Flexi-time Constitutional Amendment

[MasterJedi]

Flexi-time Constitutional Amendment


   1. Regular elections to the Senate and Presidency shall begin between midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second to last Thursday of the month in which they otherwise would have started and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
   2. Special elections to the Senate shall begin within ten days of the vacancy occurring and shall begin between midnight Eastern Standard Time on a Thursday and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
   3. The exact time at which a given election or vote shall begin may be determined by the voting booth administrator subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by Law.
   4. The Ninth Amendment is repealed.
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Sponsor: Sen. Peter Bell

[MasterJedi]

This is now in the 5th slot.

[Keystone Phil]

   3. The exact time at which a given election or vote shall begin may be determined by the voting booth administrator subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by Law.

The bill seems fine to me but I'd like an explanation as to what this means.

[TomC]

   3. The exact time at which a given election or vote shall begin may be determined by the voting booth administrator subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by Law.

The bill seems fine to me but I'd like an explanation as to what this means.

I read it to mean that it is up to the voting booth administrator as to when to open the booth, but his decision has to be within the times perscribed by law (see # 1 and 2).

If I may make a suggestion here, it would be voter friendly if the voting booth administrator announced ahead of time (a day or two) roughly what that time might be.

[Peter]

The Chief Justice has it slightly off from my intent here:

Clause 3 enables the Senate to pass regulating legislation - for example we may require that the Secretary announces the time he intends to open the booth a day in advance, two days in advance or whatever periood in advance we like.

It also would allow us to put other restrictions on the vote - e.g. where Presidential and Senate elections occur together, we can require that they are started together and thus run concurrently with one another. Theoretically there is no requirement that would have to run concurrently under the new scheme, so this would give us some power to regulate the opening time.

I felt it prudent to devolve this power to the Senate rather than to start explicitly writing these matters into the Constitution because we have no idea what the effects of any regulation we lay down might be - events may dictate that any regulation we could lay down in this amendment were too lenient or too strict. This would leave us with a problem, because to adjust would require another Amendment, instead, now we only need to pass a Law, thus ensuring a flexible structure.

[MasterJedi]

I hereby open up the final vote on this amendment. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

   1. Regular elections to the Senate and Presidency shall begin between midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second to last Thursday of the month in which they otherwise would have started and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
   2. Special elections to the Senate shall begin within ten days of the vacancy occurring and shall begin between midnight Eastern Standard Time on a Thursday and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
   3. The exact time at which a given election or vote shall begin may be determined by the voting booth administrator subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by Law.
   4. The Ninth Amendment is repealed.

[MasterJedi]

Aye

[Democratic Hawk]

Aye

'Hawk'

[CheeseWhiz]

Aye

[WMS]

Aye.

[Hatman 🍁]

Aye

[Peter]

aye

[Keystone Phil]

Aye

[MasterJedi]

This amendment has enough votes to pass. Senators now have 24 hours to change their votes.

[Yates]

Aye.

[Bacon King]

Aye.

[MasterJedi]

With 9 Ayes, 0 Nays and 0 Abstentions this amendment has passed. I hereby present it to the Regions for their ratification.