These are like three different effing issues here.

Unibot — not allowing someone to vote is different than removing the citizenship, Period. End of story.

Escade — this is not the place for a "Do Not Call" list. That has always been a ridiculous suggestion and I'm tired of entertaining it.

Tsunamy, I did not create that suggestion. You are welcome to find the TSP forums thread where that was first proposed and people supporting it. Since the Election Commissioner could ostensibly be in charge of such a list and enforcing, it has relevance to the subject at hand.

I will be introducing a revised bill this evening which includes the removal of the Election Commission from the purview of the admin team.

Can we get a reasoning behind that?

Article 2 - Position Specificities

1. The Delegate and Vice Delegate will run on a joint ticket and be elected by a majority vote. If no ticket receives a majority vote a runoff election with the two tickets receiving the most votes will occur.
2. Cabinet offices will be voted on separately and be elected by a majority vote. If no candidate receives a majority vote a runoff election with the two candidates receiving the most votes will occur.
3.  In the event of a tie the election for that office will be restarted immediately.
3 Voters during Cabinet Elections shall list candidates from their most to least preferred on their ballot.
4. The winning candidates during a Cabinet Election race shall be the candidate, when paired up against any other candidate, who would surpass any other candidate in terms of support; if no such candidate exists, the winning candidate shall be determined by an instant-runoff vote.
4. Court Justices will be voted through a single ballot, with the four candidates who receive the most votes winning seats.
5. In all elections an option to re-open nominations will be included. For non-judicial elections, if this option receives the most votes the nomination period for that office will be restarted.
6. For Local Council elections, at least one resident must express their support for the nomination of every recognized candidate. Voting for the Local Council shall take place through a regional poll open to all 'native' WA residents. The Local Council will be voted through a single ballot, with the three candidates who receive the most votes winning seats.
7. In the event that more than ten candidates run for the Local Council, the list of candidates shall be divided evenly and randomly as possible in brackets of under eleven candidates each - and the top candidates shall compete as Section 2.4 suggests in a final round of selections. The number of candidates from each bracket which advance to the final round of voting shall be proportional to 10 / (# of Brackets + 1).
8. For Court Justice and Local Council elections, if the option to Re-Open Nominations receives enough votes to be placed within the winning selection, then the nomination period will be restarted for all seats with lesser votes than this option. The candidates who receive the top votes will win however many seats are left to be filled.

Article 3 - Vacancies

1. In the event that no candidate runs for an available office the newly elected Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacancy.
2. Vacancies in office occur when the office holder resigns, is recalled, or no longer holds citizenship. In the event of a vacancy in office a special election will begin within 72 hours of the office becoming vacant, unless the vacancy occurs in the month prior to the start of the term for the position in question; in this case the Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacated position for the remainder of the term.

Article 4 - Election Commission

1.  For Cabinet Elections the Chief Justice of the High Court will appoint up to 2 citizens to serve as the Election Commissioners on the 1st of the month in which Cabinet Elections are to be held.  In the event of a Special Election for a Cabinet Office any Justice of the High Court may serve as the Election Commissioner.
2.  For High Court Elections the Delegate will appoint up to 2 citizens to serve as Election Commissioners on the 15th of the month immediately preceding the High Court Elections.  In the event of a Special Election for Justice of the High Court any member of the Cabinet may serve as the Election Commissioner.
3.  For Regular and Special Local Council Elections a member of the Cabinet will serve as Election Commissioner.
4.  The Election Commission is responsible for creating appropriate elections threads, verifying nominations, verifying Conflict of Interests disclosures, collecting, counting, and verifying the validity of all ballots, and officiating ballot results.

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Reasoning:  I personally would prefer a system in which the Election Commissioners are appointed by our Elected Representatives.  I also feel that this will further eliminate any politicization of the admin team.  This really has nothing to do with the admin team.  I believes overall they have done a good job with handling our elections.  It is just time for a move to a system where those we elect are directly responsible for choosing the EC's.


I believe moving to a majority for all Cabinet positions will be much simpler and allow for a better consensus of the region over FPTP.  I do not as many others believes that IRV worked for us.  It is confusing and just plain unnecessary.

I am not comfortable with:

(1) Moving the appointment of the EC away from Forum Administration, since having elected officials appoint the EC would make it even more susceptible to politisation. This is not to say that elected officials would actually appoint someone based on political motives, but at least with Administration we know the criteria are technical and non-political.

(2) Having more than one person as EC. It is unnecessary, since one person is perfectly capable of running an election. It may sound good, but nowadays there is just no use for an Election Commission. Having one single Election Commissioner works just fine.

Also, I think this would undo the Electoral Reform from a while back.

I would go one step further and say that I expect the Chief Justice and the Delegate *would* appoint an EC based on who they prefer politically. ECs would also have an incentive to behave politically, to stay in the good graces of their appointers.

I do not trust any political branch to not act politically when elections are at stake. The only thing here to stop them is good faith. I don't need to take a game theory course to see why that never works out as intended.

Also, I have no issues with the new voting method. Just because Hileville found it annoying doesn't make it a poor system.

Maybe can you make a separate amendment about changing from Concordant back to regular voting? I agree about that, its unnecessary confusion.

Edit: Can someone explain how things would be different from our original system to the new system? There is so much confusion about it and I think if citizens aren't informed about the system then that is worrying?

I do like the change of the voting system but I don't like the change of the EC.