Declaration of Candidacy Bill

[Emsworth]

Declaration of Candidacy Bill

In order to be considered an official candidate in a federal election, one must declare his candidacy in the Candidate Declaration Thread, which shall be monitored by the Secretary of Forum Affairs.

Sponsor: Sen. True Independent

[Ebowed]

People running for regional offices seem to do a better job of posting in that thread than those running for federal offices.

[MasterJedi]

I see no problem with this bill and will vote for it when the time comes.

[Platypus]

Good idea to formalise this.

[Joe Republic]

It may be an extra layer of red tape, but it certainly seems worth it.

[Defarge]

I thought this was already on the books.  I fully support this bill.

[True Democrat]

Since there's no real debate or opposition, I move to bring this bill to a vote unless people think this should instead be part of the Unified Electoral Code.

[Ebowed]

Why should this be brought to a vote right now?  It's not urgent.  Let the bill wait its turn like anything else.

[MasterJedi]

Why should this be brought to a vote right now?  It's not urgent.  Let the bill wait its turn like anything else.

Because everyone basically does this already so if we hurry this up we can get on to something more important that people don't do already.

[Ebowed]

Not everyone basically does it.  I didn't see Q's vice presidential declaration of candidacy posted until today, and Vice Presidential Candidate Skybridge has yet to post in that thread.

[MasterJedi]

Not everyone basically does it.  I didn't see Q's vice presidential declaration of candidacy posted until today, and Vice Presidential Candidate Skybridge has yet to post in that thread.

I don't know about Q but almost everyone else already has. As for Skybridge I doubt he knows about that thread, he doesn't seem to be around a lot in Atlasia.

[Gabu]

I have an amendment I'd like to propose to this that would make me more in favor of it:

2. The Secretary of Forum Affairs shall be required to inform anyone who shall make a declaration of candidacy outside of the Candidacy Declaration Thread and who has not made a similar declaration within said thread of the requirement specified in section 1 of this bill.

I recognize the purpose of this bill, which is to create a definitive record for all government officials it concerns of everyone who is running for an office.  However, I could see some unfortunate legal issues that could come from it if a newbie who was unaware of this requirement and who was never told about it until the day of the election subsequently found out that he never fulfilled the requirements to become an official candidate and thus was not put on the ballot.

[Ebowed]

Not everyone basically does it.  I didn't see Q's vice presidential declaration of candidacy posted until today, and Vice Presidential Candidate Skybridge has yet to post in that thread.

I don't know about Q but almost everyone else already has. As for Skybridge I doubt he knows about that thread, he doesn't seem to be around a lot in Atlasia.

Okay, so the fact that almost everyone already uses it should be enough reason to vote against this red tape.

[MasterJedi]

I'll support Gabu's amendment to protect new people who might not know about the law.

[Ebowed]

2. The Secretary of Forum Affairs shall be required to inform anyone who shall make a declaration of candidacy outside of the Candidacy Declaration Thread and who has not made a similar declaration within said thread of the requirement specified in section 1 of this bill.

I'll vote yea on the amendment, but nay on the final passage.  Since this bill passing looks like a shoe-in, it'd be nice to have the Department of Forum Affairs notifying Skybridge and others that they have to post in the thread.  The whole thing is red tape, but this amendment would make it slightly better.

[True Democrat]

I fully support the amendment.

[Colin]

I stand by Ebowed',s arguments. While I will vote in favour of the Gabu amendment I will not vote to approve this bill. It is just another level of bureaucratic red tape that will make it harder to run in an election and just add more tendium. I almost forgot to put my re-election announcement in that thread. It adds nothing except a more centralized location for seeing who is running and who isn't. If this is all to make it easier to see who is running for office then why don't we just have the GM continually compile a list of people running for office in the GM thread, as Sam is doing now. Much easier and it doesn't increase the Forum Affairs bureaucracy.

[True Democrat]

I stand by Ebowed',s arguments. While I will vote in favour of the Gabu amendment I will not vote to approve this bill. It is just another level of bureaucratic red tape that will make it harder to run in an election and just add more tendium. I almost forgot to put my re-election announcement in that thread. It adds nothing except a more centralized location for seeing who is running and who isn't. If this is all to make it easier to see who is running for office then why don't we just have the GM continually compile a list of people running for office in the GM thread, as Sam is doing now. Much easier and it doesn't increase the Forum Affairs bureaucracy.

I started the Declaration of Candidacy Thread because it was hard to keep track of all the people declaring for office.  I believe that this thread is very important.  The GM can make a mistake for who is running or not running.  However, if it is actually posted in one place that a person is running it would be easier to see who exactly is a candidate.  Sometimes it is hard to track down the old announcement posts.  Also, the public could look at an updated list (possibly in the SoFA's office) to see who is running in their district.

