Presidential Elections In 'Star Trek' Suck As Much As Ours

If Star Trek is to be believed, we sure are getting a lot of cool stuff in the future; spaceships, food replicators, holographic simulation chambers that are only occasionally lethal. But even in this spandex-filled utopia, we're still going to have to endure all the stress and anxiety that comes with Presidential elections. Yup, the United Federation of Planets has a President. Remember how the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ended with Kirk foiling the assassination of President Dad From That '70s Show?

Earlier this week, Star Trek released a campaign ad for Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula's Captain from Enterprise), who canonically went on to become President. There's also a Presidential race brewing in the Star Trek comic series, with Kirk helping an old friend run against Harry Mudd, the villain from the original series, and, more recently, portrayed by Dwight from The Office in Star Trek Discovery.

Now, apparently, he's a "shady businessman running for president on behalf of a xenophobic political party." Subtle, guys. We haven't read the comic yet, but we're guessing it involves Scotty eschewing the political process and just wailing on Mudd with a wrench.

Since the country is currently focused on day 17 of a Presidential election, we can't help but be curious about how elections would work in the future. Well, according to the Star Trek novel A Time For War, A Time For Peace, it's not all that different from U.S Presidential elections. There are a small number of candidates, the Federation allows for absentee ballots, and there's a Federation News Service that conducts polls and projects winners.

Even with warp technology and matter transporters, they still set aside an entire week for this process. But at least the race for Federation President is a popular vote; there's no Space Electoral College or some such nonsense.

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Top Image: Paramount