Chapter 8: May 15th, Election Day

May 15th is a very ordinary day. Apart from the not-very-well-known World Family Day, there is nothing noteworthy about this day. However, for Ming Zhou, this day is not ordinary at all, because this is the day Huang Yi will participate in the Brighton election on behalf of Ming Zhou's campaign foundation.

Of course, at first, Zhou Ming's ideal candidate was Omar. After all, Zhou Ming knew very well that he was the future President of the United States, and would be re-elected. Therefore, even though he was a black man with no political status, Zhou Ming still had great confidence in him. In addition, training a president was also an exciting challenge. What Zhou Ming never expected was that the current Omar was not the President of the United States who could speak eloquently to the world 25 years later. He was still a cynic who hated politics very much. Therefore, Zhou Ming had to give up this best choice.

Later, Zhou Ming intended to choose Li Yang, but after consulting Alan, he learned that although the election they participated in was not as demanding as the election of members of Congress, the law also stipulated that candidates for Congress must be American citizens who had obtained U.S. citizenship for more than seven years. Then Li Yang, who had only been in the United States for a few months, obviously did not meet this requirement. He had not even been a U.S. citizen for seven years, let alone the whole seven years, so he had to choose another option.

Huang Yi, although also a former exchange student, immigrated to the United States with his family seven years ago and has held American citizenship since then, so he just happens to meet the legal requirements. As the president of the Overseas Chinese Students Association, his speech was also very good, so Zhou Ming decided to endorse him.

Early that morning, Alan, Zhou Ming's lawyer, drove to Zhou Ming's dormitory with a stack of legal documents. He handed the documents to Zhou Ming and said, 'These are the campaign documents for the Veda Community. In essence, they are no different from the campaign documents for the City of Brighton, and no additional terms have been attached.'

'These are the real estate documents of the Veda Community and your tax payment certificate as the head of the Veda Community household. These are very important, because in order to run for councilor, you must first reside in the constituency, so that you can better represent the interests of the voters. The real estate documents and tax payment certificates are the best and most direct supporting documents.' Alan said and took out a few more forms, 'This is the campaign registration form. I have already filled it out according to your requirements, Mr. Zhou Ming. If there are no substantial problems, then Mr. Huang Yi only needs to copy it.'

After the incident with Xiao Brook, Huang Yi also moved into Zhou Ming's dormitory for the sake of convenience, and he was there when Allen came over.

Allen handed the documents to Zhou Ming and Huang Yi and continued, 'Although according to Massachusetts law, any American citizen who has obtained American citizenship can participate in the election campaign, the election committee will definitely verify and screen each candidate to eliminate those with poor qualifications. This is done to ensure the smooth progress of the election campaign.'

'Therefore, in order to be allowed to run for office, candidates usually need to obtain a certain number of supporting signatures from the constituency and submit them to the election committee. The election committee will basically not release the candidate until they have received the signatures and verified the voter's registration status,' Alan said.

'So, Alan, are you saying that I must go to the constituency to find a certain number of voters?' Huang Yi asked.

'I think so. And to ensure the fairness of the campaign, the voters must belong to the constituency you are running for,' said Alan, and handed Huang Yi another document. 'This is a legal document on voter status. You can take a look at it. Although it seems a bit complicated, in short, at least the person must have owned a property in the constituency for more than five years and lived there for more than three years.

'And all the voters who sign must be registered with the election committee,' Alan continued, emphasising, "This is very important! Because not all signatures have legal significance. The guys at the election committee do nothing but pick holes in the law every day. Don't even think about getting away with it. A lot of people have tried to do this in the past, but in the end, their names have said goodbye to the election forever.'

Huang Yi looked at the document and said, "It seems a bit complicated, but our constituency this time is in a Chinese residential area, and I believe that a sufficient number of voter signatures will be no problem.'

In response to Huang Yi's statement, Alan first glanced at Zhou Ming before saying, 'Mr Huang Yi, I advise you not to be overly optimistic.'

Zhou Ming then stepped forward and said, "Thank you very much, Lawyer Alan. I think no matter what the difficulties are, we will always overcome them. Huang Yi is only the chairman of our Chinese Students" Association. This is the first time he has run for office, and he is still a student. He may be a little excited and nervous, so please don't mind, Lawyer Alan. I just don't know if Lawyer Alan has any other ideas or matters you want to remind us of?'

Faced with Zhou Ming's peacemaker, neither Alan nor Huang Yi could say anything else. Alan shook his head and said no, and only then did Zhou Ming invite Alan to dinner first, and they didn't leave until after dinner.

About an hour and a half later, Zhou Ming and the others arrived at the Fenway District Council Building by bus, where the Fenway District Election Committee was located. As is customary in elections, all candidates must first register and then submit a sufficient number of voter signatures within a limited time period. Therefore, today Zhou Ming and the others first accompanied Huang Yi here to register.

