defenders their lives. They all took horrible casualties doing this. It took years in every case. With the Vietnamese it took nearly a generation. But they all achieved their goals in the end.'
'So you're saying we're going to have to fight them for years?' she asked, depressed at the thought.
'Well,' he said, 'there's a basic difference between them and us.'
'What's that?'
'The Americans, the Vietnamese, and the Afghans were all under-equipped and poorly trained forces. We, on the other hand, though numerically inferior, have the same equipment that the WestHems have. In fact, we have equipment specifically designed for use on Mars, something WestHem lacks. We also have training that's better than the WestHems.'
'So how does that fit the equation?'
He smiled. 'I think that WestHem is in for a big surprise when they come over here. A shocking surprise. In any case, to answer your question, this war is far from hopeless. I think we're gonna kick some Earthling ass.'
All over the planet people did as Laura Whiting had instructed. They talked to each other. They discussed the question. In some cases there were arguments. In some cases the arguments were violent. In a few they were deadly.
In Libby a man shot his wife to death when she refused to change her mind on how she was going to vote.
In Procter two street gang members shot another when he told them that he was going to vote no and they disagreed with his choice.
On Triad there was another violent voting argument between gang members. Shots were fired in the heat of the disagreement and two were killed.
There were other episodes of violence during the period between Laura Whiting's speech and the vote itself. In the industrial city of Dow, for instance, the regional manager of MarsTrans corporation headed for his office as he usually did the morning after Laura Whiting's speech. His wife, a high society Earthling who hated her husband's assignment on Mars, protested, warning him that it wasn't safe but he scoffed at her and headed out of the two hundred and eighth floor apartment, intending to take a first class tram downtown and begin calling each of his managerial staff and ordering them to come in. Where did that Martian bitch Whiting get off declaring a work holiday anyway? He was going to show those greenies a thing or two about playing hardball. He made it less than a block from the front of his apartment before an angry group of middle-class Martians, many of them employees of MarsTrans, attacked him and beat him to death.
But for the most part the presence of the MPG on the streets kept the planet in order. In every city roving patrols on foot and in clanking APCs took up positions on major street intersections and augmented the police force. The actual incidents of street crime — already at an all-time low — took an additional dive.
The cities of Mars were confined to the Western Hemisphere of the planet and stretched across only nine of the twenty-four Martian time zones. The prime meridian for the planet ran through New Pittsburgh, the first of the Martian cities. The furthest city to the east was Dow, a mining city in the northern latitudes with a population of five million. Dow was three hours ahead of the prime meridian. It was here that the polls first opened on the morning of the vote; at 0800 Dow time, 0500 New Pittsburgh time.
Voting was accomplished by calling up the ballot program on an Internet screen. The main computer that controlled it was in the capital building in New Pittsburgh. The computer had been instructed to allow only those people who were Martian citizens to vote. It obtained a list of these people from the census computer and downloaded their names, social security numbers, and fingerprint information. The voters would identify themselves by placing their right index finger on the pad of the screen they were using.
Once the terminal sent the identification information to the main voting computer and the main voting computer was satisfied that that person was a Martian citizen of voting age that had not already voted once, the ballot was sent. In this case the ballot had a single issue on it that required either a yes or a no vote. When the voter made his or her decision it was sent back to the main computer and logged.
The program that controlled voting, aside from being completely tamper-proof (attempts to change the programming would erase the program completely), would not allow the release of any results until all polls had closed planetwide. This was because in the past it had been found that the release of such information as it was collected tended to discourage many people from voting at all. After all, what was the point of casting your ballot if the issue already seemed decided? This was a particular problem among the western time zone cities both on Mars and Earth. Since 2070 the new system of non-release had been in place and all but the media, who used to delight in making daylong newscasts out of Election Day, seemed to like it.
The westernmost city on Mars was Procter, an agricultural city of six million. It was six hours behind New Pittsburgh and Eden, nine hours behind Dow. At 2000 Procter time, the polls were shut down. In Eden it was 0200 the next day. In Dow it was 0500. Despite the late hour, not many Martians were asleep.
The department of voting office was on the seventy-third floor of the capital building. The head of the department, Jackie Yee, heard her computer terminal send a simple message to her. 'Voting is complete. All polls are closed. Would you like to release the results?'
She sighed deeply, her body tingling with anticipation. 'Not just yet,' she told the computer. 'Get me the governor.'
It took less than fifteen seconds for Laura Whiting's face to appear on her screen.
'Are all votes in?' she asked Jackie. If the governor was nervous, she certainly didn't show it.
'Yes, Governor,' Jackie replied. 'Would you like me to release the results now?'
'Yes I would,' Whiting answered. 'It's time we found out what we'll be doing tomorrow.'
'I'll order them released immediately,' Jackie said. 'And Governor?'
'Yes?'
'I voted yes,' she said. 'And I hope everyone else did too. Free Mars.'
'Thank you, Jackie,' Whiting replied, smiling. 'Now go ahead and release the results so we can all stop wondering.'
'They'll be out in less than a minute.'
Jackie instructed the computer to make public the results of the vote. The actual results would now be stored forever in its memory bank and would be accessible to anyone, anywhere with an Internet terminal, which meant pretty much everybody in the solar system. As a perk of the job Jackie was the first person to actually see the tally. Her screen filled with figures listing the number of voters on the planet that fit the requirements, the number of those voters who had actually voted, and finally, a breakdown of yes and no votes.
'Wow,' she said simply, staring at it.
A second later a counter near the bottom of her screen began to whir rapidly upward. It was an indicator of the number of requests for information from the voting computer. In less than fifteen seconds it had spun well past sixty thousand.
In her office Laura Whiting sat with Kevin Jackson. Outside the window the stars were visible, shining as brilliantly as the lights from the surrounding high rises.
'Well,' said Jackson. 'Shall we see?'
She nodded. 'Let's find out if we're going to be in jail tomorrow or not.' She took a deep, nervous breath. 'Computer, access Martian voting computer and display results for last ballot issue.'
'Accessing,' replied the computer, which had no idea of the magnitude of what it was doing.
It took less than four seconds and the screen lit up with the requested information. Jackson and Whiting stared at it, eyes wide, mouths agape.
'Well would you look at that,' Laura said softly, unable to develop a reaction just yet.
'I can't believe it,' Jackson mumbled beside her.
MARTIAN SPECIAL ELECTION 041513
WILL THE PLANET OF MARS DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM THE FEDERAL ALLIANCE OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND ENFORCE THIS DECLARATION BY ANY MEANS AVAILABLE? YES OR NO?
PARAMETERS FOR PASSAGE:
1. MUST HAVE GREATER THAN 95% VOTER PARTICIPATION
2. MUST PASS WITH 66.667% YES VOTE OR GREATER TO BE CONSIDERED BINDING
RESULTS
NUMBER OF PLANETARY INHABITANTS OF VOTING AGE WITH MARTIAN CITIZENSHIP:
