Looking at the crossword-style clues (election results), everything seems a bit… off. It does not seem like there are real words matching these definitions, but there aren’t standard cryptic indicators in every clue either. The flavortext hints that something is not being understood properly, so it is likely still some form of wordplay. The key is to notice that if you read only part of the definitions, they can make sense; for example in favor of = pro and ounce alternative = gram; together, they give the word program. Another intended break-in point was now (currently) + here (in this place) = nowhere.
We notice that we are looking for words that can be broken up into two parts (words, prefixes, or suffixes), and the clues are defining the combination of those two morphemes as a new compound word. (This is also true of the two title words, off ice and candid ate.) It is not quite the same as reading half the clue, as the definition describes what the answer would be if redefined with the bad parsing. (For instance, the Mass Age would be a period of time, so the clue is about an era; the first half of the clue does not have to correspond to the first sub-word). All words match enumeration, tense, and follow this rule, so options like regift(ing) and red tape do not count.
| Election Results | Answer |
|---|---|
| Everyone is in debt (8 votes) | ALLOWING |
| Team that maintains a rock group’s computers (6 votes) | BANDIT |
| A pair of outlets (6 votes) | BISHOP |
| Break up with someone post-engagement (8 votes) | DEFIANCE |
| One who is crazy about hair styles (5 votes) | DONUT |
| Online scenery, like of a forest or a big city (6 votes) | ESCAPE |
| Leave to stare rudely (6 votes) | |
| Ship in a colony insect (9 votes) | IMPORTANT |
| Applause for a quaint hotel (10 votes) | INNOVATION |
| Era of a conserved quantity (7 votes) | MASSAGE |
| A very small light switch setting (6 votes) | MINION |
| Currently in this place (7 votes) | NOWHERE |
| History spoken aloud (10 votes) | PASTORALLY |
| In favor of ounce alternative (7 votes) | PROGRAM |
| A high heel’s sister or cousin, e.g. (7 votes) | PUMPKIN |
| Charged particle seeking Holy Grail, for example (8 votes) | QUESTION |
| Give a gift you received before (9 votes) | REPRESENT |
| The scarlet hue of scotch (7 votes) | TAPERED |
| What one could say when moving air hurts (6 votes) | WINDOW |
We notice that the answers are all in alphabetical order, and so likely need to be reordered. Each word corresponds to one of the items on the ballot. The alphabetical ordering, lengths of words, and remaining ballot items are helpful in filling out the remainder of the list.
The flavortext hints that majority rules, so we wish to take the longer “side”, or sub-word, from the election result. This is clued by describing the lengths of the answers as “votes”. All the words are split unevenly, so there are no ties.
| BALLOT MEASURES | ||
|---|---|---|
| DO | Adding Bakery Protections | [N]UT |
| INN | Copyright and Trademark Law Amendment | [O]VATION |
| QUES[T] | Open Inquiry Initiative | ION |
| IMPOR[T] | The Main Issue | ANT |
| NOW | Initiative on Middle of Faraway Empty Lot | [H]ERE |
| MIN[I] | Worker’s Rights Referendum | ON |
| MAS[S] | Relaxation Therapy Funding Bill | AGE |
| PRO | Town Hall Agenda | [G]RAM |
| GO | Missing Persons Search Initiative | [O]GLE |
| WIN[D] | Issue #10: Let the Light In | OW |
| BAN[D] | Prosecuting Thievery Initiative | IT |
| TAP[E] | Reduced Taxation Bill | RED |
| E | Fire Safety Precautions Initiative | [S]CAPE |
| BI | Hosting Chess Tournaments Proposal | [S]HOP |
| PAST | Proposition to Reclaim Farmlands and Fields | [O]RALLY |
| DE | Amendment on the Right to Protest | [F]IANCE |
| RE | Symbolic Proposal | [P]RESENT |
| ALL | Proposition to Add Permissions | [O]WING |
| PUM[P] | Improving Halloween Decor Referendum | KIN |
Placing the votes on either side of the ballot items, we see that the checkboxes on the ballot indicate which letters to extract (either the first or last letter of the sub-word, depending on whether it is on the left or right). From this, we obtain the phrase NOT THIS GODDESS OF POP, and must now do the process one more time. NOT THIS corresponds to THAT, and the GODDESS OF POP is CHER, so our final answer is THATCHER.
When we first thought about writing for teammatehunt, we knew we had to write something like that Far Out word puzzle. At the same time, “defiance” had been floating around in Catherine’s mind for a while as the seed for a potential puzzle. Once we started looking, we found bad reparsings everywhere, including this NACLO puzzle. In particular, there are a lot of words with 're-' or 'de-' that can be misinterpreted. To make the solving experience more enjoyable, we limited the amount of times any given prefix or suffix showed up.
The puzzle was originally formatted as a crossword puzzle (because what else do you do with word puzzles?). Thanks to our editors’ pushback, we decided to make the puzzle more thematic. We arbitrarily added in the election flavor, and then the idea of majority rules and splitting words down party lines fell into our laps (along with a thematic answer!).
We hope solvers leave this experience with the useful skill of misparsing anything they can. Here are some additional bonus clues we wrote but didn’t make the final cut: