women and 228 were men. Now, within the entire body of Congress, there were 266 men and 269 women - a gender equality never before seen in the hallowed halls of America's legislative castles. Other interesting statistics revealed even more diversity among racial and religious lines:
212 were Caucasian; 10 were of Asian descent;
178 were African-American; 10 were Oriental
99 were Hispanic 8 were of the Hebrew nationality
14 were native American Indians 4 were from northern Eskimo tribes

304 were Protestants 37 were Mormons
106 were Catholics 28 were Jewish
39 claimed no religious affiliation 21 were Muslims
Write-in votes also accounted for an astonishing number of 'unofficial' candidates all of whom had been very visible during the past ten months while O.U.T.R.A.G.E. dominated the rebuilding of a nation. Perhaps it's because they were seen as heroes, or perhaps it was because some voters wanted to express appreciation for everything they had done to reunite the country.
Jil Adams received 4,374,106 write-in votes;
Ron Oetting received 2,010,343 write-in votes
Bob Ryan received 2,000,001 write-in votes;
Phil Baker received 1,603,055 write-in votes;
Patrick Hamilton received 554,455 write-in votes;
and Lynn Patrick received 8,039 write-in votes.
Approximately 5% of the total vote (10,549,999) went to people who hadn't even declared their candidacies! This was unlike anything ever seen in American politics (the closest such phenomena was in 1992 when H. Ross Perot received 19% of the popular vote; but, Perot was on the ballot).
The most astonishing factor was still to come: to the total surprise of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. analysts, there were three Presidential candidates who had virtually received almost equal numbers of the popular vote; and - again - only one of those individuals had declared himself as a candidate, and had actually conducted a campaign! Colin Powell, John McCain and Barack Obama had all received nearly equal numbers of votes: approximately 66,555,000 each!!
While the pragmatic thing to do was award the prize to the one with the most votes, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. representatives declared the election "too close to call"; after all, these three Presidential candidates were all separated by a handful of votes, such a small handful that any discrepancy could upset the outcome. After hours of deliberation, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members were all asked to 'weigh in' on what to do. There were three viable options:
1. Simply give the candidate with the most popular votes the 'prize' of being President, and leader of a newly reformed nation;
2. Hold a 'run-off' election among the three candidates;
3. Form a new system of government wherein all three 'winners' would serve on a Presidential Triumvirate.
By 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 5, the television broadcasts were awash with this astounding turn of events. All one hundred million O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members were asked to express their opinions as to what to do. "To hold another election," said Colin Powell, "might result in delays that this nation can't afford." McCain staunchly agreed: "It's obvious the people are not all that divided. To reject two of these three candidates would probably divide the country." Obama immediately favored the third option: "What's wrong with thinking outside the box?" he asked. "Why can't we color outside the lines and bring a brand new, fresh experiment to our government? What could possibly be wrong with three national leaders?" Obama suggested that three leaders could share responsibilities and assume leadership for specific areas of management. Powell would be perfect to supervise the military and intelligence operations of the government. McCain could focus on budgeting and administrative roles. Obama preferred to direct the management of social programs and environment issues.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members were asked to return to the polling places where they cast their ballots and vote again for either of these three options. All other voters were asked to do the same. Polls would open at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 6 and would close - again - at 6:00 p.m. (but would stay open until every voter in line at 6:00 p.m. could cast a ballot). This election wasn't over yet....it had truly been a heralded day in history!