SENATE BILL: Fair Amending Procedure Amendment (Passed-Not Finalized)

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Sponsor:  Senator Antonio

Fair Amending Procedure Amendment

Article VII, Section I of the Third Constitution of Atlasia is hereby amended to read:

The Senate, when two-thirds of its chamber shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution when ratified by the people of Atlasia. In each region, a public vote shall be held regarding the ratification of a proposed amendment. Said vote shall last for exactly one week and shall be administered by the governor of the region or whichever office as the Law may provide. Citizens shall vote "aye," "nay," or "abstain" to a proposed amendment. To be ratified, the proposed amendment shall meet at least one of the following criteria:

I. Receive a simple majority in favor of the ayes (among all "aye" and "nay" votes) in at least four of the five Atlasia regions

II. Receive a two-thirds majority in favor of the ayes (among all "aye" and "nay" votes) in Atlasia at-large.

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I do not believe in using a majority or super majority as an excuse to deny the rights of the minority.  The tyranny of the majority is alive and well (as you've seen with all the marriage amendments here in the U.S.).

Legislation is the will of the people.  Constitutions are what ensure the people can have a will to begin with.  If an issue is not important enough to pass a difficult amendment process, then use the legislative body to achieve the desired law.  Then, if in 10 years time, stances change... it can be repealed.

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I call this bill to a final vote.

Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

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Technically, NCY is correct because while 24 hours has passed since the amendment was accepted as friendly, I did not announce the period for objection nor did I edit the original post to reflect the amendment.

Because of that, I am closing this vote and voiding all votes and opening a 24 hour objection period to Duke's amendment to the bill.

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The amendment was accepted and nobody objected within the 24 hour period, so it is therefore in the final bill.

I call this bill to a final vote to last until February 12th, 2011 at 6pm CST.

Senators:  Vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain

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aye

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Not all senators have voted and the vote doesn't officially end for another day.  So I don't know where Antonio got the idea that voting was over.

The official rules say that voting shall be open until all senators have voted, or 7 days... whichever comes first.  If a senator hasn't voted within the 7 day period, he/she will be considered to have abstained.

So it would be a good idea to suspend any regional votes on this until it is actually passed in the senate.

Why am I a stickler on this?  Because senators have the right to change their vote until 24 hours after the official vote has ended.  And I'm not going to stop a vote before the 7 day period because we have senators who don't do their jobs in Atlasia.

[Ban my account ffs!]

With the voting period expired, the vote totals are the following:

Ayes:  7 (Eraserhead, Lief, Snowguy, Antonio, HappyWarrior, Bgwah, Duke)
Nays:  2 (DallasFan, NCY)
Abstaining:  1  (BaconKing)

The ayes have it.

Senators, you have 24 hours to change your vote.