Emergency suspension of elections act

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Han Held
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Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Han Held »

Rationale

1) The CDS has many enemies who work and conspire endlessly to undermine our democracy and we are obligated to anticipate and thwart any potential efforts which they can make.

2) The CDS has reached a point where our residents no longer maintain sufficient interest in participating in government to gather a sufficient number of candidates to hold a viable, competitive election

3) Our enemies within and without are eager to use this opportunity as a pretext to justify their spurious grievences, necessitating a swift and decisive action from the CDS government.

4) Dwindling citizen interest over the course of 2015 indicates that this state of apathy is a long-term condition, and not a transient phase.

Scope:
This act addresses two concerns.
Short term concern: the legality of the 2015 elections, specifically the legality of the 24th RA, considering the lack of candidates
Long term concerns: citizen interest in participation has evaporated. now is the time to set the legal groundwork for coping with the legal issues surrounding elections held without a sufficient number of candidates, or elections held with uncontested candidates.

Proposal:

The RA will convene an emergency vote to be held over the message board ratifying this act, I ...Han Held...will start that thread. This thread will be for the purposes of voting, not discussion

Rosie Gray will be declared RA, or the office shall be left vacant for 180 days until the spring 2016 elections.

The SC shall declare the 2015 elections suspended for a period of no less than 30 days, and no longer than 180 days. In that time the SC will make statements ...alone or together... which address the following issues:

The constitutional validity of office holders who are elected uncontested.

The legal authority of an RA which has less than 5 members.
The minimum number of members needed to declare the RA legally valid
The steps required to dissolve the RA in the event that 5 candidates are not able to be found

After these issues have been faced, either the SC or a panel of individuals sanctioned by the SC will declare elections resumed.

Postscript:
We are all volunteers and there is nothing which compels us to face hard decisions or to face facts which we are unwilling to face. But by failing to address the lack of participation (both the reasons for it and the legal ramifications of it) we run the risk of this experiment turning into what our critics have always accused of us being: a role-play and not a vital experiment in self-government. Our enemies will be questioning the validity of our elections, it would be so very good of us to consider how we will answer them or if we will simply allow others to believe our critics right.

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Han Held »

Am I serious? No. In fact -my "legalese" is littered with flaws and imprecise language.
What I am, is sincere.

We need to have the SC make a legally binding statement on the validity of officeholders who run uncontested; I remember a jackass making lots of hay around this earlier this year.

We need to wrestle with the legal authority of an RA which has less than 5 members, all of whom run unopposed.

This election Rosie has thrown her hat into the ring; what about when no one comes forward in 2016? Or when only one person is willing to do the work of the RA?

At what point do we simply say "fuck it" to even having an RA?

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Coop »

Read CDSL 20-02 By-election Procedures Act

It explains the process if there are not enough candidates for RA. The big thing is we don't know until the Dean announces the list. Someone may have dropped a card without posting on the Forum.

You do raise a very valid point in that we have way more government than we have bodies to run it.

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Han Held »

Coop wrote:

Read CDSL 20-02 By-election Procedures Act

Thank you for the pointer; I'm going to go read it, but that would make my proposal superfluous it sounds like. That still leaves the social issue of people not wanting to participate --but that's a different kind of urgent.

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Han Held »

For easy reference, here's the text of 20-02

CDSL 20-02 By-election Procedures Act

Enacted 10 May 2014

Preamble:

The laws of the CDS do not provide a clear set of directions for the SC to use in scheduling by-elections. This act is intended to provide a clear procedure to use in scheduling by-elections, that complies with CDSL 16-04 Citizenship membership publication for election purposes, CDSL 13-09 Campaigning Act, CDSL 13-04 Chancellor Direct Election Constitutional Amendment Act, CDSL 13-05 Chancellor Election Act and the Constitution.

Section 1 – Resignations from the RA or Chancellorship:

Where an official resignation is received on or before July 31st or January 31st, and the regular elections for the sitting RA and Chancellor had excess candidates who did not attain a seat, the regular election software will be run again using the data from the regular election, to establish the order in which the unsuccessful candidates would have been elected, had there been additional seats on RA available or multiple positions for Chancellor. The Dean of the SC will ask such candidates, in order, if they wish to fill the vacant RA seat or Chancellorship. Once a candidate accepts, the Dean will publish the results and announce the name of the candidate who has accepted. That candidate will be sworn into office as soon as possible.

Where there were no unsuccessful candidates in the regular election, or where no qualified candidate accepts the seat or Chancellorship, a by-election will be held as per Section 2.

Section 2: Schedule for Byelections:

To ensure a current Citizen List is in place in the event of a by-election, a census will be taken on the last Friday of July, August, January and February and will be used to create a Citizen List, using the procedures legislated in CDSL 16-04 Citizenship membership publication for election purposes.This Citizen List shall be posted in the Forums, on the portal, and inworld by the Chancellor,(or in the event of a Chancellor resignation, the Dean of the SC) with information on how to challenge inclusion or exclusion from the list . Any citizen may challenge inclusions or exclusions within 14 days of publication, by notecard to the Dean of the SC. Where no challenges have been received, or once any challenges have been resolved, the Citizen List will be declared accurate and official.

If a resignation is received on or before March 31st, or on or before September 30th, the most recent Citizen List shall be used to establish those who qualify to stand for election or to vote.

The SC shall meet and create a schedule for the by-election, ensuring that all of the following timeframes are observed:

The Dean of the SC will open new applications on the day notice was officially published in the Forums and close applications after a week.
The Dean of the SC will declare the Citizen List to be official once the deadline for challenges has passed, and when any challenges have been resolved.
Only those citizens whose names appear on the official Citizen List may run for office or vote in the by- election.
The Dean of the SC will ensure that all candidates are listed on the Citizen List and will publish an official list of candidates to the Forums and inworld.

The campaigning period may begin at noon SLT on the Saturday following the publication of the official candidate list, but not before noon SLT on the 22nd day following the date the census was conducted.

The polls for by-election may open at noon SLT the following Saturday, but not before the 29th day following the date the census was conducted, and will remain open for 168 hours. In the event of a server outage which prevents citizens from casting ballots and which lasts more than 12 hours, the Dean of the SC has the authority to adjust or extend the election schedule.

Section 3: Resignations During the Last Third of a Term:

Where an official resignation is published on or after April 1st or October 1st no by-election will be held and the seat or Chancellorship will remain vacant until the next regular elections.

I see that there's a mechanism for nominating succesors in the event of a resignation, but I don't see much which applies to this situation.

As I read 20-02, there's a mechanism to retake the census and then renew the call for nominations; but I don't see any provisions to cope with the situation if there's no one to fill the seat.

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Aliasi Stonebender »

I really dislike it when people panic prematurely. The deadline is on the 28th, noon SLT... but I do not even get home from work until 6:30 pm SLT, usually.

As it happens, five people at least have sent notecards to me. I haven't finished collating them all, yet.

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Han Held »

Aliasi Stonebender wrote:

I really dislike it when people panic

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's what happens when people don't communicate with each other. How the flying CAN'TSAYTHATONACHRISTIANMESSAGEBOARD am I supposed to know when you get home? Do I know you?

No more than you know me, probably far less, in fact!

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Re: Emergency suspension of elections act

Post by Aliasi Stonebender »

No, but I suggest holding your panic until the day after on an asynchronous medium is perhaps wise.

Also, nothin' Christian about this messageboard shit. Shit, shit, shiiiiiit.

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