Election Day

Election Day is an unmarked quest in Fallout 3.

Walkthrough
Dave asks you to talk to the other four adults of his land (Jessica, Shawna, Rosie, and Bob) and remind 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 using a Speech check. 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.
 * 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. 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 attack you when you return.

Upon telling Dave to count the votes, he will give you 25 caps, as well as the contents inside Dave's, including the unique rifle Ol' Painless. To obtain Dave's safe key, you can kill, pickpocket, or pass a speech test from Dave claiming that you are a Wasteland Ambassador. Otherwise, if Dave loses the election the winner will grant you the access code to the safe.

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.
 * 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.
 * One of the non-player character can go to the ballot box, and stand there doing nothing, making it impossible to finish the quest. If you reload from a VERY old save, it might solve the problem. If this happens reload save from before discovering the Republic of Dave 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.