Vetoed Electoral Act

[End]

A
BILL
To

Amend the constitution and provide for elections

The people of Democracy Craft, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

1 - Short Title and Enactment
(1) This Act may be cited as the “Electoral Act”.
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

2 - Reasons
(1) To simplify and consolidate election laws into one act.
(2) This bill has too many working parts to include in what has been removed, changed, added etc. There were minor changes to wording and format which I encourage people to cross check with the constitution and the below acts of congress. Where necessary, use a text comparator as well.

3 - Consolidation
The following will be overridden and will be merged under this act as replies.
a. https://democracycraft.net/threads/second-system-of-proportional-representation-act.3744/
b. https://democracycraft.net/threads/proportional-representation-constitutional-amendment-act.2177/
c. https://democracycraft.net/threads/constitutional-amendment-act-december-2020.2589/
d. https://democracycraft.net/threads/election-law-constitutional-amendment-act.1487/
e. https://democracycraft.net/threads/elections-amendment-act.1778/
f. https://democracycraft.net/threads/the-pugbandit-people’s-choice-constitution-amendment-act-february-2021.3591/
g. https://forums.democracycraft.net/threads/special-election-act.1035/

4 - Constitutional Inclusion
Sections 5, 6, and 7 shall be included in the Constitution.

5- Electoral Terms and Limitations
(1) The Supreme Court of Redmont is to act as the Court of Disputed Returns.
(2) A citizen can only sit in one chamber; Where a citizen is elected to both chambers, it will be that they assume their seat in the Senate and forfeit their Seat in the House of Representatives.
(3) Candidates are to make their official political party affiliations known or if none, opt to run as an independent. Failure to identify a party affiliation will result in the candidate being declared an independent.
(4) Each candidate is to be listed separately on the ballot with their party in parentheses by their name.
(5) The entirety of Congress enters “caretaker mode” during an election period. Between the 1st-10th day of an electoral month is the Election Period.
(6) False party affiliations will be excluded at the request of the relevant party leader.
(7) All citizens eligible to vote shall be granted one vote.

6 - House of Representatives
(1) Elections for the House of Representatives shall be conducted through a system of Proportional Representation outlined in the Electoral Act.
(2) In order to run for the House of Representatives, citizens need to meet these requirements:

• Has accrued 24 hours playtime prior to declaring their intent to contest the election on the forums.
• Is an active participant in the community, in-game, on discord, and on the forums.

(3) House of Representatives Duration
2 Month Term
(4) House of Representatives Election Months:
January, March, May, July, September, and November

7 - Senate
(1) Elections for the Senate shall be conducted through a system of block voting outlined in the Electoral Act.
(2) The Senate shall be divided into two classes, Class A and Class B. Class A Senators are elected in January, May, and September elections. Class B Senators are elected in March, July, and November elections.
a. Where the entire Senate is up for election, the highest polling 50% of Senators shall be assigned to Class A while the remaining Senators shall be assigned to Class B.
(3) In order to run for the Senate, citizens need to meet these requirements:

• Has accrued 72 hours playtime prior to declaring their intent to contest the election on the forums
• Is an active participant in the community, in-game, on discord, and on the forums.

(4) Senate Duration
4 Month Term
(5) Senate Election Months:
Class A:
January, May, September
Class B:
March, July, November

8 - Seat Allocation
(a) Once voting has concluded, all votes cast to candidates of the same party are pooled. Independents shall stand on their own and for all electoral purposes are considered a 'party'.
(b) The number of votes the party or independent as a whole received shall be divided by the total number of votes cast to determine the “Party Share”.
(c) The total number of seats being contested shall be multiplied by the Party Share to determine the party’s seats.
(d) All parties and independents shall be awarded a number of seats equal to the whole number determined in the previous step.
(e) Should any seats remain unallocated, the party with the next highest decimal seats shall be granted a seat until all seats are allocated.
(f) The order in which the seats will be distributed to candidates will be determined by their popularity in the election, with seats being awarded to the most popular candidate of the party first, then going down from most popular to least popular to fill all of a party’s seats. If a party wins more seats than it has candidates, its extra seats shall be reapportioned in accordance with point e.

9 - Special Elections
(1) Congress may motion to hold a special election for a Congressional vacancy.
(2) After the motion has been approved by simple majority, it then must receive Presidential Assent.
(3) Should the President decline to grant assent for the special election motion, this may not be overruled.
(4) If assent was granted, the election shall take place 3 days thereafter, the public shall immediately be notified to allow candidates to campaign and officially submit their intent to run.
(5) A special election shall consist of a 48 nomination period and 24 hour voting period.
(6) Whichever candidate reached a plurality shall fill the vacancy.
(7) In the event of a tie, Congress shall choose between the highest voted candidates that tied.
(8) There shall not be a caretaker mode when a special election occurs.
(9) The results of a special election will become the most recent election from where another 14 day period will commence.

10 - Vacant Seats
(1) Where a seat in a chamber becomes vacant, the relevant presiding officer is obligated to do the following:
a. If it has been 14 days or less since the last election, or 14 days or less until the next election, the Speaker must nominate the next winning candidate according to the electoral system used in the election. For the nominee to assume office, they must attain a supermajority approval in both chambers.
b. Outside of the above bounds, a special election will automatically take place.
c. Congress must vote on a nomination within four days of the seat becoming vacant. A special election will be automatically triggered where there are no suitable candidates in the most recent election; 4 days has elapsed and the vacancy has not been filled; or a special election has been successfully motioned.

11 - Removal of Congresswoman/Congressman
If a Representative or Senator is no longer fit for office, they can be removed from Congress early by the relevant presiding officer with the consent of all members of their chamber (Excluding the individual in question).

 

[Lord_Donuticus]

AYE - Law consolidation is POG, we need more of this.

 

[HugeBob]

This bill has been vetoed and has failed to become law for the following reasons:

I support this bill nearly in it's entirety. I see some minor tweaks made to the electoral process, and like them. Most appreciated is the process for class allocation in the Senate in the event that the Senate has been dissolved and the entire chamber is up for election.

HOWEVER, the bill was ultimately vetoed as it states, "Elections for the Senate shall be conducted through a system of block voting outlined in the Electoral Act." and never defines the system of block voting to be used. While we could leave this to executive discretion, the bill does have a seat allocation section, but this section appears to be a proportional representation system, likely defining the process for the House of Representatives. While block voting may seem to be extremely common sense, it isn't defined anywhere and most recently this led to a Senate election wherein the citizens could only cast one vote versus the old system wherein citizens could cast a number of votes equal to the number of seats being contested.

Re-propose with a clear definition of the block voting process for the Senate and it will be passed easily. If the intent was to extend Proportional Representation to the Senate, make such clear as I do not believe that is how legislators interpreted the bill when it was voted on.​