MA: Vote Deletion Act (Debating)

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

Vote Deletion Act

1. Deleting one's vote from a regional voting booth after the twenty minute grace period is hereby illegal.
    a. Violators may be punished with no more than a six (6)-month ban on regional voting, a one-year ban on holding an office in the Mideast Assembly or Governorship, and two years probation.
        i. The Mideast Assembly shall open a thread and debate the innocence and/or specific punishment for the accused.
        ii. If the accused is a Mideast Assemblyman, he or she is not permitted to vote in the thread. 
    b. If a Mideastern citizen is found guilty of the said crime again during the probationary period decided by the Mideast Assembly, he or she is to receive a lifetime ban from citizenship in the Mideast.
    c. If a Mideastern election official is found guilty of said crime by the Assembly, he or she is expelled from office, in addition to the aforementioned penalties, and the vacancy is filled in accordance to law.
    d. The application of this statute is limited to ninety (90) days after the election in question.

Sponsor: Agooji

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

A couple things.  I think this bill is necessary.  Unlike editing your vote, deletion is harder to prove, and vote deletion is thus much more serious.

A couple problems:

1.a.i. should be changed to have the Judiciary handle this.  The Assembly doesn't have the constitutional authority to debate guilt/innocence or give out punishments.  1.ii. would then be removed.

1.b. would be changed to reflect this as well.

As for 1.c., do you mean "elected" official, or "election" official?  If it's the latter, the only election official we have is the Governor.

[Swedish Cheese]

I have so many issues with this proposal I'm not even sure where to begin.

First of, and as Inks already pointed out, keeping the legislating power, and the judicial power seperated is an essential part of any fair democracy.

Second, a period of 90 days after the election to bring this to the courts is too long of a period. If someone discovers that a person had indeed delated a post in an election thread that person would if responsible bring that to attention as soon as possible. A time-limit of 15 days for a person to sue, followed by another 15 day time-limit for court proceedings to begin, should be enough. We can't have people suing eachother for minor crimes that happened a quarter of a year ago (which in Atlasia time is almost three years)

I also think the penalties proposed are too draconian for this sort of minor, usually harmless crime, that is usally committed by new Atlasians without any intent or criminal design. Sure it's annoying when newbies don't read the rules (something that happens far too often) but such a long ban for that seems unreasonable.

Neither do I think we are constitutionally able to ban people from registring in the Mideast and becoming citizens. Sure we can ban them from voting, but we can't ban them from citizen ship. That would have to be re-written.

I'll stop rambling now

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

Ahh... I overlooked the ban on citizenship.  SC's right about that.

As for the statute of limitations, does anybody know offhand what it is for elections in the Mideast and/or federal elections?  If not, I'll look it up later.

[Fmr. Emperor PiT]

Ahh... I overlooked the ban on citizenship.  SC's right about that.

As for the statute of limitations, does anybody know offhand what it is for elections in the Mideast and/or federal elections?  If not, I'll look it up later.

     Statute of limitations on federal elections is one week, per Section 13, Clause 1 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act.

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

OK, so a few amendments:

Amendment 1 (deals with unconstitutional issues):

1. Sections 1.i. and 1.ii. is removed.
2. The words ", and two years probation" shall be removed from Section 1.a.  The word " and " shall be inserted in the place of ", " between "voting" and "a".  Section 1.b. is removed.

Amendment 2 (makes it consistent with Federal law):

Section 1.d. is amendedto read "Charges or a lawsuit under this statute must be filed within one week of the certification of the election in question."

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

AYE

AYE

[afleitch]

Aye

Aye

[Swedish Cheese]

 Aye to both amendments

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

This is a 24 hour vote, by the way.

[The Artist Formerly Known As and Now Again Known As Ogis]

Sorry I was away
I'll vote Aye to show my support. Had I been around, I would have accepted them as friendly.

Aye
Aye

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

Voting is now closed.  The AYEs are 4, and the NAYs are 0, with 1 not voting.  The AYEs have it, and both amendments are adopted.

The bill now reads as follows:

Vote Deletion Act

1. Deleting one's vote from a regional voting booth after the twenty minute grace period is hereby illegal.
    a. Violators may be punished with no more than a six (6)-month ban on regional voting and a one-year ban on holding an office in the Mideast Assembly or Governorship.
    b. If a Mideastern election official is found guilty of said crime by the Assembly, he or she is expelled from office, in addition to the aforementioned penalties, and the vacancy is filled in accordance to law.
    c. Charges or a lawsuit under this statute must be filed within one week of the certification of the election in question.

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

Also.  Clause 1.B. would need to be an amendment to the Constitution (at least my interpretation).  You can choose to remove it, or pass this as an Amendment.  That's up to you guys.

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

OK, well Ogis, unless you have plans for this bill, there's not point bringing it to a vote while it's still unconstitutional... so you need to let me know what you want done here.

[The Artist Formerly Known As and Now Again Known As Ogis]

Since this session is winding to a close, what do y'all think about me re-entering this bill with only sections A and C?

(To Inks: We can let this specific bill die, and I'll reintroduce it, or something in its place, next session)

[afleitch]

Since this session is winding to a close, what do y'all think about me re-entering this bill with only sections A and C?

(To Inks: We can let this specific bill die, and I'll reintroduce it, or something in its place, next session)

Should certainly be re-introduced. However the issue of practicality should still be ironed out.