The July-August Affair , formerly known as the July Affair, was a political scandal in Bloxburg related to the possible fraud and drama of the 2025 Bloxburg City mayoral election, which was initiated after the Progressive Party Chairman John Puma revealed that there was possible fraud. This resulted in much domestic unrest in Bloxburg as protests, riots, and political demonstrations flared. There was another significant decrease in trust in politicians after the June Affair initially decreased their trust. Furthermore, there was a second erosion in public trust in Robloxia's electoral processes, democracy, and freedom as a result, and it is likely that future voter turnouts of Bloxburg mayoral elections could be lower. Bloxburg could be nationally isolated. It is likely that this process could be done in other cities. Corrupt and repressive leaders have grabbed the attention of voters during the affair.
Background
The 2025 elections scheduled for June 14, 2025 gave Robloxians in Bloxburg hope for change, an improvement in the quality of life, and the opportunity to remove Coeptus II from his mayor position, despite the fact Coeptus II had recently became more moderate after August 2024. Five candidates entered the race for mayor: Mark Anderson, Marcus P. Hanley, Dr. Lina Rivers, Jackson Smith, and Joel Walker. Coeptus II was planning to enter the race as mayor, but he was informed that he could not run as the purpose of the election was to remove him from mayor. All candidates fought a close race for mayorship. The biggest favorites were Dr. Lina Rivers, Jackson Smith, and Marcus P. Hanley, although smaller candidates, such as Mark Anderson and Joel Walker could also count on a reversal of the situation. Ultimately, the election took place on the announced date. However, the official results of the popular vote had two versions. One version was the following:
- Mark Anderson - 0%
- Marcus P. Hanley - 10%
- Dr. Lina Rivers - 70%
- Jackson Smith - 20%
- Joel Walker - 0%
While another version was the following:
- Mark Anderson - 5%
- Marcus P. Hanley - 5%
- Dr. Lina Rivers - 65%
- Jackson Smith - 15%
- Joel Walker - 5%
As seen, the percentages of Dr. Lina Rivers and Jackson Smith were significantly lower than in the first version, and the percentages of Mark Anderson, Marcus P. Hanley, and Joel Walker were unusually higher than in the first version. Despite this, Mark Anderson, Marcus P. Hanley, Jackson Smith, and Joel Walker were forced to concede defeat. Theoretically, some deficiencies could already be noticed then, such as the fact that 5% of the votes were missing. It was revealed that the missing 5% votes were protest votes for Coeptus II, which were later deemed invalid and illegal, and as such, were not assigned to any candidate, causing the second version to show that percentages did not add up to 100%. Dr. Lina Rivers was soon sworn in as mayor as both versions agreed that she won the popular vote.
Domestic Unrest
The revelation of the affair has led to domestic unrest that has been largely confined to Bloxburg, as protests, riots, and political demonstrations flared on July 22, 2025. There have been smaller, independent riots, as well as more peaceful, planned demonstrations. Marches were planned. Meanwhile, John Puma has suggested that the affair be resolved via a compromise between the two versions. Initially, he favored the first option, but Joel Walker, who was one of the candidates without votes, saw a loophole in the law from CSR era stating that a candidate must receive at least a certain number of votes for the election results. So John Puma negotiated a compromise, although he did not refrain from commenting negatively on the situation.
Compromise Version
While domestic unrest persisted, a compromise version was made by John Puma. The protest votes for Coeptus II were to be kept invalid, but they were to be assigned to the incumbent, causing the percentages to add up to 100%.
- Mark Anderson - 5%
- Marcus P. Hanley - 5%
- Dr. Lina Rivers - 70%
- Jackson Smith - 15%
- Joel Walker - 5%
After the compromise, the domestic unrest seemed to have stopped and the political scandal seemed to be resolved.
Third Possible Version Reignites July Affair
Domestic unrest and the political scandal resumed after a third version of the popular vote surfaced on July 24, 2025. This time, it was created when supporters of Mason "Scorpio" Smith's backed candidate Marcus P. Hanley decided to have some fun. They would duplicate their ballot for Marcus P. Hanley 371,303 times, making this the largest suspicious election fraud incident involving the duplication of ballots in terms of the number of ballots used to manipulate a election, beating the record of 120,000 during the 2024 United States of Robloxia Presidential Elections, and would put them all in the archived ballot box for the 2025 Bloxburg mayoral elections, then tell the mayor of Bloxburg that the mayoral election results have been finalized. Unfortunately, since John Puma was on vacation, this led to the third version of the results to become official, but it still showed Dr. Lina Rivers as the winner. It also artificially increased the voter turnout from 45% to 47.25%. The domestic unrest had been reignited despite the fact Dr. Lina Rivers still won the election.
- Mark Anderson - 5.5%
- Marcus P. Hanley - 10.4%
- Dr. Lina Rivers - 64.2%
- Jackson Smith - 15.1%
- Joel Walker - 4.8%
As seen, the percentages of Dr. Lina Rivers and Joel Walker were significantly lower than in the compromise, and the percentages of Mark Anderson, Marcus P. Hanley, and Jackson Smith were unusually higher than in the compromise.
Eventually, on July 31, 2025, John Puma returned and finally discovered that supporters of Mason "Scorpio" Smith's backed candidate Marcus P. Hanley had rigged the election by changing an archived ballot box for the 2025 Bloxburg mayoral elections, and as such, this version was to be considered as bogus, causing the official results to become the compromise once again, stopping the domestic unrest, and solving the political scandal.
The Progressive Party Vice Chairman Mark Johnson again stressed that a special commission in Congress should be created to investigate any future election irregularities in both national and mayoral elections. He was once again supported by public opinion and many politicians, especially from the Progressive Party, Independent Party and various minor parties. However, since the June Affair resulted in no creation of the aforementioned commission by Mason "Scorpio" Smith or by Matthew Smith, there was stronger support for the creation of the commission, which further decreased their approval ratings. Furthermore, Mason Scorpio Smith is yet to punish the supporters.
It is unknown how the supporters were able to get to the archived ballot box for the 2025 Bloxburg mayoral elections and even manipulate it.