Yeah I've lost a couple of times. Usually I've got my taxes set too high - I lower them a week before the election, then raise them back up - and I get voted out. Very annoying...

Nope. Never. i keep my approval at 100% all the time (i never let my planets get above 5 bil pop most of the time).

i have when i started, hasnt happened for some time now

No I haven't lost the senate vote before. My approval is usually 80%+ on all the games I play.

...I want people to love me!

Yes some times If have your popularity too low over the period of the government term and you will lose. However generally win next election.

I have never lost an election, but then I never change my gov't from Imperial until my Morale rating is under control. I wait until my Spending is (permanently) at 100% and my tax rate is high enough to ensure positive cash flow while morale is 75% or better, and then I consider changing governments. I probably should change sooner but your political party can cause issues if you change too soon.

For instance, in my current game, I chose to play as the Yor using the War Party. This political choice give several combat related bonuses, but at the expense of your economy that the default Party bonuses give. With the default PP, every planet you colonize starts with 100% morale out of the gate. With the War Party, if you start above 75% morale, consider yourself lucky! Early on it was a struggle keeping the treasury green and the citizens happy, I had to closely monitor the tax rates and spending and adjust them repeatedly until my infrastructure kicked in.

Cheers,
Reaver

I keep my planets at 100% morale to get the 100% bonus to population growth and production bonuses. Early in the game your population is low so even at high tax levels, your income will be low. Set spending at 100% and set your tax level as low as it takes to get 100% morale.

You will be in the red for the first 12-18 months of the game while you:
(1) grow your population,
(2) build up morale from building entertainment centers, researching morale techs, and mine morale resources,
(3) build your income from researching economic techs and build Stock Markets, mine economic resources.
Use your initial 5 billion, tech trading, and money anomallies to cover the deficit.

In my current game I'm playing on level Masochistic, gigantic map, everything abundant, 9 opponents, and very fast research. By Feb 2226 (i.e., early second year), I had a small surplus with tax rate around 53% and 100% morale, 26-30 planets, 2X the population of the Torians and 3-4X the population of everyone else.

By the time I research democracy and open up the elections, I've usually made sure that my planets have at least one nicely upgraded entertainment centre. So far I've never received less than 75% of the vote.

I never lose because the morale thing is totally gay. You can build virtual reality centers like crazy and set your tax to 80% and still have 95% approval. Us Canadians complain at 14% tax, now imagine getting $3000 monthly pay and having to give 2400 to uncle sam. Stardock should really look into this.

YEah, I've lost a few elections, usually when I've just switched to Republic and forgotten to drop my taxes first.

I lost one once. I was in a rut with the Drengins closing in on my homeworlds so I had to pump out a lot of ships at once. So I kept my treasury between -500 and 0 for a while, and then the elections came. Damn hippies.

~Nero