The Political Tracker - 4th Constitution Special (CONSTITUTION PASSES THRESHOLD)

[Lumine]

Fourth Constitution Special:
Atlasia Decides, May 2016

Lumine: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is former President Lumine, bringing you a special and limited version of The Political Tracker focused on coverage of the Fourth Constitution Referendum and the potential races that will no doubt arise in the coming days. While no Nyman Weekly, the Tracker will do its best to encourage greater media activity and keep the public informed with a reasonable amount of bias on my behalf. We're also doing interviews as we have done since 2014, so if someone is interested in this do let me know.

For those of you at home, we will see five voting booths open before long to accept or reject the Constitution that has passed the Constitutional Convention of 2015-2016 with, let us not forget, a unanimous vote, 18 delegates approving of the document. Thanks to the South Legislature approving the The Democratic Constitution Resolution a few weeks ago, all five regions will vote directly on this. Booths are already open in the Pacific, Midwest and Mideast as campaigns try or organize and a likely large number of PM's are flying around. Let's take a look at results:

[Lumine]

Fourth Constitution Referendum:

National Turnout: 6,61% (8 voters - Last Voter: Rpryor03)

Pacific Region:

AYE: 100% (4)
NAY 0% (0)

Midwest Region:

AYE: 100% (2)
NAY 0% (0)

Mideast Region:

AYE: 100% (2)
NAY 0% (0)

Lumine: Booths already open in the Midwest, Pacific and Mideast as explained before, and while turnout is still low at this early date results look encouraging for the passage of the Constitution. All 8 votes so far in favor, including Laborites, Federalists and CR's. We believe turnout should pick up soon by tonight or by tomorrow as the remaining booths are open and the PM barrage probably takes effect, but so far, we repeat, early results are encouraging for the new Constitution.

[Mike Thick]

[Lumine]

Lumine: No developments in the voting booths, so let's take a preview of what's to come if the Fourth Constitution is indeed ratified. Article X deals with the process that awaits us, stating that the current government and the current legislation are to last until we have our House of Representatives and the Senate seated. Assuming the remaining booths will open soon, we should have a result on the Constitution by around May 20-22. And from there on:

Phase 1:

The President of Atlasia (that is, Griffin) appoints an Elections Officer entrusted with the administration of two different election. First, he needs to schedule an election for the House of Representatives no later than two weeks from an Aye vote on the Constitution, meaning a House election would realistically take place at the end of the first week of June. Second, the Elections Officer will be entrusted with electing one legislative committee for each region (that is, three committees).

House of Representatives Election, June 2016: As explained before, it's up two weeks after ratification of the Constitution, and we have nine seats up for a vote. This election will take place under single transferable vote (STV, the system we use for past Senate elections), with House seats having two-month terms. That means, of course, we're up for another House Election in August.

Legislative Committees Election, May or June 2016: Three different committees for each region, with one delegate per seven citizens. We can't make an accurate projection of delegates per region now, but under current census numbers (121), that makes for 17 delegates or so (5-6 per region).

Phase 2:

An immediate Presidential Election was abandoned as a concept after some debate in the Convention, meaning the next election should follow the schedule of our current constitution (that is, third week of June). As the House is seated following the election, our Legislative Committees need to organize elections for the Senate (two seats per region).

Presidential Election, June 2016: Should go under the old rules, probably from June 17 to June 19. Despite plenty of speculation for candidates and a lot of backroom moves, no candidate has formally announced his or her intention to run for office. Either way, President Griffin and Vice-President Duke would technically be leaving the White House on the last week of June or the first week of July.

Senate Election, June-July 2016 (?): This is harder to speculate on, as the Legislative Committees need to settle on a method to elect two senators per region. Assuming these elections take place on a uniform date, that's six seats up for election. Upon being elected these Senators are divided into first (elected on February, June, and October) and second class (April, August, and December). While not outright stated, it would be assumed the second class of Senators would only last two months in office, and then have to go for another election in August along with the second House Elections.

Phase 3:

Technically, at any point in late June and early July at the latest we should have the House and the Senate finally seated, and possibly the next Administration as well. In any case, as soon as both the House and Senate are seated, all legislation from the previous constitution is void, and so are the previous offices. It is assumed we would have then a fully functioning government.

Supreme Court Elections: As per Article V, we will have a Supreme Court of five members: Two of them will be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as Justices (a process we can realistically expect in, say, July or August). The other three are the Associate Justices, one per region, nominated by the Regional Governments and confirmed by President and Senate. That said, per the same Article, our current Supreme Court should be converted into the Associate Justices.

Regional Government Elections: Along with organizing the elections to the Senate, the Legislative Committees have the task of crafting regional constitutions for each region, with the clear duty of establishing permanent governments for each region. Not having the power to legislate on anything else, these Committees dissolve once, we assume, we have our formal Regional Governments in place. It's hard to tell how long will it take for these Committees to be elected and then organize elections for Senate, craft a Constitution and then organize elections for a Regional Government, so we can expect this process to be more lengthy.

Lumine: That, at least, is how we understand the process to be, although there could be mistakes in the explanation given (if so, do let me know). In the meantime, and as the process move forward, offices to be filled should be:

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For a grand total of 34, not counting cabinet and other posts to be filled (personally, I'd say the number will be of about 40). In contrast, today we have:

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For a grand total of 48, 5 of those offices currently vacant.

[Adam Griffin]

One small correction: the ConCon rudely and selfishly cut the number of House seats down to 9 instead of 11.

