Northern Regional Committee discussion thread

[Poirot]

This is a thread for comments, suggestions and opinions by the public about the work of the new Mideast-Northeast regional constitutional committee.

For example both regions use the Single Transferable vote method in elections. If there is someone proposing a different method, the person could explain a new method to the public here (and maybe make a formal proposal in the official thread of the committee when it is set up).

[Poirot]

For elections to the Senate, I would specify that it must be a public vote (not the assembly voting) so voters have the right to directly choose who will represent them.

I was looking at the Mideast constitution on the wiki and it seems the Governor appoint someone if there is a vacancy. The Northeast has a special election if there are more than three weeks remaining. I always prefer the public choose when it's possible (like holding a special election two weeks before the regular election).

The name of the region should be geographic/directional. This is descriptive and easy to know in what area on the map it is located. The ConCon chose not to decide anything so there could be no uniformity. We could have a region with an animal male, one with a former Atlasian and one with a body of water.


The date of the regional elections. The Northeast uses the same months as the federal elections. Mideast seems to use the off months. Using the same months might have a higher turnout but with a big number House, the assembly election campaigns might be lost in that jungle.

Depending on when federal officials swear in after an election, I would study if it would be practical to have regional elections in the off months. If it allows a smooth transition from regional office to federal office. For example, after a federal election a representative is nominated to Cabinet or got elected to the House. If when they resign to take the new jobs there are only two weeks left before a regional election maybe we could skip special elections due to that. The risk is it produces elections every month and could lead to voter's fatigue.

The two regions don't have the same day for candidacy declaration deadlines. One is Tuesday, the other Wednesday.

The Northeast has a 5 members assembly if there are more candidates, otherwise it is 3. I think Mideast is five. I believe a 5 person assembly is more fun. Not everyone has the same activity level so if you have a 3 person assembly and one is absent, you have a dialogue between two people and everything relies on those two to keep the assembly alive. The problem might be to fill five seats. Turnout in elections and activity levels are down. Nyman has more offices than before. I thought consolidation would make regions more active and strong but they might face the same problem of losing elected officials to Nyman and having difficulty filling regional offices.

Both regions have a possible oveeride of Governor's veto but don't use the same number for the override (4/5 and 2/3).

The Mideast has one budet per year while the Northeast has one per Governor's term. It depends how much people enjoy debating budgets. The Notheast lets every Govenor a chance to present a budget. In the Mideast if you're not Governor at the right time of the year you don't have that chance.

[Poirot]

Another difference between the two former regions is legislation passed by the assembly becomes law after a week if the Governor takes no action. In the Mideast it's after 5 days.

There are different standards for expulsion of the assembly due to inactivity.

The Mideast requires the Governor to make an address to the citizens.

The Northeast has a consecutive two term limit for Governor. Not sure if Mideast has one.

The Mideast has a residency requirement for Governor that is 30 days at the time of inauguration. I like that you can't just arrive before the election and lead the region.
Depending if the region has fixed hours election or has flexibile hours, the residency requirement could be 2 or 3 weeks before the election.

The Mideast starts election on day but not at a specific hour. The Northeast has a specific hour to start the vote. The disadvantge with fixed hour is the election officer might have to post the voting booth before time because he won't be there at the exact minute. That could lead to some citizens voting before the stated time. If voters post a ballot before time I belive they should be allowed to revote and not have the vote automatically invalidated. It must be upsetting for a new voter to see his vote thrown away because the booth was posted but not officially open.

For the position of Lieutenant Governor, in the Northeast it's the choice of the Governor among the representatives in the assembly. In the Mideast it's a separate office (if their wiki page is up to date). I don't think for the moment we can afford a Lieutenant Governor that is not a representative.

The Northeast has a section on a Cabinet in the regional constitution. I think it's good to have Cabinet roles if citizens want to have that role because they want to get involved but they don't have much time or they are new or they have a specific interest. If we want a constitution that is not too long maybe the Cabinet could go in legislation instead.   
 

[Poirot]

personally i think we should ask ourselves the question if we even want to stay with the standard assembly+governor system to begin with

Would that be like universal legislature in which every citizen can propose legislation and every citizen vote on it ?