[Ebowed]

It's red tape, plain and simple.



It honestly can't be that hard to keep track of who is running for what.  I can produce a complete list of who should be on the ballot in the next federal election off the top of my head, and I'm not related in any way to the Department of Forum Affairs.

[Colin]

I stand by Ebowed',s arguments. While I will vote in favour of the Gabu amendment I will not vote to approve this bill. It is just another level of bureaucratic red tape that will make it harder to run in an election and just add more tendium. I almost forgot to put my re-election announcement in that thread. It adds nothing except a more centralized location for seeing who is running and who isn't. If this is all to make it easier to see who is running for office then why don't we just have the GM continually compile a list of people running for office in the GM thread, as Sam is doing now. Much easier and it doesn't increase the Forum Affairs bureaucracy.

I started the Declaration of Candidacy Thread because it was hard to keep track of all the people declaring for office.  I believe that this thread is very important.  The GM can make a mistake for who is running or not running.  However, if it is actually posted in one place that a person is running it would be easier to see who exactly is a candidate.  Sometimes it is hard to track down the old announcement posts.  Also, the public could look at an updated list (possibly in the SoFA's office) to see who is running in their district.

The SoFA can barely keep an update voter registration list what makes you think that a regularly updated candidate list can be achieved. I stand by more argument that this is just more bureaucratic nonsense. All of the SoFAs before you, True Dem, were able to handle who was on the ballot and who wasn't. They were able to keep track of which candidates were in the race and which were not without having a set thread for such things. If the 5 SoFAs before you could do it and not have any problems as well as you not having any problems when this is not mandatory. I see no reason to make this mandatory and will thusly vote against it.

[True Democrat]

I stand by Ebowed',s arguments. While I will vote in favour of the Gabu amendment I will not vote to approve this bill. It is just another level of bureaucratic red tape that will make it harder to run in an election and just add more tendium. I almost forgot to put my re-election announcement in that thread. It adds nothing except a more centralized location for seeing who is running and who isn't. If this is all to make it easier to see who is running for office then why don't we just have the GM continually compile a list of people running for office in the GM thread, as Sam is doing now. Much easier and it doesn't increase the Forum Affairs bureaucracy.

I started the Declaration of Candidacy Thread because it was hard to keep track of all the people declaring for office.  I believe that this thread is very important.  The GM can make a mistake for who is running or not running.  However, if it is actually posted in one place that a person is running it would be easier to see who exactly is a candidate.  Sometimes it is hard to track down the old announcement posts.  Also, the public could look at an updated list (possibly in the SoFA's office) to see who is running in their district.

The SoFA can barely keep an update voter registration list what makes you think that a regularly updated candidate list can be achieved. I stand by more argument that this is just more bureaucratic nonsense. All of the SoFAs before you, True Dem, were able to handle who was on the ballot and who wasn't. They were able to keep track of which candidates were in the race and which were not without having a set thread for such things. If the 5 SoFAs before you could do it and not have any problems as well as you not having any problems when this is not mandatory. I see no reason to make this mandatory and will thusly vote against it.

I believe this actually makes the SoFA's job easier.  Besides, keeping an updated candidate list is already a requirement for being SoFA I believe (that's what people took me when I took the job anyway).  Most people already do this anyway.

[Ebowed]

So I ask: if most people do it anyway, why have a bill to make it a requirement?

[True Democrat]

So I ask: if most people do it anyway, why have a bill to make it a requirement?

It's just to make the SoFA's job a little easier.

[Defarge]

Why not make the SoFA's job easier?  Essentially everyone knows about it anyways.  Gabu's amendment will remove any possibility of people being kept from the ballot due to ignorance (except for inactives). 

It's a formality that will make the SoFA's job easier, and will make it easier for less frequent Atlasians to keep track of all who are running.

[Ebowed]

I remain in firm opposition to this bill, both in its current form and to a lesser extent in the amended form Gabu has proposed.  There is simply no reason to make this an official requirement.  Citizens who wish to be aware of who is running for what are able to keep up with that by many means.  As I said earlier, I am able to name everyone running for federal office next month off the top of my head.  Surely the Secretary of Forum Affairs, who has a tough job to begin with, does not need more requirements to take care of.

As the President pro tempore Colin Wixted rightly pointed out, every Secretary of Forum Affairs before TrueDemocrat was able to keep track of who was running for what.  No matter what criticism you have of our current Secretary, he has also been able to keep up with this as well.