Southern Regional Committee

[Leinad]

I'll wait for Leinad to do his declaring as chair of this committee, but I will say that after this I think we can unanimously appoint Peebs (As I think we all agree, I may be wrong though).

I concur, as long as she is willing to join!

Well, I am willing to join, so it's all good!

With no objections and a majority in support, I officially declare Peebs as member of the Committee!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I also support Peebs for the record.

[Leinad]

Okay, the next/current order of business is this:

1. Determine when we want elections (and referendums) to be conducted and how we do so. Personally, I think this is the most important and should be debated on first before we get to the humdrum things.

We can't choose what month the Senate elections are (amending the Constitution is way above our jurisdiction), but we can most certainly decide when in the month Senate elections are (a set date? Or relative (before/after/simultaneous with) the Presidential/House elections?), not to mention when we have the Gubernatorial elections, Legislative elections, and referendums.

Thoughts?

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

I don't think I worded some of this right, and I couldn't find anything for the lengths of legislative terms, but whatever.

My suggestion is that we hold Class I elections alongside Presidential elections, and Class II elections on the 3rd weekend of Aug/Dec/Apr. As for gubernatorial elections, my top two preferences are alongside Class II elections and Sep/Jan/May (same as Legislature of the old South), but that's just me. Legislative elections will be alongside gubernatorial elections if in a 4-month term, and alongside Presidential elections as well if in a 2-month term. As for referendums, I think the second weekend after it is decided that it will be voted on sounds right.

[NeverAgain]

So considering we are not doing the ConCon thing of Article by Article I thought it would be easier to set up a google docs so we can see what we're working with. As y'all know, many of these topics span many articles. I set it to comment only, just because I don't want the trolls in on it. If you guys want to send me your email, I'd be happy to share it with you.

Anyways, I concur with the Committeewoman on this. I think we should keep a semi-status quo for the South as it has been working fine. Elections are the heart and soul of Atlasia, but they aren't all of Atlasia so I think having an election every month (whether regional or federal) would be great.

On the issue of referendums, I would like to discuss this because I want everyone's input on it. In my recent memory, we have used regional referendums solely for regional constitution amendments which I think should continue but I'm just trying to come up with some other rationales for them. And also when the Assembly/Governor can authorize them. Anyways that's my two cents, join me on the Google Docs when you have a chance!

[Leinad]

I'm assuming the Legislature will be two-month terms--or two classes of staggered four-month terms--and the Governorship will be four-month terms. But I suppose we could also change that.

In the old South we had Gubernatorial elections in Apr/Aug/Dec (even-numbered months, same as Class II), while in the old Mideast they had Gubernatorial elections in Jan/May/Sep (odd-numbered months). Based on the presumed timetable of this Committee (i.e. if we finish in a month), having Mar/Jul/Nov might be a good idea.

I think we need to have Legislative elections in odd-numbered months--i.e. not simultaneous with Presidential/Senatorial/House elections. I like how, in the old South, we had either the Regional Senator, the Governor, or the Legislature up every month. Now, of course, we have Regional Senate elections every two months, so we'll have to hold two of those simultaneously. But still, I'd totally prefer with Jan/Mar/May/Jul/Sep/Nov for the Legislative elections.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

On the issue of referendums, I would like to discuss this because I want everyone's input on it. In my recent memory, we have used regional referendums solely for regional constitution amendments which I think should continue but I'm just trying to come up with some other rationales for them. And also when the Assembly/Governor can authorize them. Anyways that's my two cents, join me on the Google Docs when you have a chance!

I am not sure the Fourth Constitution gives as much flexibility on how to administer regional ratification for amendments to the Fourth Constitution. The previous constitution had an explicit amendment (#17) passed as part of the MaroDuke reform agenda in March 2013 to allow Regions the ability to make the decision on how to ratify such amendments. One of the few pro-regional reforms that we actually managed to get passed, most of them were always blocked by anti-region zealots. The south started doing it from the legislature in late 2014/early 2015 if I recall correctly.

One thing is for sure, all amendments to the Regional Constitution should be voted on by the people, the alternative is too risky (rimjob). I would also recommend defaulting to nay on anything BK writes unless you have memorized it word for word and examined for clauses composed in invisible ink as well.

[Leinad]

We should probably have elections on the second-to-last week of each month--not sure about referendums, though.

[Leinad]

This is probably what we should do next:

Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[ ] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[ ] A week before Federal elections

[ ] A week after Federal elections

[ ] Other


Vote will last for 24 hours, or until all members have voted. If "Other" wins, we shall hold another principle vote.

