1. At the outset, Roy Landis is reluctant to investigate an election fraud suspected by an elderly Fred Teplitz. Is Teplitz’s age significant? Is his location in Philadelphia, “The Birthplace of Democracy”, significant? How does Teplitz overcome Landis’s reluctance?   
  2. Roy meets Victoria Sherman, the candidate who lost the election. To what political party does she belong? Is her party affiliation important? Why does Landis want to analyze her laptop computer?
  3. Early in the story, the perspective shifts from Landis’s investigation to the occupant of the White House, a fictitional version of Barack Obama. What does this change in viewpoint signal? (stakes)
  4. Victoria Sherman was attacked by internet trolls who spread lies about her during the campaign. Is communication of this sort legal? Does it influence voters? Can or should anything be done about the practice?
  5. Landis’s capabilities are impressive, but he couldn’t succeed without the help of Daniel Pintock. What’s Daniel’s job? Why does Landis feel compelled to involve him the case? What technology did Daniel use to identify the individual who wrote the malicious code? 
  6. Harry Halsey is the Congressman who won the election. His aide and co-campaigner is Donny Miller, a TV star. Did Miller’s voting bloc exist before the actual 2016 election (Trump’s election)?
  7. Cathy Calabria is not only Landis’s romantic interest, she represents a particular political viewpoint. During the campaign. She had competed against Eebo Bentham, Halsey’s high-tech communications director. What do the similarities and differences between these characters tell us about running election campaigns?
  8. Landis believes that the manufacturer of the voting machines had been hacked. Who owns the voting machine company? In what way is the owner connected to the recent campaign?
  9. In the story, the Russian Intelligence service wanted one of the candidates to win. Which candidate? Why? Were the stakes high enough to risk the exploit?
  10. In the final chapter, fictional Obama does something he has never done. What were the character’s actions? Were they necessary?