Electoral Reform Amendment/Statute

[Gabu]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

[WMS]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

I agree with Gabu - getting agreement on this bill is like herding cats. ;-P

[Gabu]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

I agree with Gabu - getting agreement on this bill is like herding cats. ;-P

Well, as far as I can tell, all we need to fix now is the issue of what to do in the event of a tie.  If we can either get Supersoulty to agree to the above idea or to agree to extend the debate and then work something out in a week, we'll be good.

[Akno21]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

I agree with Gabu - getting agreement on this bill is like herding cats. ;-P

Well, as far as I can tell, all we need to fix now is the issue of what to do in the event of a tie.  If we can either get Supersoulty to agree to the above idea or to agree to extend the debate and then work something out in a week, we'll be good.

You realize this doesn't have to be approved 10-0?

[WMS]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

I agree with Gabu - getting agreement on this bill is like herding cats. ;-P

Well, as far as I can tell, all we need to fix now is the issue of what to do in the event of a tie.  If we can either get Supersoulty to agree to the above idea or to agree to extend the debate and then work something out in a week, we'll be good.

Indeed. Perhaps as follows:

If the candidates agree to either split their term of office or agree to have the Governors break the tie, then that mechanism will be used. If the candidates cannot agree on a tiebreaking method, then the random number method will be used.

[Gabu]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

I agree with Gabu - getting agreement on this bill is like herding cats. ;-P

Well, as far as I can tell, all we need to fix now is the issue of what to do in the event of a tie.  If we can either get Supersoulty to agree to the above idea or to agree to extend the debate and then work something out in a week, we'll be good.

You realize this doesn't have to be approved 10-0?

Yes, but I don't exactly want to simply ram it through without consideration of everyone else.  If we absolutely cannot reach an equitable solution, then I'll just leave it and hope for the best, but I hope to accommodate as many people as possible.

[Akno21]

Gabu, could you point out the most recent version of the amendment and statute so we can begin voting?

Er, can we extend debate for one more week?  We're very close, but we're still not quite at the point where this can be voted on yet, as there are still changes people would like made.

I agree with Gabu - getting agreement on this bill is like herding cats. ;-P

Well, as far as I can tell, all we need to fix now is the issue of what to do in the event of a tie.  If we can either get Supersoulty to agree to the above idea or to agree to extend the debate and then work something out in a week, we'll be good.

You realize this doesn't have to be approved 10-0?

Yes, but I don't exactly want to simply ram it through without consideration of everyone else.  If we absolutely cannot reach an equitable solution, then I'll just leave it and hope for the best, but I hope to accomodate as many people as possible.

Have any other Senators aside from yourself, WMS, and Supersoulty chimed in on this?

[Gabu]

Have any other Senators aside from yourself, WMS, and Supersoulty chimed in on this?

No, and I wish they would have, because I have absolutely no idea if this has any support or not and we're just about out of time before voting begins.

On another note, I know you're out there somewhere, Supersoulty.  Is there anything that we can work out as a compromise, or are you holding fast to your idea that the governors should vote without anything else occuring before it?

[WMS]

Have any other Senators aside from yourself, WMS, and Supersoulty chimed in on this?

No, and I wish they would have, because I have absolutely no idea if this has any support or not and we're just about out of time before voting begins.

On another note, I know you're out there somewhere, Supersoulty.  Is there anything that we can work out as a compromise, or are you holding fast to your idea that the governors should vote without anything else occuring before it?

*bump*

Opinions welcome...

[King]

It's been about two weeks since the bill's intro (twice the legal limit), debate has stopped, and it looks like the bill is ready to be voted on. Phil, will ye do the honors?

[Gabu]

Well, uh, since Supersoulty appears determined not to give any input, and since nobody else is saying much of anything, I guess this is the final version to be voted on:

Election and Voter Policy Specification Amendment

§ 1. Article II, Section 2, Clause 4 is hereby amended by appending to the end of it the following text:

"For the purposes of this clause, the amending of one's vote is defined to be the editing of the post containing the vote."