[Lumine]

One small correction: the ConCon rudely and selfishly cut the number of House seats down to 9 instead of 11.

Thank god! No offense, Griffin, but I don't think an 11 member house is sustainable.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Thanks for making this, Lumine! It's good to see the Political Tracker up and running again.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

This is NO PLACE for mention of FAILURE, we will succeed, win and progress this great game into the FUTURE

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

One small correction: the ConCon rudely and selfishly cut the number of House seats down to 9 instead of 11.

Something we happen to agree on. Still disappointed the constitution will tear the Mideast apart while the others are largely preserved.

[Lumine]

Fourth Constitution Referendum:

National Turnout: 14,87% (18 voters - Last Voter: Windjammer)

Pacific Region:

AYE: 100% (5)
NAY 0% (0)

Midwest Region:

AYE: 100% (3)
NAY 0% (0)

Mideast Region:

AYE: 100% (5)
NAY 0% (0)

Southern Region:

AYE: 100% (5)
NAY 0% (0)

Lumine: The South is now voting as well, leaving only the Northeast to open a booth. Turnout shoots up from 6% to about 14% at this early hour, and we remain cautiously optimistic towards the chances of the new Constitution, with all votes in support so far. Despite there being some concerns here and there in public debate, no public figure has issued a call to vote No so far, and while we won't make projections, we repeat, the Fourth Constitution Referendum is so far very much in favor of the Aye option.

[Lumine]

Breaking News:

Lumine: Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our transmission to bring some unexpected breaking news... Surprisingly, it seems the new Constitution has missed the state of Arizona from the list of the states comprising the regions, a fact that only now has been noted by a few citizens. More to follow on this.

[tmthforu94]

I know who originally caused this, but for what it's worth, Arizona was missing from the very start, so it's on all of us for not catching it. Hopefully folks go ahead and approve them amendment, then we can add Arizona in later.

[Mike Thick]

So, I guess that Arizona is a U.S. territory until it's added? Since it isn't part of a Region, but also isn't a separate country.

[Lumine]

Well, it's really not that much of a problem as long as we keep people from registering in Arizona, I'm just surprised we all missed that detail despite reading the new Constitution several times (it never even ocurred to me to go through the list of states, for example).

[/]

Can't we just edit it in and pretend it never happened?

I mean really, guys.

[Mike Thick]

North (normal)
South (normal)
West (normal)
Arizona (BADLANDS)

Can't we just edit it in and pretend it never happened?

I mean really, guys.

IIRC we can pass laws to admit new (old) states, so this shouldn't be a problem. We can expedite it in the West and in the federal Congress. It'll be pretty easy, and it won't require unilaterally amending the Constitution.

[This account no longer in use.]

Let's just give Arizona back to Mexico.

[Adam Griffin]

At first I thought this was my fault, but looking back, I don't believe I introduced the original amendment. I was convinced it was me because when my North America idea got shot down, I was planning (even until recently) on introducing a stealth inclusion of it into this portion of the Constitution under something vague like "America" or "North America" and replacing some other state with said text to maintain the overall size and alphabetical ordering of the clause. Alas, I ended up behaving...

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

North (normal)
South (normal)
West (normal)
Arizona (BADLANDS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T_6Ua6fd5s

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Just one quick note, The NE may not be able to vote for until next week if I remember reading Cinyc correctly, which if these results hold mean the NE won't get to vote on the matter at all. Perhaps they could in that interim appeared, but it wouldn't have any force and Cinyc would no longer be an elections administrator by that point.

[Lumine]

Just one quick note, The NE may not be able to vote for until next week if I remember reading Cinyc correctly, which if these results hold mean the NE won't get to vote on the matter at all. Perhaps they could in that interim appeared, but it wouldn't have any force and Cinyc would no longer be an elections administrator by that point.

I recall reading something about that, but I can't remember the post or the thread. What exactly happened with the Northeast?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Just one quick note, The NE may not be able to vote for until next week if I remember reading Cinyc correctly, which if these results hold mean the NE won't get to vote on the matter at all. Perhaps they could in that interim appeared, but it wouldn't have any force and Cinyc would no longer be an elections administrator by that point.

I recall reading something about that, but I can't remember the post or the thread. What exactly happened with the Northeast?

I think they might limit their ratifications to a set date every few months to avoid constant ratification booths.

[Senator Cris]

The Senate can amend it.

[Adam Griffin]

So I seem to remember insisting that the President be allowed to create whichever cabinet departments he/she wished and to appoint those people without legislative actions...well, I can create the positions, but I cannot appoint anyone to them...

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...until the Senate is elected, apparently. Or does the current Senate continue to exist in between the time this is ratified and the governments are fully seated?

Oh well: I'm probably just going to totally ignore that, establish cabinet positions and appoint cabinet officers, and then pardon everyone including myself in the event anybody wants to make a fuss about it once things reset (since technically we'll still be operating under the current rules with bans on imitating cabinet officials; I don't think there's anything formally on the books wrt me flagrantly ignoring the Constitution but if somebody wants to make a fuss then we'll find out I guess).

[Leinad]

#IMAGINARIZONA!!!

You thought it was a state...BUT IT ISN'T! Just a figment of your imagination on the California-New Mexico border.

Well, it's really not that much of a problem as long as we keep people from registering in Arizona, I'm just surprised we all missed that detail despite reading the new Constitution several times (it never even ocurred to me to go through the list of states, for example).

Well, yeah, it's not something anyone would expect we'd miss. But I guess it makes sense, given that there are a lot of states.

And look at it this way: we got, like, 98% of them! That's an A!