Petition to the Senate.

[Wisconsin+17]

Hello sirs.

I would like to petition the senate to make a ruling regarding my official residency. Upon my change in party affiliation, I accidentally changed my state to Alaska and not Texas. I corrected this within 20 minutes of posting to my preferred residency of Texas, where I have resided for the previous year.

From what I can see is that existing legislation has no such provisions for cancelling an unwanted regional move. A clear oversight.

Thank you sirs for accepting my petition to the senate.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

1. Is this even legal?
2. Just give up already.

[Wisconsin+17]

Honorable sir, are you a senator?

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Honorable sir, are you a senator?

I am your Member of Parliament and I feel compelled to make my voice heard regardless.

[Wisconsin+17]

I am your Member of Parliament and I feel compelled to make my voice heard regardless.

Then lets hear what the Senate has to say about this. The voting laws have rules regarding changed votes. If a vote is changed late then the vote is invalidated. If it is changed within a certain period then the vote counts.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I am your Member of Parliament and I feel compelled to make my voice heard regardless.

Then lets hear what the Senate has to say about this. The voting laws have rules regarding changed votes. If a vote is changed late then the vote is invalidated. If it is changed within a certain period then the vote counts.

There's already a law on the books which you could actually use instead of calling for new legislation that's never going to happen.
Both Houses of Congress can, with a 2/3rds majority, override the region lock. That's your only option.

3. Persons may only change their State of registration from one region to another region once every 180 days. Changes in State of registration may only occur within a single region every 72 hours.
4. Upon voluntary deregistration, a person may not be allowed to register again until 168 hours have passed and, unless they were resident in their region of residence and/or deregistered for the previous 180 days  may not register in another region.
5. Congress, by a 2/3rds vote in each chamber, may unilaterally suspend Section 14 clause 3 in times of an emergency.

[Former President tack50]

1. Is this even legal?
2. Just give up already.

Honorable sir, are you a senator?

Ok, as an actual member of the Senate, I will try to answer the questions.

Regarding ASV, this seems to be illegal. As per the Close the Regional Loophole Act of 2019:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=314428.msg6700777

4. Upon voluntary deregistration, a person may not be allowed to register again until 168 hours have passed and, unless they were resident in their region of residence and/or deregistered for the previous 180 days  may not register in another region.
5. Congress, by a 2/3rds vote in each chamber, may unilaterally suspend Section 14 clause 3 in times of an emergency.

Unless there's an emergency in the South I don't know of, it seems Registrar General Peebs has the last word and she has ruled you have officially moved to Fremont.

As for Ben Kenobi's question, I guess we could debate this, but it almost certainly is going nowhere so there isn't much of a point to do so.

This does raise some questions and I guess we could introduce legislation to prevent this from happening in the future, but for now, you are stuck in Fremont for 6 months.

[Wisconsin+17]

As for Ben Kenobi's question, I guess we could debate this, but it almost certainly is going nowhere so there isn't much of a point to do so.

This does raise some questions and I guess we could introduce legislation to prevent this from happening in the future, but for now, you are stuck in Fremont for 6 months.

Existing legislation could be modified with a 'cool-off' period where moves could be cancelled within a day. That would handle these cases without permitting common abuses.

At present the legislation says nothing about when the move becomes valid. One could argue that with this loophole that any move so long as the original post is edited would constitute a valid move, which is contrary to the spirit of the law.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Isn't there already a cooloff period between the region change and before the next census? I thought you can revoke a region change within a week, but I'm not sure.

[Wisconsin+17]

Isn't there already a cooloff period between the region change and before the next census? I thought you can revoke a region change within a week, but I'm not sure.

Hence my petition here for clarification.

[Former President tack50]

As for Ben Kenobi's question, I guess we could debate this, but it almost certainly is going nowhere so there isn't much of a point to do so.

This does raise some questions and I guess we could introduce legislation to prevent this from happening in the future, but for now, you are stuck in Fremont for 6 months.

Existing legislation could be modified with a 'cool-off' period where moves could be cancelled within a day. That would handle these cases without permitting common abuses.

