May I alert the PPT to a possible vacancy in the Senate caused by 21 days of inactivity by Senator DWTL in accordance with Senate Rules and Regulations; Article 10: Vacation of Senate Seat by Reason of Absence
https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Current_Senate_Rles%2C_Regulations%2C_and_Procedures
His last post regarding Senate business was as follows:
Having received 6 votes, MasterJedi is elected!!
It may be open to intepretation as to whether this kicks in now, or at the end of this day. If so I anticipate some furious partisan e-mailing to ensure that he drops by before the day is out. 
I think this is the first time the vacancy provision has come into play.
As I recall, it was DWTL who pushed for the limit to be set at 21 days.
(FTR, I would suggest that days be interpreted as 24 hour periods rather than calendar days, but it's unlikely to make any difference in this instance.)
On the topic of this, I've been thinking about how we elect people to fill casual vacancies to STV-At Large Senate seats.
Obviously I floated an idea in the Constitutional Convention about if a casual vacancy arises (in my initial proposal) that the party of which that Senator was a member would appoint his or her successor. This is how the Australian Senate operates.
In local councils that use STV over here, frequently casual vacancies are filled using a countback system of excluding the candidate and using the last election results. I don't know if in this instance that would bump up SPC or Lief, but it's something that bears consideration.
Under the initial terms of the PR Act, vacancies were generally to be filled by the party of the outgoing Senator. The exception concerned Independents and parties with fewer than 4 members, in these instances by-elections were mandated.
My original draft of the Act simply had a by-elections requirement for vacancies - but as part of concessions to ensure the passage of the bill this had to be dropped. Countback was considered, but I did not (and do not) feel it to be suitable for Atlasia.
I proposed the party replacement system as a compromise which, thankfully, garnered sufficient backing to pass the bill.
An amendment to the PR Act concerning by-elections was proposed by Lewis and passed by the 25th Senate. As this game is as much an election sim as it is a government one, I approve of by-elections as they are an opportunity to once again generate interest among the populace in the Senate.
