The election is here! Please vote below with each of your characters who are 17 or older.

This will close on July 31st.

THE VOTING IS TO BE DONE IN CHARACTER.
Do not vote for who you personally would like to see as Minister. If it's clear that you are or you're just making all of your characters vote for the same person, your votes will not count.



THEODORE WHITLOCK III (CURRENT MINISTER)
-- married with two children
-- werewolf capture unit (1990-1992)
-- dragon research and restraint bureau (1993-2000)
-- werewolf registry (2001-2003)
-- head of the department of the regulation and control of magical creatures (2004-2007)
-- wizengamot (2007-present)
-- minister for magic (2007-present)
-- member of mortenero (ONLY OTHER MORTENERO MEMBERS KNOW THIS)

CLARA DYER
-- married with 3 children and 6 grandchildren
-- daughter died in the diagon alley fiasco
-- clara switched from law to law enforcement after this happened
-- international confederation of wizards assistant [1989-1991]
-- international magical office of law [1992-2000; 2009-2011]
-- wizengamot [2001-present]
-- witch watcher [2001-2005]
-- international confederation of wizards [2003-present]
-- improper use of magic office [2006-2008]
-- supreme mugwump [2011-present]
-- head of international magical cooperation [2011-present]

CLIVE PRESTON
-- in a partnership and 1 adopted daughter
-- spell damage healer at st. mungo's [1983-1990]
-- accidental magic reversal squad [1991-1999]
-- oblivator [2000-2010]
-- head oblivator [2009-2010]
-- head of magical accidents and catastrophes [2011-present]


What is your take on gay marriage in the U.K., Minister Whitlock?
There are other issues more pressing in our country at the moment. Procreation of wizards is far more important with the number of Squibs being born as the blood mixes with other races or non-magic folk.

Where do you stand on the gay marriage debate, Ms Dyer?
I am all for love. Anyone should be able to be with the person they love. We just revoked the ban on purebloods marrying non-purebloods so that's a start.

As a man in a union yourself, Mr. Preston, I'm sure your answer will be an obvious one, but what is your stance on gay marriage?
There is no reason anyone shouldn't be able to marry the person they love. Procreation isn't everything. Many couples choose to have less children or none at all these days. This isn't the 1500's when plagues or war required us to keep having children because many wouldn't survive. Marriage isn't just about having children and it isn't about two genders coming together. Witch, wizard, muggle, Veela - there shouldn't be a restriction on this that's so archaic and homophobic. Most of the world is already on board - Canada has been for seven years. It's time for Britain to come into the next century.

What is your take on the alleged increase of Squibs plaguing our country, Ms. Dyer?
This is unfounded. I would like to see what study suggests this is real.

And how do you feel, Mr. Preston, about Whitlock's claim that this will increase the amount of Squibs born in our country?
His claim is false. What does he have to back it up? Gay marriage won't take away people's magic. Neither will procreating with muggles or other magic folk like Veela or werewolves. Plus, there are many muggleborns born to non-magic folk all the time who join our wizarding society.

Minister Whitlock, How do you feel about the accusations from your opponents that your increase of Squibs claim is false?
How can it be false? You've seen it in the Daily Prophet for months. With the law banning purebloods from procreating with non-purebloods, we've actually seen an increase in magical chilren displaying abilities and therefore are not Squibs. The amount of Squib children has gone down. What other proof can you see?

Now we turn to another issue in the news lately. Ministry security. There was a break in about a year back. Has the Ministry done anything to tighten up its security, Minister Whitlock?
Of course we have. We have increased training for the atrium security as well as tightened up how guests and employees are able to come and go from the Ministry of Magic.

Ms. Dyer, what would you do to tighten the security in the Ministry of Magic? Or do you feel it is already sufficient?
Anyone trying to break in will always come up with clever ways to get around whatever security measures we put in place. This isn't something we can just fix once and say it's done for good. This is something that always has to be looked at, examined, questioned and then improved upon.

And Mr. Preston, how do you feel on this issue?
This shouldn't even be an issue. If everything went smoothly and it was sufficient, we would have never heard about it in the news or through the grapevine. Honestly, I don't remember reading too much about the incident in the Daily Prophet and transparency is key. Everything's been kept hush hush about the purebloods in the Ministry as well and that's not fair to the wizarding community. If something serious is going on, they should know about it.

Minister Whitlock, is the Ministry hiding anything like Mr. Preston has implied?
Of course not! That's such a preposterous thing to say. Why would the Ministry hide anything so crucial and important from the public?

Moving on, what is your take on blood purism, Ms. Dyer?
I think that it's a notion that should be abolished. It's an old traditional way of thinking that doesn't have its place in politics or government. Magical ability and skill should be taken into consideration. The purebloods should have never been banned from the Ministry. They should have never been restricted to only marrying and procreating with other purebloods. If you ask me, they've been getting the shaft of it in the past couple of years, even though the people instating these laws are the ones who say they're looking out for them. I don't think they are at all. Causing any divide doesn't benefit anyone, no matter what side of the divide you're on.

Minister Whitlock, how do you feel about blood purity?
It is important. It's not some old traditional way of thinking that needs to be abolished. Blood purity is what makes our society continue to run. Without it, we'll be full of muggles and squibs and the only magical folk will be the ones randomly selected by nature to be muggleborns who don't come from magical families. Everyone's magical abilities will dwindle. Muggleborns don't have very strong magic in them. They can't continue our society by themselves. We need those with strong magic within them to be the future. We need children who are strong, not children who are weakened by mixing blood with other races.

And Mr. Preston, how do you feel about the Minister's statement?
First of all, claiming that blood purity is important for our society is ridiculous. It hasn't done anyone anything good. Ms. Dyer was right on that. Secondly, muggleborns aren't any less skilled than half-bloods or purebloods. There are many examples of muggleborns being very skilled witches and wizards. Blood purity isn't important, just like Ms. Dyer said. We should focus on other matters such as the education of the youth and fixing the Ministry's security.



THEODORE WHITLOCK III

GAY MARRIAGE: neutral / it's not important
MINISTRY SECURITY: it's just fine, we've fixed it
BLOOD PURITY: very important for the continuation of our society

CLARA DYER

GAY MARRIAGE: moderately for
MINISTRY SECURITY: always needs to be worked on, will never be enough
BLOOD PURITY: strongly opposed - it has no place in laws or government

CLIVE PRESTON

GAY MARRIAGE: strongly for
MINISTRY SECURITY: it's terrible / the ministry needs to be more transparent with the public
BLOOD PURITY: not important, we should focus on other things like education and the ministry's security