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***Roavin*** · 06-25-2016, 06:01 AM

Your honor,

Charter V.4 establishes that the Local Council shall send a representative to the Assembly, and Charter IV.7 specifies that this representative shall have 20% of the vote. At the moment, however, the Local Council has not appointed a representative.

These three votes have all passed the assembly with such margins that the Local Council vote cannot affect the result, yet they are theoretically not passed because that same vote is missing.

My questions:
If the Local Council has not appointed a representative, or the representative does not vote within the allotted 3 or 5 days of voting, are the Local Council's weighted votes considered absent, considered an abstention, or does the vote remain incomplete until the representative has cast his or her weighted votes?
If the vote remains incomplete, must it remain incomplete (and therefore the bill contained therein not become law) even if the Assembly chamber vote has such a large margin that the Local Council representative vote could not affect the outcome in either way?

***Tsunamy*** · 06-25-2016, 09:34 AM

To quickly file a brief — holding up the entire electoral process over the Local Council vote would be problematic and essentially allow the entire government to be held hostage to the Local Council.

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(This post was last modified: 06-25-2016, 09:35 AM by Tsunamy.)

**Belschaft** · 06-25-2016, 02:20 PM

This isn't really a brief, so much as a suggestion; with these bills, all passed in a time frame between the LC gaining the new powers and a new LC being elected, I'd suggest using an "exception rather than rule" logic when coming to a ruling. The way the are handled should obviously not establish precedent for future matters, where there will be a LC and an LC representative ready at the time of voting.

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Omega · 06-25-2016, 10:20 PM

I would say that the chair should be given power to declare it passed should the LC vote be unable to change the outcome. Just as a personal opinion not really a brief just again, a suggestion. On the idea of a lack of LC representative I belive that the LC has forfeited their right to 20% of the vote by not having a representative.

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**Griffindor** · 06-25-2016, 11:44 PM

I think we should count them as abstentions in these instances, following this we should make a law that gives the LC a set time to make their vote or it count their votes as an abstention.

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***sandaoguo*** · 06-26-2016, 01:49 PM

The wording of the Charter when taken in context makes it clear that the LC representative must cast a vote within an allotted timeframe. The representative is no different than any other legislator, except in voting weight. If my vote cannot be retroactively added to the total, then neither can the representative's. Government businesses cannot be held hostage, as Tsunamy says, by a representative that fails to cast a vote on a bill. It defies reason to believe that's what we intended to allow in the Charter.

I would urge the court to make a narrow ruling, avoiding any kind of exceptional special case for votes held between the LC's interregnum. It's not the case that the LC would be deprived of a constitutional right or power, as any bill affecting them or the in-game community must be sent to the LC anyways.

(This post was last modified: 06-26-2016, 01:51 PM by sandaoguo.)

Feirmont · 06-27-2016, 05:02 PM

[Image: 73XbpIq.png]

HCLQ1608

June 27th, 2016

Petitioner

Roavin

Presiding Justice

Feirmont

Your honor,

Charter V.4 establishes that the Local Council shall send a representative to the Assembly, and Charter IV.7 specifies that this representative shall have 20% of the vote. At the moment, however, the Local Council has not appointed a representative.

These three votes have all passed the assembly with such margins that the Local Council vote cannot affect the result, yet they are theoretically not passed because that same vote is missing.
http://tspforums.xyz/thread-4220.html

http://tspforums.xyz/thread-4205.html

http://tspforums.xyz/thread-4143.html

My questions:
If the Local Council has not appointed a representative, or the representative does not vote within the allotted 3 or 5 days of voting, are the Local Council's weighted votes considered absent, considered an abstention, or does the vote remain incomplete until the representative has cast his or her weighted votes?
If the vote remains incomplete, must it remain incomplete (and therefore the bill contained therein not become law) even if the Assembly chamber vote has such a large margin that the Local Council representative vote could not affect the outcome in either way?

Opinion

Roavin Wrote:If the Local Council has not appointed a representative, or the representative does not vote within the allotted 3 or 5 days of voting, are the Local Council's weighted votes considered absent, considered an abstention, or does the vote remain incomplete until the representative has cast his or her weighted votes?

Charter Section V Wrote:4. The Local Council is responsible for sending a representative to the Assembly, whose term must not exceed the Local Council’s. The method of selection will be decided by the Local Council, along with how the representative casts their votes in the Assembly.

Charter Section IV Wrote:7. The Local Council representative will have a weighted vote of 20% of all non-abstaining votes cast on bills. The Chair will calculate how many votes are allotted to the representative at the close of each vote, and then add the representative’s total votes to the final tally.

It is the opinion of the Court that if there is no representative from the LC to vote on an Assembly matter as stated in Section V.4, the vote should not remain incomplete.

It is the responsibility of the Local Council Representative, if there is one, to vote in a timely manner in Assembly proceedings. If there is no vote from the Representative when the vote closes, then there is no vote from the LC and would not affect the non-abstaining votes.

As stated by Minister Sandaoguo, in compliance with:

Charter Section XII Wrote:2. Debate on Charter amendments will last for a minimum of two weeks, unless the Council on Regional Security acknowledges that the amendment addresses an immediate and perilous issue that threatens the security of the region. Any amendment that directly affects the game-side community or its home governance, as determined by the Chair of the Assembly, must also be debated and voted upon by the game-side community.

Any votes that would pass through the Assembly that “directly affects the game-side community or its home governance”, even with a missed Local Council Representative vote, would have to be debated by the game-side community and Local Council.

Roavin Wrote:If the vote remains incomplete, must it remain incomplete (and therefore the bill contained therein not become law) even if the Assembly chamber vote has such a large margin that the Local Council representative vote could not affect the outcome in either way?

As it is the Court's opinion that the vote would not be incomplete, the Court finds no need to answer this question.

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