HOUSE RESOLUTION: Voting Rights Amendment (Passed-Sent to VP/PPT)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Sponsor: 1184AZ NC Yankee
House Designation: HR 1091
Emergency Slot Authorization

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The sponsor has 24 hours to begin advocating for this.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

This ammendment written by Fremont PM and AG designate Harry Truman attempts to fill some of the loopholes that were abused in the past few elections. This ammendment requires that ballots must be in a language that is easy for the SOFE to understand as well as bars campaigning and editing a ballot after 20 minutes. I encourage the house to swiftly pass this essential ammendment.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

My thanks to the Speaker for bringing this so swiftly to the floor, and to Representative 1184AZ for sponsoring this on my behalf.

The Voting Rights Amendment is the second take of an amendment previously considered by this body, revised to incorporate some changes Congress realized too late it wanted to make. The original bill was introduced by Southern citizen VirginiaC in response to the chaos of the October 2016 presidential election, which saw the certification of the results of the vote delayed for nearly a month thanks to ambiguities in the Bill of Rights.* The purpose of this resolution is to see that these events are never repeated by amending the Constitution to prohibit tomfoolery in the voting booth.

The changes proposed versus the current version of BR.4 are as follows:

   • "requirements for activity" changed to "frequent posting"
   • adds "as punishment for crimes" to the list of reasons for the suspension of one's voting rights
   • allows the SoFE to invalidate ballots...
            (a) posted in bizarre fonts and non-Latin alphabets (like this)
            (b) edited after 20 minutes (a safeguard against voter intimidation)
            (c) that promote or criticize a particular candidate/party/ticket
   • clarifies that everyone gets one vote, and only one vote

I would add that the House already approved most of this a few months ago; the one change is that the clause that previously required voters to post their ballots in English now requires them to post using the Latin alphabet (a change recommended by the Senate right before they realized they couldn't offer amendments to a bill they had already passed).

*Speaking of which, the description of this resolution contains a typo; this amends Section 4 of the Bill of Rights, not Section 4 of Article I.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Article I is the Bill of Rights, no?




My only concern is the last sentence. This strict standard has never been applied federally before, though it has been applied at the regional level.

Previously, votes cast before the start of the election were allowed to be remade for instance. And considering the effects of DST confusion and the SoFE sometimes having to post the booth early, there are many situations that invite errors, particularly on the part of new members.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

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Sponsor: 1184AZ
House Designation: HR 1091
Emergency Slot Authorization
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Ok I propose the following amendment to alleviate the problem of people invalidating their ballot who vote too early. 

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Sponsor Feedback: Origination
Status: Representatives have 24 hours to object

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I support the amendment.

Article I is the Bill of Rights, no?

Ah, you're right; in Fremont the BoR is not a numbered Article, which was the source of my confusion.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I support the amendment.

Article I is the Bill of Rights, no?

Ah, you're right; in Fremont the BoR is not a numbered Article, which was the source of my confusion.

Wasn't it you that made it Article 1?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The Amendment is adopted.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So final vote?

[OneJ]

Sure. Let's do it!

[Pragmatic Conservative]

I motion for a final vote on this amendment.

[cinyc]

As I said when the Senate tried to pass a similar bill in the last assembly, it's not clear that "requirements for frequent posting" includes being the current requirement that citizens be registered for 7 days before voting.  You need to add "and term of residency" or something similar to make sure that it does.

Remember - the Atlasian Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on whether regions can have a different registration requirement than the Feds - or anyone at all can have one - under the current constitution.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Okay, yea, we should definitely add that then.

[cinyc]

Okay, yea, we should definitely add that then.

After the decision in cinyc v. Lincoln, I think you must.  I leave it up to the House on how to phrase it - requirements for registration and frequent posting, requirements for residency and frequent posting, separately codifying the current 7-day registration requirement ("persons whose account and registration in Atlasia is fewer than 168 days old" perhaps), etc. - it is up to you as our elected representatives to decide.

Please stop and think about the regional implications before you act, too - can regions have a different residency or frequency requirement?  Should that decision be enshrined in the constitution or be left to the Atlasian legislature?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Speaking as the Attorney General, I concur with Cinyc's assessment and strongly urge the House to amend this resolution accordingly. My recommendation would be to append "or term of residency" to the clause dealing with minimum requirements for posting, and leave it to Congress to determine the specifics of such.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I move to assume sponsorship once 1184AZ swears in as Deputy GM.

Representatives have 24 hours to object.

[OneJ]

I would confirm by saying "no objections" but I'll wait to see what the other Representatives and citizens say about this.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

NC Yankee is now the sponsor.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Sponsor Feedback: Origination
Status: Representatives have 24 hours to object.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Needless to say, I support the amendment.

[OneJ]

No objection.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The amendment has been adopted.


So can we try again for a final vote?