Buy the Vote!

About this board game

Buy the Vote! is a 15-minute blind-bidding game for 2–5 players, released in 2020, in which presidential candidates compete to collect electoral votes and win the presidency.

The game begins when the 15-minute timer starts. In each round, candidates secretly select states and place campaign dollars on them behind voting booths. When everyone is ready, all bids are revealed, and the player who spent the most on a state wins its electoral votes. Every bid is spent whether it wins, ties, or loses, making each campaign decision matter.

Time pressure increases as the game continues, with more states becoming available in later rounds. Players also receive more campaign money as rounds pass, along with bonus money for winning more states. This creates new opportunities to make larger bids while forcing candidates to decide when to conserve their funds.

• Blind bidding: Secretly spend campaign dollars, then reveal all bids together.
• Tied states: A tie leaves the state card available for rebidding in the next round, creating stacks of state cards.
• Swing states: These allow a player to steal the last state won by another candidate.
• Electoral strategy: Gather enough votes to shape the final presidential ticket.

At the end of the game, the candidate with the most electoral votes becomes the presidential nominee, while the candidate with the second most becomes the running mate. Together, they need at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

With secret bids, escalating rounds, contested states, and a strict time limit, Buy the Vote! turns campaign spending into a quick struggle for political control.