Pocket votes

The term "pocket votes" refers to the practice of using inactive Talossan citizens to pad the voting rolls for one party or another during an election. In particular, the term refers to the alleged practice of King Robert I, in his role as Deputy Secretary of State, to gather votes of inactive citizens, all of which went to the Progressive Conservatives or, after the King himself decamped there, to the Black Hand.

It was alleged (and at one point widely believed) that Madison would either contact the inactive citizens and present them with his own skewed take on Talossan affairs, thus securing their vote for the party of his choice; or that failing the attempt, he would actually fraudulently claim their vote.

In the final election before the secession of the Republic of Talossa, Secretary of State Martì-Paír Furxhéir, in an attempt to forestall fraudulent pocket votes, instituted a number of reforms, chief of which was his dismissal of Madison as Deputy Secretary of State. Madison's outrage was seen by many as confirmation that he had indeed been involved in rigging the vote, as well as an attempt to intimidate Furxhéir into retracting his decision.

Three inactive citizens in particular were often cited as pocket voters, namely the King's father, Harry Madison, his sister Jennifer Madison, and his former high school teacher Jean Williams, none of whom had any visible connection with Talossa after the 1980s.

It is notable that, during his last months as monarch, Robert I began to accuse rival political party CLP of retaining pocket votes, and the resulting dispute - and the longstanding suspicion of Robert I - was a key factor in the Great Abdication.