Voting System Reform Commission

[KEmperor]

No one ever told me I was on this commission.  Heh.

[KEmperor]

Reading over the past three pages, I am afraid I must refrain from commenting on the constitutionality of any proposals.

[KEmperor]

I strongly oppose a secret ballot, but the wording is decent.

[KEmperor]

Campaigning may not occur in the place where voting occurs. (Article V, Section i, Clause 3)

This clause clearly implies that the Constitution foresees a single "place where voting occurs." I find it difficult to fathom that this clause refers to private message boxes: clearly, the most reasonable interpretation is that it refers to a public voting booth.

LOL, if we moved to a PM system, this could result in any PM's sent out for campaigning purposes being illegal.  Actually, that would an amusing case....

[KEmperor]

bipartisan

Theirs that word again.

Well, considering there are only two parties in the Senate, I suppose he can use that word.

[KEmperor]

Could we possibly have one non-officing member of each major party in Atlasia?  Or each Presidential candidate could appoint one representative to count votes.

But then, what if the candidate appoints a non-serious or non-cooperative poster? For instance, what if Jesus decides to run and appoint opebo?

Also, this would give us a committee of perhaps ten members; to expect all of whom to meet at midnight on the relevant day would not be reasonable.

I highly recommend keeping this committee as small as possible.  From experience on the court, it is surprisingly hard to get three people to be online at the same time to work on something.  Ten people would be highly unwieldy, unless we intend to do this on the forums, which would negate the reason for a secret ballot in the first place.

[KEmperor]

So where are we going with this?  It appears that the majority of the nation does not want a secret ballot, and I don't even know if a majority of the commission does.

[KEmperor]

It appears that the majority of the nation does not want a secret ballot, and I don't even know if a majority of the commission does.

We are not here to count heads, we are here to report feasibility. Even so, whilst apparently a majority have said that they will not use a secret ballot, this does not mean to say that some of them do not support it. I personally will not use the secret ballot - I have said this before and I will say it as many times as I am asked, yet I do support the underlying concept if it can be shown to be practical.

Fair enough.  Although considering all the discussion concerning constitutional amendments and the difficulty in finding impartial committees, I wouldn't say it's very practical at all.

[KEmperor]

I vote to concur with the report, with the following exception:

I must abstain from those sections of the report that detail a recommendation as to the constitutionality of voting requirements for obvious reasons.