At present the legislation says nothing about when the move becomes valid. One could argue that with this loophole that any move so long as the original post is edited would constitute a valid move, which is contrary to the spirit of the law.

Indeed, and I might introduce legislation to that effect shortly. But even if I (or someone else) did and got passed, it wouldn't apply retroactively.

[Wisconsin+17]

Indeed, and I might introduce legislation to that effect shortly. But even if I (or someone else) did and got passed, it wouldn't apply retroactively.

First it needs to be determined whether there isn't already a cool off period.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Indeed, and I might introduce legislation to that effect shortly. But even if I (or someone else) did and got passed, it wouldn't apply retroactively.

First it needs to be determined whether there isn't already a cool off period.

There isn't.

[Wisconsin+17]

I will wait for the actual Senators to cite the existing laws.

[Former President tack50]

I will wait for the actual Senators to cite the existing laws.

I unfortunately am locked out of the Atlasia wiki right now, but the relevant law here should be the Federal Electoral Act (F.L. 1-9).

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I will wait for the actual Senators to cite the existing laws.

Already have. Federal Electoral Act (F.L. 1-9), after the passage of the regional deregistration loophole amendment (F.L. 17-1), Section 14:

3. Persons may only change their State of registration from one region to another region once every 180 days. Changes in State of registration may only occur within a single region every 72 hours.
4. Upon voluntary deregistration, a person may not be allowed to register again until 168 hours have passed and, unless they were resident in their region of residence and/or deregistered for the previous 180 days  may not register in another region.
5. Congress, by a 2/3rds vote in each chamber, may unilaterally suspend Section 14 clause 3 in times of an emergency.

[Wisconsin+17]

If this is indeed the law, there is no statement within it as to when the registration post becomes legal for the purposes of the law. A day? A week? An hour? It does not say.

[IceAgeComing]

The legal precedent is that if no period is cited in law then the standard is that it instantly applies.

[Wisconsin+17]

The legal precedent is that if no period is cited in law then the standard is that it instantly applies.

I'd love to see those precedents cited.

[IceAgeComing]

Its a basic legal principle; if you have legislation that doesn't cite an exception and there aren't other laws on the topic that suggest an exception then legally no exception exists.  It might be silly or dumb or whatever but that doesn't matter: the legal position is that no exception applies.  Same goes incidentally for future amendments; you can't retroactively change legislation to allow something from the past to stand.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

If it was required that every single clause had an effective date/time then our laws would be rather complex and as porous as Swiss Cheese.

As iceage said, in the absence of an explicit exception, the effectiveness is immediate. 

[Wisconsin+17]

If it was required that every single clause had an effective date/time then our laws would be rather complex and as porous as Swiss Cheese.

As iceage said, in the absence of an explicit exception, the effectiveness is immediate.

Past versions of this law have had a cool-off period. I don't see how it would undermine this law to amend it.

[IceAgeComing]

Amendments couldn't be retroactive though; so you'd be in the same position.  Its a good idea to amend the law for the future but I'm afraid that you're sort of stuck in your current position.

[Attorney General & Senator Dwarven Dragon]

Amendments couldn't be retroactive though; so you'd be in the same position.  Its a good idea to amend the law for the future but I'm afraid that you're sort of stuck in your current position.

As for Ben Kenobi's question, I guess we could debate this, but it almost certainly is going nowhere so there isn't much of a point to do so.

This does raise some questions and I guess we could introduce legislation to prevent this from happening in the future, but for now, you are stuck in Fremont for 6 months.

Existing legislation could be modified with a 'cool-off' period where moves could be cancelled within a day. That would handle these cases without permitting common abuses.

At present the legislation says nothing about when the move becomes valid. One could argue that with this loophole that any move so long as the original post is edited would constitute a valid move, which is contrary to the spirit of the law.

Indeed, and I might introduce legislation to that effect shortly. But even if I (or someone else) did and got passed, it wouldn't apply retroactively.

The chamber is within its rights to pass a cool-off period bill that also gives one free region move to Kenobi Specifically, and it should do so because of this clear and honest mistake.

[FairBol]

As the Attorney General of the South, I am looking into what can be done to bring this matter to a agreeable conclusion.