SENATE BILL: Candidacy Declarations Thread Bill (Law'd)

[bgwah]

Oh, and I meant to say "Secretary of Federal Elections", not forum. Can we fix that real quick?

[bgwah]

Why do we need this bill?

Because it has recently been pointed out that there is no law requiring declarations to be made in that thread. It can't hurt to be on the safe side and make this official.

I would be find with changing this to an amendment to an existing law (perhaps the CESRA?).

[bgwah]

I'll accept it as friendly.

Here's another random idea I just had---should we include some time limit on candidacy declarations? And by that I mean, declarations must be made within two months of the election to be valid. Or something.

[bgwah]

I just remember declaring for President in like 2013 as a joke. But who says my declaration isn't valid?!

[bgwah]

I have several questions & comments regarding the amendment:

1) This would only be for candidate declarations... Would this stop write-ins? I'm thinking it would, since one couldn't ever accept write-ins. The only way one can accept write-ins without a post in the candidacy declarations thread would be to write themselves in in the voting booth---obviously you can't do this if you don't actually live in the region and thus can't vote there.
2) The SE and ME would have both only had one person on the ballot during last month's election had Belgian not run in every region---was it really a bad thing that Belgian made the races a tiny bit more competitive?
3) I tend to agree with Shua---I tend to think this should only apply to federal office. Let the regions decide their own rules.


I'll give you guys a day or two to respond and try writing a more comprehensive amendment to deal with this as well as my previous time frame idea.

[bgwah]

lol, so I looking through all the amendments to the CESRA, there's already a clause 4 of section 8 added by the fifth amendment to the CESRA... I would like to take this opportunity to just go ahead and clean up the entire CESRA.

I've identified the following amendments, and will update the CESRA's main page accordingly:

1) F.L. 16-4: Federal Activity Requirements Revision Act
2) F.L. 21-1: Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act (Amendment) Act
3) F.L. 31-23: Third Amendment to the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act
4) F.L. 32-6: Anti-Zombie Act of 2009
5) F.L. 36-7: Fifth Amendment to the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act
6) F.L. 39-9: Amendment to the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act

Please tell me if I've missed any. Also feel free to suggest any pieces of legislation that are currently separate but should probably be repealed and replaced with an amendment to the CESRA for simplicity's sake.

I just edited the CESRA's main page (link), so as to make it easier to figure out what the current act looks like. This should make it easier to figure out what our current amendment should look like...

[bgwah]

On second thought, I have decided that a comprehensive reform of the CESRA would be best left to another amendment dedicated solely to that purpose. I may work on this in the near future if I can get someone with SoFE experience to assist me. In the mean time, here is my amendment dedicated solely to candidacy declarations:


Seventh Amendment to the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act

1) The following is added to Section 8 as Clause 5: "All candidate declarations for elected office must be made in the Candidate Declaration Thread (defined as topic 40247.0) to be considered official. Should the existing thread ever be locked or deleted, it shall be the responsibility of the Secretary of Federal Elections to create a new thread and the Moderator General to sticky it."
2) The following is added to Section 8 as Clause 6: "A candidate may not declare for an office more than two months before the earliest possible commencement of the election."
3) The following is added to Section 8 as Clause 7: "Candidacy declarations for a regional or district Senate seat shall only be considered valid if the candidate is registered to vote within the region or district in which he or she is running."


I am of course offering the above as an amendment to the current bill. As you can see, we have 1) The original purpose of this bill 2) My idea to stop very early declarations for office and 3) Napoleon's idea concerning regional seats. I hope clause 3 isn't confusing.

[bgwah]

aye

[bgwah]

Hostile!

[bgwah]

Nay

[bgwah]

Hostile again!! Enough with the amendments.

[bgwah]

Nay.

[bgwah]

Aye

I'm a little surprised the sponsor doesn't welcome the opportunity to make this bill workable.

I don't think your amendments are necessary...

[bgwah]

I don't see how your amendment fixes addresses those points.

[bgwah]

Can we have a final vote now?

[bgwah]

Aye.

[bgwah]

Never thought this would be a >100 page thread.