§ 2. The amended version of Article II, Section 2, Clause 4 shall hereby be applied to all federal elections.

§ 3. The following text from Article V, Clause 4 is hereby stricken:

"No one who has attained eighteen posts, is an active member of the forum, and has established an avatar from the United States for at least the time span of the election shall be denied the right to vote. An active member is defined as a person who has participated in other threads at the forum and has not joined for the purpose of trolling."

It shall be replaced with the following text:

"No one who has attained eighteen posts shall be denied the right to register to vote.  No one who is registered to vote, who is an active member, and who has established either an avatar from the United States or a statement declaring his or her registration in his or her signature for at least the time span of the election shall be denied the right to vote.  The Senate shall be granted the power to define what an active voter is through appropriate legislation.  The burden of proof shall be placed on the Secretary of Forum Affairs to prove that a registered voter is not active; if it cannot be proven, the voter shall be assumed to be active."

§ 4. The parts in Section 3 pertaining to the requirement of registered voters to be active members shall not be enforced on voters who have registered prior to the passage of this amendment until they have voted in at least one federal election.

§ 5. The following text from Amendment II, Section 2, is hereby stricken:

"Every registered vote at the forum who has acquired eighteen posts, is an active member of the forum, and are registered with an avatar from the United States".

It shall be replaced with the following text:

"Every person who fulfills the requirements to vote as specified in Article V, Clause 4 of the Constitution".

§ 6. Article II, Section 2, Clause 5 of the Constitution is hereby stricken.

Statute of Election Procedure, Certification, and Challenges

§ 1.

  Clause 1. No election results shall be deemed to be official except those which have been certified.

  Clause 2. The certification of election results that occur following the passage of this amendment as official shall consist of the Secretary of Forum Affairs releasing an official statement, signed by that official, displaying the uncertified results in question and declaring them to be hereby certified.

  Clause 3. All election results in place prior to the passage of this amendment are hereby declared to be certified without requiring a statement from the Secretary of Forum Affairs.

§ 2.

  Clause 1. No election results shall be challenged except those which are awaiting certification or those which have been certified less than seven days prior to the challenge and which have occurred following the passage of this statute.

  Clause 2. To challenge an election result, a formal statement of challenge must be brought before the Supreme Court indicating the challenged result and the reason for challenging the result.

  Clause 3. In considering the challenge, the Supreme Court shall examine relevent parts of the Constitution and Atlasian law, and each member of the Court shall determine whether or not the challenge is legitimate.

  Clause 4. In the event that a majority of the Supreme Court concurs that the challenge is legitimate, appropriate action shall be taken to rectify the challenged section of the result:

    a. If the challenged section is a vote that has been counted, it shall be stricken from the official count.
    b. If the challenged section is a vote that has been disregarded, it shall be entered into the official count.
    c. If the challenged section is the procedure of the election, the election shall be declared invalid and a new election shall be scheduled for the Friday following the declaration of the invalidity of the election.

§ 3.

  Clause 1. In the case that a tie arises in any part of an election, the method described in Clause 2 shall be applied to break this tie.

  Clause 2. A runoff shall be held between the candidates in the tie.  If one of the candidates in the tie receives greater than fifty percent of the vote in the runoff, that candidate shall be declared the victor of the tie.  If no candidate receives greater than fifty percent of the vote, the method described in Clause 3 shall be applied.

  Clause 3. The candidates in the tie shall be given an option to apply the method either of Clause 4, 5, and 6 or of Clause 7.  If a unanimous agreement is made within a week of the request that a decision be made, the agreed upon method shall be applied.  If not, the method of Clause 8 shall be applied.

  Clause 4. The President shall choose a number between one and ten and shall confer this number to the Secretary of Forum Affairs and to the Chief Justice.  Once receipt of this number by both parties is confirmed, the candidates in the tie shall attempt to guess the original number chosen.  Whichever candidate guesses closest to the number shall be declared the winner of the tie.  In the event that two or more guesses are equidistant from the original number, this shall result in a tie, and the process shall be repeated until this event does not occur.