When Zhou Ming and the others arrived at the Fenway District Council building, there were already a lot of people gathered in the square in front of the building. Everyone gathered together in their respective groups. It was obvious that there were slogans and flags from the two major parties, other small parties, and independents. The scene was noisy, and what's more, they were even arguing with each other, much like a domestic market.

Li Yang and the others were immediately surprised when they got off the bus and saw the scene: 'Wow! Do we really need to be this exaggerated? Teacher, are we sure we're participating in a community election? There are so many people here, I thought I was at the presidential election!'

Zhou Ming had not yet had a chance to speak when Ye Ning spoke first: 'There's no way around it, this is America, and campaigning is a very important political thing here. But this is just a community election, if it were a presidential election, I'm afraid there would only be people from the two parties left here, right? The two parties taking turns in power, this is all knowledge from high school political textbooks, don't tell me you've already forgotten.'

After being mocked by Ye Ning, Li Yang awkwardly shrugged his shoulders, but in his heart he felt that Ye Ning seemed to be getting closer and closer to Zhou Ming.

Li Yang could feel it, and Zhou Ming naturally could feel it even more. After all, Ye Ning was nominally his female student, and he could never get past that mental hurdle. He could only pretend not to notice and say, 'Okay, we're not here for a stroll today. Others have supporters, and so do we. Let's just send Huang Yi to the Election Commission to register our name first.'

Zhou Ming was the absolute centre of attention. Although everyone had mocked each other for a while, as long as Zhou Ming spoke, everyone would immediately quiet down and listen to his commands.

So Chen Shu and Ye Ning began organising the students to take out banners and slogans and march towards the Capitol in a mighty procession.

These had also been prepared in advance. After all, running for office was not only a big deal in the United States, it was also the most important thing for them at the moment, and they couldn't afford to be unprepared.

Although it was Zhou Ming who nominated Huang Yi to run in the community elections, it was actually the election of the representative for the Fenway district. However, since they belonged to the representative for the Vida community, it could also be called a community election.

According to the US Constitution, all representatives are elected every two years. This year happens to be the year when representatives are elected, so Zhou Ming and the others want to seize this opportunity, otherwise they will have to wait until two years later, or if a representative dies or is removed from office during their term, a by-election may be held.

Although representatives in the House of Representatives are far less powerful and influential than senators due to the term of office, they are also very important.

Because in the administrative planning of the United States, it is top-down, starting with states, counties or cities, and the Fenway area should technically be called Fenway City. Zhou Ming and the others just call it states, cities, and districts due to domestic habits.

In this administrative planning, the lowest administrative unit is the district, not like the grassroots units such as communities and sub-district offices in China. All communities here enjoy a high degree of autonomy, which means that as long as it does not violate the federal constitution and Massachusetts law and the Brighton City Charter, you can do whatever you want. To speak of the real grassroots unit of management, it is the non-governmental autonomous group recognised by the district council.

Generally speaking, the person who can lead this non-governmental autonomous group is the member of parliament elected every two years.

In other words, this member of parliament is the director of this community and street, and is also the king who enjoys a high degree of autonomy. Therefore, if the elected member of parliament has a business in the community, then he can use his position as a member of parliament to make policies for himself as he pleases, as long as they do not violate the law, and clear away all obstacles for his business. For example, he can use administrative power to crack down on competitors.

Perhaps due to the loose federal politics of the United States, the situation in each of the more than 3,000 cities in the 50 states may be different, but overall there is not much difference: a congressman is just a mafia boss in a legitimate guise.

It is also for this reason that many businessmen on this side of the United States, after having enough money, always want to run for office or actively support someone running for office with money, which can directly benefit them after they are elected.

Zhou Ming took Huang Yi and the rest of the finance class to the front of the parliament building. Zhou Ming said to Huang Yi, 'Due to the limited number of people, the students can only see you off here. Lawyer Alan and I will accompany you to the election committee to submit the registration form. I believe you can do it.'

Alan then patted Huang Yi on the shoulder and said, 'Hey, young Chinese guy, you need to buck up. Next, you just need to throw the registration form in the faces of those people in parliament. They will do the rest for you, and you won't even need to speak the whole time. So you don't need to be too nervous, just breathe deeply with me.'

Huang Yi let out a soft breath and said, 'Don't worry, teacher, this is the task you have given me, I promise I will complete it!'

'That's my boy.'

Zhou Ming praised Huang Yi, but as they were about to enter the parliament building, they suddenly heard a strange voice next to them: 'Isn't this the parliament building? Why are there yellow-skinned monkeys here? Did the parliament security guards not come to work again?'