NE1: Uniform December Election Day Amendment (Passed)

[cinyc]

Uniform December Election Day Amendment

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Sponsor: Speaker cinyc

Debate shall be open for 72 hours until around 5PM Eastern Time on January 2, 2014, unless modified or extended.  Speaker cinyc is encouraged to speak on behalf of the bill within the next 36 hours.  Because there is no other pending legislation in the proposed legislation thread, no penalty will be imposed if the sponsor does not speak.

The floor is open to debate.

[cinyc]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 

The purpose of this bill is to sync the federal and regional election days in the month of December.  Late-month, non-synched December elections lead to less participation and an inconvenient start time for the Assembly, usually the week around the holidays.  Synchronizing the December Northeast election to the earlier federal election day should lead to greater participation and a smoother start to the new Northeast Assembly session.

The amendment to Article II, Section 5 is necessary to create an earlier cutoff for declaring candidacy.  The Wednesday preceding the third Friday of the month would be after the December election.  Declarations need to be made earlier than a week before the election so that the CJO can send out any requested absentee ballots a week before election day.

[cinyc]

I will then offer an amendment to make all elections uniform with federal elections:

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[cinyc]

Like in federal elections, my intention was for the new term to start immediately after the election, which for the Northeast is the Thursday following the election.  That would allow for a break around Christmas, instead of swearing in new members and electing a Speaker around Christmas.  

So I would deem any amendment to change the starting date of the December session unfriendly.

[cinyc]

One thing I noticed is that our regular election day isn't necessarily the same as the federal election day if the second-to-last Thursday is immediately before the last Friday of the month.  (i.e. if February 28 during a non-leap year is a Thursday, our elections would be held starting February 21, while Federal elections would be held starting a week earlier on February 14.  This is because the Northeast voting booth is to be opened "on the second to last Thursday of the month", while the federal booth is to be opened on the "Thursday preceding the penultimate Friday of the month."  Do we want to change our regular election day to make it uniform?

[cinyc]

I will then offer an amendment to make all elections uniform with federal elections:

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[cinyc]

The debate period is over.  We now move to a vote on final passage of the bill:

Uniform December Election Day Amendment

Marked-up version:

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Clean version:

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This vote will be open for the earlier of 48 hours or when all representatives have voted.

[cinyc]

Aye

[cinyc]

By a vote of 5-0, the proposed amendment passes and goes to a vote of the people on January 17, 2014.  Under Article VII of the Fourth Northeast Constitution, no gubernatorial action is required.