[Poirot]

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To have some coherence in the names. We could have three regions named Maple, Lilliput and Ban Ki moon.

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Some citizens didn't like getting bothered by pms for Atlasia elections. They would get them every month. I still like special elections when officeholders leave early in the mandate. My point was the off month elections could solve the problem of vacancies created by taking jobs in Nyman if the timing is right (swearing in for federal offices is close enough to the regional election). It depends when the federal official swear in, the haering for Cabinet nomination ends and the date of the regional election.

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I think it's candidates on the ballot for the current election. The committee can discuss the different options.

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Compeition brings an exciting element. However it is also a game. Citizens who want to play and contribute must have the chance to participate. A new player who wants to be in regional assembly who is not elected because there are only 3 seats and he finished 5th could try again but if loses again might give up. Same thing for someone not in a big party. Regional assembly is usually where people get integrated to the game. I'm happy to see 5 citizens wanting to play a role get elected even if there is no "competition". I don't enjoy seeing a candidate lose an election because it was fun to have competition.

If the region ends up always getting 3 member assembly it would be a big failure of consolidation. It is supposed to make regions more active, with more people. The number of regions is reduced, the assembly size shrinks while there are more offices in Nyman than before

I don't know if 3 member assembly have been successful. I don't believe in 3 member legislative body. If one person doesn't contribute or is not active it's totally not interesting. It's already not enjoyable to be in a 5 member assembly when 2 are absent.

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Term limits can be a good idea in a game. Maybe there are people who wish to be Governor but if a popular Governor stays there for a year, it would be good to give someone else a chance. There could be some limit on consecutive terms or allow to pass the consecutive term limit if there are no other candidates.       

[Poirot]

Don't forget to propose your ideas in the official committee thread when it is time but I think it's good to express in advance so people can think about it for some time and not have to vote on something just after it was presented.

I will make the same comment again after reading this:

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For Nyman the ConCon chose a bicameral system which could also slows legislation process. It also increased the number of offices in Nyman.

[Poirot]

This is the amendment proposal:

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I have a question on the two thirds vote in the assembly. Exactly two thirds is enough, it's not more than two thirds. So if the assembly is 3 person, two Yes vote is enough ?

I think in a 5 person assembly in the NE we required at least three yes votes and two thirds to pass in case there is very low turnout. If there is 3 a person assembly, 1 yes, 1 abstain and 1 not voting is considered 100% approve. It's not a very high treshold for constituional change but I guess that is what small assembly can do.

[Poirot]

The committee should finish its job of writing the regional constitution so we have clear rules and not make retroactive rules to justify action that is not in its mandate.

The process for the federal amendment is a succession of dubious legal actions.

[Poirot]

The capital of the region being in the constitution it is in the mandate of the committee to select the location. There was even a poll for citizens to give an opinion.

The delagates have chosen New York City. I think it received 3 first votes and 2 second votes out of 6 ballots, so it got high preferences. Two ex-mideasterners had NYC in their top 2

When I arrived in Atlasia the Northeast had months of plans to move the capital. I have lived a full circle it seems. I hope the decision of the delegates is respected. It was their job to make a decision.

[Poirot]

I see an item about organizing elections until the regularly schedule election take place.

Does it mean we will have regional elections early August and another one 2 or 3 weeks later?

I was thinking maybe extend the normal term by 1 or 2 weeks so we don't have elections almost back to back. The assembly will need to adopt rules, select a speaker before starting to debate so the extra 1 or 2 weeks could serve to do that.

I think we have a Senate regional election in August so we might have a regularly schedule election anyway at the planned regional election date (if they are together, I haven't verified the dates of elections). 

[Poirot]

If the committee goes back on a decision and decide not to decide, maybe they could let voters decide other aspects, like how the assembly is elected. There were different proposals for that and the committee doesn't seem to backtrack on that decision.

I read about a bill that exists in private and the committee should try to discuss as much as possible in public so citizens know what is going on. Also a bill sounds like legislating which the commitee can't do.   

[Poirot]

In the committee thread.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=237585.msg5181729#msg5181729

[Poirot]

The bill that is not a bill called a bill....

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The committee passed a bill. It doesn't seem to be part of the constitution.
The commitees do not have mandate to legislate.