NE1: Official Language Act [Passed]

[Poirot]

Number 2 and 3 of the proposal formalize the current situation. English is the language used in the assembly to debate and adopt laws. When there is a court case, the language of the court proceeding is also English. It is expected these bodies function in English but there doesn't seem to be a rule about it.

It is useful to define the common language because it makes it difficult for everyone to understand and participate if there are different languages used. If a bill is presented in another language than English many people would have to use translators to understand. In using translation you risk losing subtlety in meaning of the words. When interpreting laws the meaning of words are important. An example would be "within 7 days" and the different meanings are given to that simple expression.

Number 4 is to make the job of the election official easy and the process transparent. I have seen in other parts of Atlasia ballots filled using candidate names with cyrillic script or other alphabet (on my screen I only could see litlle squares). I don't think the election official should need to translate ballots and the voting process is more transparent if everyone can see and verify votes and the count. I don't think it discriminates other language speakers, you just have to copy and paste from the official ballot.

I have used the term Latin script to make it larger and include like accented characters that are easily readable. It leaves out smileys for voting because we use other forms of valid sign to mark voting intentions.

[Poirot]

To illustrate what point number 4 is addressing, I found an example in the IDS December 2012 regional election, a post made on Dec. 22.
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=166715.msg3564158#msg3564158

I don't know how they are going to deal with this vote. With my proposal the election official would not have the extra work of translating a ballot.

Point number 2 helps the assembly deal with the situation of a citizen submitting a bill in a foreign language (if the situation ever happens). We would not be forced to translate it. I could change the wording to Laws must be written in English, if it is deemed better.   

[Poirot]

Perhaps that is the most the assembly will agree with. I tried to regroup a few aspects related to the language used in the game official functions in a coherent bill.

I think the content of my bill proposal is only what is expected from citizens. If someone proposed a bill in Japanese to be original of for the fun of it, what would the assembly do. I imagine something like please resubmit it in English so all people understand it and we can debate it. Basically laws need to be in English.

It's not of extreme importance to me. I expected reluctance from what I observed in Atlasia when the topic of language is discussed. 

[Poirot]

I will say friendly.

[Poirot]

I have a minor thing to add.

I think a typo. In clause 1, change is to it, so will read "by which it was presented to the voter".

For clause 2, I don't see how we could change election results retroactively but I don't have a problem with it if we need this security.

I don't have objection to end debate tonight.

[Poirot]

I insert the modification of is to it.

I offer the following amendment:

The Official Ballot Language Act

1. The official language of the Northeast is English.
2. Laws must be adopted in the official language.
3. The judicial system operates in the official language.
4.1. Voting ballot must be filled using Latin script. For a ballot to be counted in a regional election, it must be cast in the same language by which it was presented to the voter.
2. This act may not be applied retroactively to any election before the enactment of this act.

[Poirot]

aye