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Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[1] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[2] A week before Federal elections

[3] A week after Federal elections

[4] Other


EDIT: Adding preferences.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[ 2 ] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[ 1 ] A week before Federal elections

[ 3 ] A week after Federal elections

[ ] Other

Narrowly lean towards a week before over simultaneous. I think we should experiment a little, and while it risks lower turnout, this might lead to more focus and attention being placed on the Senate election, which would have the opposite effect.

[Leinad]

Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[2] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[1] A week before Federal elections

[3] A week after Federal elections

[4] Other

I'll go with this. Both for what Yankee said, and because this gives the option for people who lost the Senatorial election to run in the House election last-minute if there's a lack of candidates in the latter. Hopefully that's not a problem we'll have, though, but you never know.

[NeverAgain]

Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[1] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[2] A week before Federal elections

[3] A week after Federal elections

[4] Other

[tmthforu94]

I'd like to see something better figured out in the future, but for now, considering the federal constitution...

[2] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[1] A week before Federal elections

[3] A week after Federal elections

[4] Other

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A week before federal it is.

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So will the June 2016 race for Senate be held alongside the federal election? It's a bit late for the election to take place as we voted.

[tmthforu94]

So will the June 2016 race for Senate be held alongside the federal election? It's a bit late for the election to take place as we voted.

Well, hopefully the federal election starts on the 24th, so then ours could start next weekend. I'm still not quite sure what is happening federally, but I feel that we're prepared to open up the voting booth next weekend. Perhaps we pass a resolution stating that this first election will be next weekend regardless of what happens federally?

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

So will the June 2016 race for Senate be held alongside the federal election? It's a bit late for the election to take place as we voted.

Well, hopefully the federal election starts on the 24th, so then ours could start next weekend. I'm still not quite sure what is happening federally, but I feel that we're prepared to open up the voting booth next weekend. Perhaps we pass a resolution stating that this first election will be next weekend regardless of what happens federally?

I just assumed the federal election would begin next Friday. I will also support a resolution to solidify the June 2016 race for Senate to begin on the 17th.

[Leinad]

So will the June 2016 race for Senate be held alongside the federal election? It's a bit late for the election to take place as we voted.

Well, hopefully the federal election starts on the 24th, so then ours could start next weekend. I'm still not quite sure what is happening federally, but I feel that we're prepared to open up the voting booth next weekend. Perhaps we pass a resolution stating that this first election will be next weekend regardless of what happens federally?

I just assumed the federal election would begin next Friday. I will also support a resolution to solidify the June 2016 race for Senate to begin on the 17th.

I also support that resolution. Is that a majority in favor of it? Not sure if Tmth was explicitly supporting it or merely floating the idea.

I'll assume the former unless he clarifies otherwise, so the Class I Senate Election will definitely happen from June 17th-19th.

[Leinad]

Okay, it's time we speed this up.

Based on NeverAgain's order, we're still on elections and referendums (step 1).

I propose that we hold off discussions on elections to the regional government until we determine the structure of the regional government (step 3), and on referendums until we determine the recall and amending procedures (step 4). This is merely from experience discussing the Judicial Branch of the Federal government at the ConCon--where a previous principle vote before we even thought about the different things we could do made it harder to implement a FAR better plan. Fortunately we overcame that, but not without controversy.

Thus, I think we should go straight to discussion on how regional senators are elected and how they are replaced (step 2), and wait to discuss elections and referendums until we talk about those specific things. Any need for a principle vote on that?

Also, I think we should have the Senate elected by the people. Any need for a principle vote on that?

Once two people consent to both of these things, we'll start discussion on Senator replacement.

[tmthforu94]

Both seem reasonable to me - I support.

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Both seem reasonable to me - I support.

[Leinad]

Good, good.

So, how should we go about replacing Senators? I'm guessing we should probably have an appointment if it's within a certain time from the end of the term, and a special election if it's longer. Thoughts?

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Well, I'd say an appointment seems appropriate if the seat is vacated 28 days before the end of the term. A special election within two weeks of the vacancy if the seat becomes vacant earlier also seems reasonable.

[tmthforu94]

I'm not opposed to letting the Governor make an appointment with approval from the legislature - I'm a proponent of filling a seat and ensuring our proper representation as quickly as possible. If we were to go the special election route, I think it should only be in the first two months and the election should occur as quickly as possible - two weeks is too long in my opinion to wait.