Election Day

The Election of Dave is a minor quest in Fallout 3.

Dave is running for President of The Republic of Dave once more and he needs your help. He asks you to talk to the four adults of his land including Jessica, Shawna, Rosie, and Bob to get them to vote. Once you have talked to them, go back to Dave and receive your reward.

There is total of 5 votes. 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.

It is not yet known if anything other than convincing citizens to run would have any effect on the result, there may be an alternate way to complete the quest other than rigging the election.

Under normal circumstances, other candidates will not win. They would at most receive one vote (presumably from themselves). 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.

Rigging the Election
After you have told Dave all the votes are in, he will go to the ballot box. 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 the safe. It contains a unique Rifle named Ol' Painless, which has a faster rate of fire and does more damage. The rifle can be repaired with regular hunting rifles.

Dave will get angry and say something about leaving then storm out of the Republic. If you catch Dave as he leaves the camp 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 'escort' (i.e., follow him) to Old Olney and kill any robots, bloat flies and Deathclaws you encounter. He will finally park himself in an alleyway and say something like "This is the New Republic of Dave. Go away." After being talked to three times, he will attack you.

Alternatively the player may decide to use this quest as a method to more sneakily complete the You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head quest and avoid the residents being turned hostile (assuming you don't have any interest in talking Dave into giving up his key). To use this method, make Dave lose the election and when he leaves follow him a short ways away from The Republic of Dave (so the residents don't witness the murder) you can then "shoot 'em in the head" without killing or being shot at by the Republic of Dave residents.

If Dave leaves and you help someone else get elected, take the items from the safe including Ol' Painless, and then talk to someone in the town, it is possible they will take Ol' Painless away from you. This may be due to the fact that it is still considered stealing(negative Karma), even if you were given the key. There is no way to stop them from taking it, as they make a taking motion toward you and you will receive a message stating the item was removed from you inventory. There is no dialog related with them taking it from you and they do not become hostile. The only way to get it back from them is to pickpocket or kill them.

Bugs

 * If Dave does not win the election, the victor would reward you with the code to the safe. Even so you will get karma penalty for taking items from the safe.
 * (PC/Xbox360/PS3) Several people report that this quest is easily broken - the voters don't vote after being told to do so, they just stand in front of the ballot box, doing nothing; 360 work around after reverting to a previous save, is to ensure you give a full minute in between telling each to vote. The bug is pathing conflicts with no specific NPC having path priority. Also it's possible that, after talking to Dave, there's no entry in your quest log, i.e. the quest is not properly triggered.