Last month the Senate passed a bill (subsequently vetoed) to hold the HAEV's decisions in abeyance for 30 days to see if it could operate with complete restraint and non-partisanship. Like others I was skeptical as the body's statutory mission seemed to destine it to deregister anyone who wasn't a compulsive Atlasia poster and be subject to partisan nominations on all sides. I said many times, and will again now, the
only reason I supported seeing how the commission worked for a month instead of pulling the plug outright was the quality of the people serving on the HAEV. And even then I wasn't at all sure that'd be enough to save the HAEV.
Well, 30 days later and I found myself reconciled to the HAEV. The last month showed they would act with admirable restraint, making voter deregistration the rare exception rather than rule. While the body was initially plagued with blatantly partisan nominations for deregistration, it didn't effect the fairness of actual rulings in the slightest. The wave of partisan voter purges many warned about never materialized. The GM put it best last week:
I just want to say, this is exactly the result I want to see from the HAEV. Very narrow and deliberate removals.
I admit to still having some concerns. I didn't like the lack of direct notice to persons being considered for deregistration and planned to introduce legislation requiring notice by PM, and I would've also vigilantly prodded the body to keep deregistration a relative rarity saved for true zombies. That said I would've been otherwise willing to let any cooling off period expire and let the HAEV go on about its job.
All a moot point now with the JBrase ruling, though. I have to echo Peter's sentiments that the ruling basically makes the HAEV an unworkable entity. Duke's suggestion of trying to limit zombies in more specific ways like the proxy ban is a good one. I was working on a proposal a couple weeks ago with Peter's help, so I'll get back to work on it and see if it might be passed in the next Senate term.
<Sigh> My heart genuinely goes out to the HAEV members, having put so much effort into developing the most controversial agency created in recent memory into a functioning and worthwhile entity, only to see it struck down by the courts (even though I can't really fault the decision's reasoning).
