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

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Let's make this 8.4 under CESRA.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Candidacy Declarations Thread Amendment to CESRA
Clause 4 is added to Section 8 to read:
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.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Amendment (offered as friendly): Declarations for candidacies in which the candidate does not reside in the region he or she is running for office in shall be considered invalid.

If we limit that to regional Senate seats I would support that, as those candidates would not be able to serve anyway if elected under federal election law. Eligibility for offices of regional government however vary for each region, and I don't believe we shall confuse that by making a person ineligible to declare a candidacy for a position that may legally hold.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Belgiansocialist was not eligible to hold office in the IDS or ME based on Constitution Article 1, section 1 clause 2

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   Therefore to have his declaration appear on the ballot is misleading, giving the impression that an alternative existed on the ballot when in fact it did not. If belgiansocialist had not been a declared candidate, it is likely more voters would have wrote in an alternative candidate actually eligible to serve in the region, as in fact a couple did for for Badger in the ME in spite of belgiansocialist's appearance on the ballot.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I support Bgwah's proposal, I think two months before the election is the right time for opening candidacies to an office. I also support Napoleon's amendment if limited to federal offices. err, apparently the problem doesn't exist.

No, the problem exists in that as far as I can tell, the eligibility for being on the ballot isn't legally dependent for the eligibility for actually holding office.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Are the regions not perfectly capable of aligning their requirements for holding the office with those for running for the office?

Do the regions have any control over what appears on a federal ballot?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Are the regions not perfectly capable of aligning their requirements for holding the office with those for running for the office?

Do the regions have any control over what appears on a federal ballot?

I didn't ask whether they have the ability to do so now. I am asking whether they are capable of determining who is eligible to represent them, by whatever means.  Then if so, the question becomes should they be provided with that involvement or not.

In terms of eligibility to represent them, yes, I think they would be - though in the case of the Senate, to do that would require a constitutional amendment. In terms of current law though, if the federal constitution determines eligibility, I believe the federal government also has a responsibility to make sure only those eligible appear on the federally administered ballot.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

What is the problem with candidates declaring for office more than 2 months beforehand?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

i object, on the basis of the part about the time limit for candidacy declarations, which I don't see the need for.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

i object, on the basis of the part about the time limit for candidacy declarations, which I don't see the need for.

It would take for ever to sift through months worth of pages to see if anyone declared for an election more than two months ahead of time.

I think that's less work than checking every time someone declares to see if they are declaring too early for the position they are seeking and letting them know they have to wait and declare later.

Nay

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

has there ever been a problem with the issue of someone declaring so early the election administer missed it? I'd like to understand what the rationale here is and see if we can't come up with a compromise.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

has there ever been a problem with the issue of someone declaring so early the election administer missed it? I'd like to understand what the rationale here is and see if we can't come up with a compromise.

Why should be wait for a problem to emerge to solve it ? Preventing it from happening is easier and can avoid another stupid constitutional crisis.

1) it's disruptive when you change this sort of thing from established practice of people being able to declare whenever.
2)what's the constitutional crisis?  If the constitution is implicated, maybe legislation isn't enough and we need an amendment.
3)again, what is so special about 2 months?
4) if the election administrator allows someone on the ballot who declared more than two months prior, can they be sued?
5)if we are going to do this we at least need to make it absolutely clear to everyone what the start date is to declare for every single race at the regional and federal level.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Yes, I suppose that is the best way to go forward right now.
I'd like to amend the bill to strike the proposed clause 6.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Aye

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I'll propose this as an alternative:

2) The following is added to Section 8 as Clause 6: "The SoFE may post notice that candidate declarations for a federal election are open, at a date two months or greater before the earliest possible commencement of that election. In this case candidate declarations made before the date of this notice will not be valid."

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Aye

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

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

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...

then how are these issues adressed?

4) if the election administrator allows someone on the ballot who declared more than two months prior, can they be sued?
5)if we are going to do this we at least need to make it absolutely clear to everyone what the start date is to declare for every single race at the regional and federal level.