Just a quick note that a few more playtests came out of 1960.  I lost the latest one by the smallest of margins, losing Illinois due to recount.  If I had won IL and HI, I would have had enough states to win.  Or if California stayed on my side of the fence instead of rolling snake eyes.  The pain!  :)

The one aspect of the game I really like in the variant are the endorsements.  Endorsements run from -1 to +1 and affect the final tally roll.  I have been tinkering with how they should be implemented in the game as they can be very powerful.  I made them too hard to get early on and have relaxed the rules to $3 only with a limit of 1 purchase per week.  Your opponent gets 2 shots at an endorsement every third week, so this seems about right.

The other part of the game which I like are the debates.  They add another 5-10 minutes to the game and are a mini-game in and of themselves.  There's a lot of calculating and look up in terms of final effects, but they added something to the game.  They still probably need a little work but they are fun to work through.

Anyhow, good fun so far. I played Roll Through The Ages the other day and found myself wanting to play Margin of Error instead.  I usually don't have that feeling playing my own games versus someone else's and I don't for a minute think I've got something that's better - just only "funner" for the moment.