SENATE RESOLUTION: The Recall of Senators Amendment (Passed)

[MAINEiac4434]

I don't like the requirement of 50% turnout. It is hard to get people to turn out for elections. I wonder if we could get that dropped to like 35% or 40%. Because let us be real here, a lot of voters are only going to vote on Presidential, House and Senate races, and that after you send the 10 pms.

Lowering the threshold is dangerous because of the criminal element as demonstrated in this thread.

Agreed, and lowering the threshold will have the double effect of not giving a clear mandate from the region.

It should be difficult to recall elected officials.

[MAINEiac4434]

I would also point out that Rimjob took advantage of a pro-regional reform pushed by Maroduke, which regionalized the manner of administering regional amendment ratification, thus allowing them to opt for regional legislative approval.

There will also be hostile elements, seeking to cheat the system.

Strategic Registration has at various points crippled this game, typically via the Pacific by pulling out dissident residents to supply the numbers to go after another region. Most every example of such, has almost always involved pulling people from the West and this is one of many factors as to why the Pacific and subsequently Fremont has always struggled, since they are frequently the ones being strip mined.

If such were to be attempted again, on the scale Windjammer describes, I would aggressively push for harsh criminal penalties for the ring leaders and move restrictions.

Is it a crime to engage in strategic registration? I guess that could be an ammendment to the criminal code.

Also, it's worth noting that I think the fear of strategic registration is overblown. First, there is a 6 month cooldown on any region changes, which should work to discourage any strategic registration attempts.

Second, strategic registration is a double edged sword. Let's say Labor were to engage in strategic registration in Lincoln (since that was the closest region last election). That would mean moving voters from the South (probably losing seats in the CoD) or Fremont (risking their majorities there). Same goes for the Feds or any other party.

The risks of strategic registration are probably large enough for it not to be done.

Strategic registration is completely legal.

And should remain so -- it's half the fun of the elections!

[MAINEiac4434]

My instincts tell me that Truman is right and that we should give the discretion to the regions on how to structure them. However, once such has been given I: would certainly encourage the regions to make it difficult to abuse the process.

One provision I'd encourage the regions to adopt in the event this passes and is ratified, would be to limit participation in popular recall elections to citizens who were eligible to vote in the last regular election for that seat—thus hopefully avoiding the peril of strategic registration that Windjammer rightly warns of.

What does everyone else think of this idea?

This is actually a really, really important point. I agree with Truman.