Rules

There are 51 seats: the 50 states plus DC. Each one has exactly one holder at a time. The 50 states have a governor. DC has a mayor, because a federal district does not have a governor and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Every state carries its real electoral votes: California 54, Wyoming 3.

Three things you can be

• Governor. Hold one state.
• Candidate. Hold 27 of the 538 electoral votes. That is one of the four biggest states, or two or three middling ones. You appear on the ballot at the top of the page.
• President. Hold 270. The site gets your name on it, and your states get a lock. See the presidency below.

Taking a seat

• Your first state is free if it is open. One free seat per link, ever.
• After that an empty state opens at $1.
• A held seat costs the standing bid plus $1. One dollar more is always enough, at any price.
• Bids are whole dollars. Rank is the bid, nothing else. No votes, no algorithm.
• Money you spent on a state stays on it as your credit. Retaking that state costs only the difference.
• Payment first, seat second. Stripe handles the money; we never see a card number. The map only moves once the charge clears.

Pushing somebody else

A seat belongs to a link, and anyone can pay under any link. That is what every push button is: it buys, at their exact price, in their name.

• Push to the seat puts a bidder on a state's board back in that seat.
• Push onto the ballot buys a governor the cheapest states that reach 27.
• Push to president buys a candidate the cheapest route to 270.

Push your own link, or fund somebody you want to see win. The board does not care whose card it was.

A standing link keeps its face. Every new claim under it inherits the name, line and logo it already wears, whatever the form says, so nobody can retake your seat wearing your link and somebody else's words. Want your own changed? Write support@governors.lol.

The presidency

• Hold 270 of 538 and you are president. The moment you win, the states that made you president are locked for 30 minutes: nobody can take them at any price.
• The lock covers only the states you held at that moment. A state you take during your term is not locked and can be taken back at once.
• When the clock runs out you stay president, but the lock is gone and you can be impeached: anyone can buy the cheapest set of your seats that drops you below 270.
• Winning again right after your own term does not restart the lock. The office waits as long as your term ran before it can lock for you again.

Losing a seat

Read this part before you pay. You are buying a seat, not a length of time. Outside the president's lock, anyone can take it a minute later. What you keep is your place on that state's board.

• You are not deleted when you are impeached. You stay on that state's page with the amount you paid, and your link stays live. You lose the star and the logo on the map.
• Money already spent is not refunded. It stays on the state as your credit.
• Two people can bid the same price. The first payment to settle takes the seat and the second keeps its place one rank below it, at no extra cost.
• One thing is refunded: a seat the president's lock covered before your payment landed. You could not have the seat, so the money goes back.

What you get

• Your logo on the state, your name and link on the leaderboard, and a line in the takeover feed every time you take a seat.
• A link out to your site. Tracking parameters are stripped on the way in.
• Every outbound link carries rel="sponsored nofollow". You are buying attention from people, not link equity from a crawler. Anyone selling you the second thing is selling you a Google penalty.

What we remove

• Anything illegal, adult, hateful, or impersonating someone else.
• Malware, phishing, and link shorteners that hide the destination.
• Removals are refunded. Everything else is final.

What this is not

It is not gambling. You buy a defined placement at a price you can see, and you get it immediately. There is no chance element and no payout.

Support

Charged wrong, stuck at checkout, or want a removal reviewed? Write to support@governors.lol. A human reads it.