Election Day

Election Day is an unmarked quest in Fallout 3.

Overview
Dave is running for President of The Republic of Dave again and needs your help.

Detailed walkthrough
Dave asks you to talk to the other four adults of his land (Jessica, Shawna, Rosie, and Bob) to get them to vote. Once you have talked to them, go back to Dave and receive your reward.
 * You have a choice while telling the adults to vote. It is possible to persuade Rosie and Bob to run against Dave in the election. Doing so would net them each one vote (if they haven't voted yet). Under normal circumstances they would only receive one vote, presumably their own. The only way to get Rosie or Bob to win is to steal the other ballots for Dave out of the box before he counts them all.

After you have told Dave all the votes are in, he will go to the ballot box.
 * If the votes left in the box have Dave in the majority or in a tie with anybody else, he will declare himself the winner of the election and the quest will end.
 * Be careful to leave at least one vote in the box, since taking all the votes may trigger an odd glitch where Dave gives the same speech as he would if he'd lost, where he says he's leaving, but all other in-game effects are as though Dave won (Dave returns to his office, and you have a dialogue option to console the 'losing' candidate).
 * If you are quick enough open the ballot box right after Dave unlocks it, steal all the votes, but leave one vote for the candidate of your choosing. Dave will count the votes and declare whomever you left a vote for as the winner. If you speak to the victor he or she will give you the code to Dave's safe. Dave will get angry and storm out of the Republic. If you talk to Dave as he leaves he will tell you that he is going to Old Olney to liberate it from the wasteland and create a new Republic. Due to the Deathclaw infestation in Old Olney, you can usually find Dave dead on the streets somewhere. You can opt to follow him to Old Olney and kill any robots, bloatflies and deathclaws you encounter. He will finally park himself in an alleyway and say "This is the New Republic of Dave. Go away." After being talked to three times, he will attack you. However, if Dave attacks you and you subsequently kill him, the residents of The Republic of Dave become hostile and will attack you when you return.

Rewards

 * 25 caps, upon telling Dave to count the votes.
 * If Dave lost the election: The loot from Dave's safe, including the unique rifle Ol' Painless. You are given the access code to the safe by the winner of the election. To obtain Dave's safe key if Dave won the election, you can kill Dave, pickpocket him, or pass a Speech check during the quest You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head.
 * A bug causes looting the safe to always be considered thievery and grants negative Karma. Wait for nightfall, Dave to count the ballots, or for Dave to leave after losing the election to loot the safe without witnesses.

Bugs

 * The voting might go on without the quest being activated. The few things you can do when this happens is to load a save file, pickpocket Dave, or kill him.
 * Under unknown circumstances, Dave will treat the filing cabinets to his right as the ballot box.
 * One of the non-player characters can go to the ballot box, and stand there doing nothing, making it impossible to finish the quest. Reloading a previous auto-save might solve the problem, however if the NPC went to vote from inside the voting building, you may need to reload a save from before you and they entered. If this happens, reload a save from before, and as you tell each person to vote follow them and make sure they go through with it. Then ask them to vote again and they will confirm that they already have.
 * You can also select the stopped non-player character in the console and type followed by.
 * If Bob is killed (by radscorpions etc., following you into the compound) this will break the quest as Dave is still waiting for his vote, and you cannot tell him Bob is dead.
 * Sometimes, when in the ballot box you leave one vote for Dave, Rosie and Bob, Dave will give a speech saying that Rosie or Bob have won and he will say that he is leaving. However, he does not leave and talking with Rosie and Bob will result in a speech option of "Better luck next year˝.
 * If Dave is killed in a non hostile way then resurrected, he will answer that "Dave is dead, how can there be an election," just as the others will.