Lewis Trondheim vs. Secretary of Forum Affairs

[Hatman 🍁]

I find this injunction to be inappropriate, because delaying the election will force it to be too close to the midterm election in August to be legally valid. It is highly irresponsible of the court, and I condemn this act against democracy.

Anyways, I invite the court to review Section 9.5 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act which says the following:

"5. The administrator of a voting booth shall give registered voters seven days advance public notice, in both the Fantasy Elections Forum and the Voting Booth, of the hours in which voting shall take place for all special Senate elections called on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday; and three days advance public notice, in both the Fantasy Elections Forum and the Voting Booth, of the hours in which voting shall take place for all special Senate called on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday."

I think the intent of this section is to have special elections held on the weekend following the weekend following the said vacancy, which would not have been the case in this instance.

Secondly, it was very clear on the ballot that the election was just for one person, and it goes against the democratic principles of the Republic to alter the results of the election in a fashion that contradicts the consent of the public.

Thirdly, the vacancy occurred after the opening of the absentee voting both and therefore after the closing candidacy declaration period.

I thank the court for its time, and would also like to notify the court of my absence beginning on Thursday.  If it pleases the court, I would ask that my Deputy SoFA fill in for me during my absence.

[Hatman 🍁]

Are you submitting this as a brief?

I have a simple question - can you give us a timeline?

Yes, I suppose. Timeline of what, exactly? of events?

I would like to apologize to the court, I've not been involved in any cases before, so this is all new to me.

[Hatman 🍁]

Conor's resignation and the start of the election for the Earl vacancy. The notice of the election for the Conor seat and establishing a deadline to declare candidacy is here. Assuming I have the right links, the issue appears to be whether the election for the first vacancy should be delayed to allow time for candidacy declarations for the second vacancy.

Impossible, because I am legally obliged to alert the public as to when I plan on holding the election, which I followed more or less.

[Hatman 🍁]

Conor's resignation and the start of the election for the Earl vacancy. The notice of the election for the Conor seat and establishing a deadline to declare candidacy is here. Assuming I have the right links, the issue appears to be whether the election for the first vacancy should be delayed to allow time for candidacy declarations for the second vacancy.

Impossible, because I am legally obliged to alert the public as to when I plan on holding the election, which I followed more or less.

Are you positing that "alerting the public as to when I plan on holding the election" is equivalent to "commencement of the by-election"?

No, what I am saying is I am legally obliged to open the booth when I said I would.

[Hatman 🍁]

What are we defining as the commencement of the by-election? The resignation occurred after the opening of the absentee voting booth, but before the main election. I would think, logically that when the absentee voting booth opens, the election begins, although the legal definition seems to suggest perhaps otherwise.