Eectoral votes in elective succession

[SacredDatura]

I usually play small games as counts or dukes, but in this recent game by some fluke I've come by the Holy Roman Emperor title. And two of my sons (second and third sons) had the most nominations by far - somewhere around eight and five, but all of a sudden a bunch of the electors changed their votes, and now neither of my sons are even on the pretender list. I check the succession law tab every few months, so it's a recent thing.

Why does this happen? What determines who the electors vote for, and what makes them change their vote? And why was my first son completely bypassed? The whole system seems kind of oblique.

 

[panda_Express12]

With high relations I find that vassals will usually vote for my chosen heir. Sometimes though I see positive relation vassals voting for someone else, but I don't know why.

 

[Galle]

I'd love for the reasoning behind electoral votes to be more transparent. Right now it's one of the handful of diplomatic decisions that remains a complete mystery.

 

[yezhanquan]

With high relations I find that vassals will usually vote for my chosen heir. Sometimes though I see positive relation vassals voting for someone else, but I don't know why.

Agreed. If they don't change votes quickly, time to plot to remove the preferred candidate.

 

[SacredDatura]

So, having played around with the elective succession system a bit more, I've noticed that it seems to be based on traits - characters with virtuous traits do better than characters with sinful traits, and title seems to matter somewhat too, as does the monarch's vote. Is this an accurate assumption to make?

 

[Mods]

So, having played around with the elective succession system a bit more, I've noticed that it seems to be based on traits - characters with virtuous traits do better than characters with sinful traits, and title seems to matter somewhat too, as does the monarch's vote. Is this an accurate assumption to make?

It depends on how well they're liked, so electing a high diplomacy heir should be a lot easier than one without high diplomacy, virtuous traits also often give added relationship bonuses (like +10 for 'both kind',...)