N312: Amendment to Article 1 of the Northern Constitution (Passed)

[Grumpier Than Thou]

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Sponsor: R2D2

72 hours to debate, 48 to vote. Because this is a constitutional amendment, it requires all three members of the assembly to vote in the affirmative.

[JGibson]

This is an excellent mechanism that is needed in our region's constitution to prevent a 1-1 tie from happening again, should our region's Assembly be down to two on a short-term basis.

[Drew]

I know that Section 3E of the SOAP says that "A piece of proposed legislation shall pass if a majority of Delegates vote in favor of it (with abstentions and absences not counted as votes)", and that this can potentially lead to a tie.  My view is, shouldn't the majority of the seats in the chamber need to vote affirmatively in order to pass legislation?  Because the chamber size is always an odd number, there wouldn't be any ties.  In other words, 2 out of 3 for a 3-person Assembly, or 3 out of 5 for a 5-person Assembly, as determined by number of candidates that run.  If two Assemblypeople were to resign, leaving one Assemblyperson, that person could simply introduce legislation and pass it through the chamber with his/her sole vote.  And in the event of a gubernatorial veto, couldn't the Assemblyperson then override with 1 out of 1 vote (100%)?

I wholeheartedly agree that the Constitution is vague on this issue, and that it's important to fill vacancies ASAP.  But it seems to me that it should be a true majority of the chamber, and this therefore would moot the possibility of a tie.  Additionally, legislation could still be passed with one vacancy (i.e. 2-0 with 1 vacancy).  I am willing to put this idea into a separate amendment proposal.

Also, any legislation passed previously with a tie or without a true majority would be grandfathered in and would not have to be re-passed under the proposed new policy.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

In the event of the assembly being composed of just 1 person (after 2 or 4 resignations), then my belief is that a legal crisis would arise, preventing that one person from single-handedly running the region.

The amendment focuses more on the (more likely) possibility of one member abstaining, or one member resigning, and a vote ending in a tie. This amendment puts in place something specific to point to in that event, so that we don't have what happened after Maxwell's resignation last session, where we had a legislative tie, and had to wait until the seat was filled before we could finish voting.

I agree that having a majority of the legislative chamber to pass a piece of legislation is important, but ties do arise, and we have legislation at the federal level to address that, so why not have something similar for the regions?

[Drew]

Considering the need for government and specifically the Assembly to remain functional during a vacancy, as well as the need to avoid gridlock occurring during such a void, I will support this Amendment.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

The debate period has ended and we will now begin voting. Please record your vote below.


Aye

[Drew]

Aye

[JGibson]

AYE.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Without objection, I'm ending the voting period early. The Amendment has passed and will appear on next month's ballot.