  Clause 5. In the event that any of the office holders listed either are themselves candidates present in the tie or are not present to fulfill their duty, those in the aforementioned situation shall be replaced by the highest office holder in the following list who is not a candidate present in the tie and who is present to fulfill the duty:

    Vice President
    President Pro Tempore
    Secretary of State
    Secretary of Forum Affairs
    Attorney General
    Secretary of Defense
    Secretary of the Treasury
    Senior Associate Justice
    Junior Associate Justice
    1A Senator
    1B Senator
    2A Senator
    2B Senator
    3A Senator
    3B Senator
    4A Senator
    4B Senator
    5A Senator
    5B Senator

  Clause 6. In the event that all office holders listed in Clause 5 either are candidates in the tie or are not present to fulfill the duty, the President shall appoint one to three citizens able to fulfill the duty, depending on how many are needed to fill the vacant positions, and the citizen(s) shall then be required to be approved by the Senate by a majority vote before the number shall be selected.

  Clause 7. The candidates in the tie shall agree upon a schedule according to which the candidates shall divide the term among themselves.  The schedule shall be allowed to be whatever the candidates agree upon, provided that its total length of time is exactly equal to one full term.  Upon the expiration of one office holder's term, the next shall be automatically eligible to swear himself or herself in without the guidance of the Chief Justice.

  Clause 8.

    a. The governors shall each vote for one candidate of the candidates in the tie for who shall be the victor.  Whichever candidate receives the most votes shall be declared the victor in the election.

    b. In the event that no candidate receives more votes than any others, debate among the governors shall commence until one governor is ready to change his or her vote to break the tie.

§ 4.

  Clause 1. Tie-breaker tampering, defined to be the action of conferring the number to be guessed upon to anyone not stated in Section 3, Clause 4, is hereby declared to be a crime in Atlasia.

  Clause 2. Anyone found to have committed tie-breaker tampering shall have his or her voting rights suspended for no less than five months, but no greater than seven months.

  Clause 3. The Supreme Court shall be given the ability to enforce this section through appropriate sentencing.

§ 5. An "active voter", as the term appears in Article V, Clause 4 of the Constitution, is hereby defined to be one who has posted at least twenty-five times since the last federal election in which he or she voted, or one who has not been given the chance yet to vote in any federal election.

§ 6. This statute shall be applied to all federal elections.

I'm too burnt out to comment on why this should be voted for at the moment.  I'll do that later.

[Keystone Phil]

Voting will open now. All those in favor, please vote Yea, all those opposed vote Nay.

[Gabu]

Voting will open now. All those in favor, please vote Yea, all those opposed vote Nay.

There really should be two votes, since there are two pieces of legislation in question (although they're closely linked).

Yea/Yea.

For those who oppose these ideas of term splitting and the random number selection, it should be noted that these ideas are not something that must happen.  They will only happen if every single candidate is okay with the idea.  Otherwise, the goverors will vote.  You won't be voting to require those ideas if you vote in favor of this.

[Keystone Phil]

Voting will open now. All those in favor, please vote Yea, all those opposed vote Nay.

There really should be two votes, since there are two pieces of legislation in question (although they're closely linked).

Yea/Yea.

The Senator's point is recognized. Reminder to all Senators that there are two seperate votes because of two seperate pieces of legislation before the Senate.

[12th Doctor]

Yea/Yea

[??????????]

Nay/Nay

[WMS]

Yea/Yea.

[WMS]

*bump*

Voting has begun.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Aye/Aye

[Gabu]

Can we get some more votes on this?  The amendment needs three more votes to pass or four to fail; the statute needs two to pass or five to fail.

[Keystone Phil]

For the record, I don't know where people are getting the idea that I ran against migrendel and umengus. That never happened.

[King]

For the record, I don't know where people are getting the idea that I ran against migrendel and umengus. That never happened.

That was Bono.

[Nym90]

Yea/Yea

[Siege40]

Ja/Ja.

Siege

[Defarge]

Yea/Yea