Federal Activity Requirements Statute

[Gabu]

As introduced by Sen. Colin Wixted:

Federal Activity Requirements Statute

The Senate notes that:

1. The present activity requirement requires 25 posts between elections in order for a voter to be defined as active, without specifying whether such requirements apply for general elections only, or includes special elections.

2. That special elections can occur as soon as one week after a general election, thus potentially disenfranchising many legitimate voters.

Clauses:

1. All those persons who have posted at least 25 times in the 8 weeks (56 days) prior to the commencement of an election shall be defined as active for the purposes of that election.

2. Those persons considered inactive (defined as not active) shall not be qualified to vote in a particular election.

3. Section 5 of the Election Procedures, Certification and Challenges Act is repealed

4. The Amendment to the Statute of Election Procedures, Certification, and Challenges Act is repealed.

I hereby open debate on this legislation.

[Gabu]

I hadn't considered special elections when I wrote what I did, and I think that this is a very good way to deal with them, so I'm in support of this.

[Gabu]

Needed reforms and I support it, but I also want to add this to avoid a court battle in a really close race:

5.  In the accurance of a voter casting a ballot with a questionable activity record, the post in which the ballot was cast shall not be counted in the 25 post requirement by the election administrator.


So, I introduce the amendment above.

I'm not sure if this is necessary, as clause 1 requires that the 25 posts occur "prior to the commencement of an election".  The post containing the ballot obviously would not have occurred prior to the commencement of the election.

[Gabu]

A more interesting question has to do with how this would deal with absentee voters, if need be.

How about something like this:

5.  Anyone who has cast an absentee ballot shall be regarded as an active voter provided he or she fulfills the definition, by the time the election commences for which the ballot was cast, of an "active voter"; however, the post containing the ballot shall not count towards the total number of required posts.

[Gabu]

A more interesting question has to do with how this would deal with absentee voters, if need be.

How about something like this:

5.  Anyone who has cast an absentee ballot shall be regarded as an active voter provided he or she fulfills the definition of an "active voter" for the purposes of the election for which the ballot was cast; however, the post containing the ballot shall not count towards the total number of required posts.

Sounds good to me.

I edited it slightly just to make it blatantly obvious what it's saying, but no major changes.

I'll leave this up for a little bit to see if anyone else has anything to say.

[Gabu]

Just a little nitpicking.  We can vote on this amendment, at the same time as the other one.

6.  This legislation shall take effect immediately upon its passage into law.

To make sure it is in effect for the upcoming federal election, or any special elections that could potentially happen before then.

Good idea, okay.

We still need to wait to see if King still wants to have his amendment up for voting, though; that's up to him.

[Gabu]

Well, there don't seem to be any comments, so I hereby open voting on these two amendments:

5.  Anyone who has cast an absentee ballot shall be regarded as an active voter provided he or she fulfills the definition, by the time the election commences for which the ballot was cast, of an "active voter"; however, the post containing the ballot shall not count towards the total number of required posts.

and

6.  This legislation shall take effect immediately upon its passage into law.

All senators in favor, vote "aye"; all against, vote "nay".

---

Aye, aye.

[Gabu]

We need a provision for Absentee Ballots...

Isn't that what the proposed clause 5 does?

[Gabu]

Yes, just to make it official...

With six votes in favor to none against, these two amendments have passed.

[Gabu]

The final version of this statute is as follows:

Federal Activity Requirements Statute

The Senate notes that:

1. The present activity requirement requires 25 posts between elections in order for a voter to be defined as active, without specifying whether such requirements apply for general elections only, or includes special elections.

2. That special elections can occur as soon as one week after a general election, thus potentially disenfranchising many legitimate voters.

Clauses:

1. All those persons who have posted at least 25 times in the 8 weeks (56 days) prior to the commencement of an election shall be defined as active for the purposes of that election.

2. Those persons considered inactive (defined as not active) shall not be qualified to vote in a particular election.

3. Section 5 of the Election Procedures, Certification and Challenges Act is repealed

4. The Amendment to the Statute of Election Procedures, Certification, and Challenges Act is repealed.

5.  Anyone who has cast an absentee ballot shall be regarded as an active voter provided he or she fulfills the definition, by the time the election commences for which the ballot was cast, of an "active voter"; however, the post containing the ballot shall not count towards the total number of required posts.

6.  This legislation shall take effect immediately upon its passage into law.

I hereby open voting on this statute.

All senators in favor, vote "aye"; all against, vote "nay".

[Gabu]

Aye.

[Gabu]

This statute now has enough votes to pass; senators now have 24 hours to change their vote.

[Gabu]

Why does the 24 hours always seem to expire when I'm not here?

With eight votes in favor to none against, this statute has passed.

I hereby present it to the president for his signature.

[Gabu]

For the record, nay.

Might I ask why?

Maybe it's because a lot of people in the Midwest aren't that active?

Yeah, but as far as I can tell, this statute just fixes the loophole of requiring people to post 25 times in a week in the case of a special election occurring right after a full election.  It doesn't introduce any new activity requirements.