The Absentee Voting Bill (Law'd)

[MasterJedi]

]The Absentee Voting Bill

Section 1: Absentee Voting

   1. As mandated by Article V, Section 2, Clause 8 of the Federal Constitution, all voters shall have the right to cast absentee votes after the candidacy declaration period has expired.
   2. Upon the candidacy declaration deadline occurring the Secretary of Forum Affairs or Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs shall publically post that absentee voting application has opened.
   3. Voters wishing to apply for an absentee vote shall notify this publically in a manner specified by the Secretary of Forum Affairs.
   4. The Secretary or Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs shall then grant the request to absentee vote publically, at which point the voter may proceed to vote in the Absentee Voting Booth.
   5. Absentee Voters shall post their votes in the same format as if it were a regular ballot, and they shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as regular ballots.

Section 2: Disqualification from Absentee Voting

   1. Should an Absentee Voter post more than 5 times anywhere on the Atlas Forum in the regular election period, their absentee vote shall be nullified and treated as non extant.
   2. Any person who has their absentee vote nullified may vote again by regular ballot.
   3. Any person who votes by regular ballot after voting by absentee ballot, shall have their absentee ballot treated as non-extant.
   4. Persons who attempt to vote in the Absentee thread with prior notification of the Department of Forum Affairs shall have their vote treated as non-extant.

Section 3: Repeals

   1. Section 6 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act and Clause 1 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act (Amendment) Act are repealed.
Spon: Sen. Marokai Blue

[Franzl]

This has my support.

[Peter]

Two issues:

There is a typo in Section 2 Clause 4. The word "with" should be "without".

Section 1 Clause 2 needs to have the following appended to it: "In the event of runoff elections, once the need for a runoff election is known, the Secretary or Deputy Secretary shall publically post that absentee voting application has opened. "

[Fritz]

I support this, but I think we need to add a provision for absentee voting in special elections.  In the most recent special election, Aflietch had made it clear that he desired to vote for me, but would be unable to do so.  Some means of absentee voting should have been provided to him.

[Peter]

Whats the candidacy deadline for special elections at present?

[tmthforu94]

This bill also has my support.

[Franzl]

Whats the candidacy deadline for special elections at present?

48 hours, I believe.

[MaxQue]

This bill have not my support. Early voting should be open to all to have a bigger turnout.

[Lief 🗽]

I'd prefer the Senate eliminate absentee voting and just extend the voting period.

[Peter]

If the candidacy declaration deadline is 48 hours for special elections, then voters should have been provided with an opportunity to absentee vote after the deadline. That is certainly possible under the present Law and my proposed one.

[Fritz]

No absentee voting booth was ever opened for the special election.  Why was that, hmmm?

[bgwah]

This bill have not my support. Early voting should be open to all to have a bigger turnout.

The 3-day voting booth for the special Senate election had about the same turn-out as the 10-day voting booths for the June election.

[Purple State]

I surely support absentee voting reform. I have to ask why maintaining absentee voting at all is worthwhile. Adding qualifiers like this leave room for even greater confusion.

[MaxQue]

I surely support absentee voting reform. I have to ask why maintaining absentee voting at all is worthwhile. Adding qualifiers like this leave room for even greater confusion.

A seven or ten days voting booth, then?

[Franzl]

If we're going to switch to a system where there is only one voting booth, then I'd suggest something in the middle....maybe 5 days.

[Purple State]

Perhaps the voting booth should be opened exactly one week after the candidacy declaration period closes and should remain open for one week. This way we leave time for the competition to settle, but also leave a large chunk of time for those who may be away for a while.

[Meeker]

I've never really understood why we have a candidate declaration deadline at all. In real life people need to print ballots and such, but for us it's just the SoFA posting the official ballot in the thread. A candidate could declare up to a few seconds before the booth officially opens and the SoFA would be able to easily include them on the ballot.

[Purple State]

I've never really understood why we have a candidate declaration deadline at all. In real life people need to print ballots and such, but for us it's just the SoFA posting the official ballot in the thread. A candidate could declare up to a few seconds before the booth officially opens and the SoFA would be able to easily include them on the ballot.

I think it is useful to prevent last second declarations that totally reshape the election landscape. Otherwise things could get too chaotic.

[MasterJedi]

I hereby open up a final vote on this bill. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

Aye

[Marokai Backbeat]

No real reason to oppose this except for wanting further reforms down the road. It's a good bill that deals with the absurdity of Absentee voting.

Aye.

[Fritz]

Aye

[Peter]

Two issues:

There is a typo in Section 2 Clause 4. The word "with" should be "without".

Section 1 Clause 2 needs to have the following appended to it: "In the event of runoff elections, once the need for a runoff election is known, the Secretary or Deputy Secretary shall publically post that absentee voting application has opened. "

Were these friendly amended in? Doesn't look like it!

[Marokai Backbeat]

Two issues:

There is a typo in Section 2 Clause 4. The word "with" should be "without".

Section 1 Clause 2 needs to have the following appended to it: "In the event of runoff elections, once the need for a runoff election is known, the Secretary or Deputy Secretary shall publically post that absentee voting application has opened. "

Were these friendly amended in? Doesn't look like it!

Oh, my

I of course have no problems with these, if MJ would like to restart the vote I'm fine with that.

[MasterJedi]

Two issues:

There is a typo in Section 2 Clause 4. The word "with" should be "without".

Section 1 Clause 2 needs to have the following appended to it: "In the event of runoff elections, once the need for a runoff election is known, the Secretary or Deputy Secretary shall publically post that absentee voting application has opened. "

Were these friendly amended in? Doesn't look like it!

Oh, my

I of course have no problems with these, if MJ would like to restart the vote I'm fine with that.

Ok, vote stopped. Now properly introduce it so it can be accepted as friendly.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I believe this amendment includes all necessary changes. There shouldn't be any objections to this amendment, i think.

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