I definitely need to thank Mathdino because he was my main reviewer, and also a nod to Beeboy and GIF because they approved the setup after I discovered Mathdino wasn't a technically qualified large reviewer.
Also a big thanks to the players of the game, whose play emphasised the nuances of this setup design.
Now, excuse me while I be a bit pretentious:
Design of mafia games can be art. Not 'an art', like something people can get good at, but actual art. In this modern era, both a game and a video made by a streamer of themself playing that game are art; in the same way, both the game design and the actual gameplay of a mafia game can be considered separate but intertwined art forms. I designed this game with the intent to say something about the American electoral system as I see it as an outsider, and also about democracy in general. This was achieved along with a game that was extremely fun to mod, because I got to watch that art unfurl into the actual gameplay. There are some posts that go beyond anything I ever hoped for; my personal highlight is this segment of a post from Wraith that I feel embodies the kind of thing I was trying to achieve:
Spoiler: Enjoyable Post
But also, political statements aside, it was a pretty cool setup with a ridiculous number of special mechanics that somehow all worked exactly as intended. I was expecting at least one of them to miss the mark, but everything- that is, the main district voting system, the gerrymandering, electoral fraud and investigations, the party system with its PTs, the crier posting, even the goddamn opinion polls that phished Mutantdevle into telling scum about the masonry- functioned as they were meant to. It's definitely a game I'm proud of on multiple levels.
I'm not sure if I'll ever decide to express something through a mafia game again, so the artistic value will probably be minimal in future. However, in terms of mechanics and roles that interact with each other to make for a more enjoyable and less predictable mafia game, this is pretty much how I design games. I am currently working on Kenshi Mafia, which will also be a large theme, and will have a bunch of somewhat ambitious mechanics within it.