Hello guys
This situation happened recently
Methuselah A calls a Brujah Justicar, has 16 votes in favor.
Methuselah B says one of his brujahs is voting on favor and the ready are abstaining
The other methuselahs vote against bringing the vote total To 17 in favor and 15 against . In this moment Methuselah C who has an untapped Michael luther says he is tapping him To change Rakes votes, changing the total To 14 in favor and 17 against.
Methuselah B still have 5 brujahs who abstained. Can they now vote considering Methuselahs B Wants the vote to
Pass, or since he declared his votes as abstaining they cannot change it now?
Abstaining means you haven't expressed your vote yet. You can choose to cast your votes later (but it's optional), for instance after Michael Luther has used his special.
See rulebook:
> Non-existant user wrote:
> Methuselahs have no inherent votes nor ballots -- votes and ballots must be gained, and there are a variety of ways to do so. Once gained, a vote or a ballot need not be cast right away, if at all.
>
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
> Franz wrote:
> Methuselah B still have 5 brujahs who abstained. Can they now vote considering Methuselahs B Wants the vote to
> Pass, or since he declared his votes as abstaining they cannot change it now?
>
As Ankha says, a Methuselah who says "I'm not voting" or "I abstain" (or words to that effect) is just treated as not voting yet. Until polling closes, they can change their mind. This can be meaningful - I might be perfectly happy with a vote passing, but would prefer it didn't pass by lots of votes, giving you the opportunity to play Voter Captivation for lots of blood (and pool), but then someone pulls a surprise vote from somewhere that makes it fail, so I decide to vote in favour with my Prince after all. Similarly, I might be happy with the current state of play, but don't want to give you the opportunity to play Velvet Tongue , so I leave my vampires out of the referendum, until it's about to go the wrong way.
This is different from vampires who are forced to abstain, by cards such as Telepathic Vote Counting . There, that vampire can't cast their votes.