Now that we have 3 of the 4 positions vacant, I thought now would be a good time to discuss this.

One problem I've had with the current justice system was the two month offset. It seemed like a good idea but in my opinion it has caused issues. Both cabinet elections have resulted in a Justice running for cabinet, and thus created a vacancy that forced a special election. But concurrent elections were flawed too, rarely gathering many candidates as most would instead try for cabinet first.

What I therefore propose is to move the justice elections to the 1st of the month following cabinet elections, with terms starting on the 15th of the same month. This allows a brief break between the elections. (Also still allowing to see who wins cabinet first before candidates run for Justice.)

Article 1: Elections


1. Elections for all Cabinet positions shall commence on the fifteenth of every March, July, and November.
2. Elections for Court Justices shall commence on the first of every April, August, and December.
3. Terms for all Cabinet positions shall commence on the first of every April, August, and December, and terms for Justices shall commence on the fifteenth of every April, August, and December.
4. All elections shall consist of a pre-voting period lasting six days and a voting period lasting three days. Citizens shall have to declare their candidacy or accept their nomination within the first three days of the pre-voting period.
5. Runoff elections will begin within twenty-four hours of the initial vote closing and consist of a voting period lasting three days.
6. No one can run for or hold more than one Cabinet position, or more than one Justice position, or both a Cabinet and a Justice position at any given time.
7. Candidates for elections may self-declare or be nominated by another Citizen. Candidates must file a Conflict of Interest Disclosure at the time of their acceptance of a nomination or self-declaration.
8. Nominations may be accepted in absentia, as long as they are sent to the Election Commissioner at most two weeks before the start of the pre-voting period, and include a Conflict of Interest disclosure.
9. Conflict of Interest Disclosures must include current World Assembly Nation, all past and present aliases used, all past and present involvement in other regions and organizations, and all current positions held across NationStates.
10. 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.
11. Cabinet offices will be voted on separately and be elected by a plurality vote. Court Justices will be voted through a single ballot, with the three candidates who receive the most votes winning seats.
12. 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.
13. For Court Justice elections, if the option to Re-Open Nominations receives enough votes to be placed within the top four, 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.
14. In the event that no candidate runs for an available office the newly elected Cabinet will appoint a Citizen to fill the vacancy.
15. 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.
16. Elections will be run by a member of the forum administration staff or their designee. A designated Election Commissioner may be appointed if all members of the administration staff will be candidates in the given election, or if no administer is able to be an Election Commissioner.

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This is smart and observes practical rituals. People are going to naturally priortise getting into cabinet over the court - happens often. Naturally this mean vacancies in the High Court.

I like this solution a lot - thanks for suggesting it.

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This makes sense, it's got my full support.

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I also think this is a good idea. But, instead of April, August December ... would we be opposed to using the Court calendar, which would be January, May and September?

I bring this up because previously -- at someone can correct me if I'm wrong -- participation spiked around the the end of summer and after the holidays. As such, I think it might get more people running for positions and/or just involved in the government.

-tsunamy
[forum admin]

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Yes those are our high points of activity, although I'm not sure we should delay our cabinet elections to January - our private media has already been polling for the election and stirring up buzz for the new elections.

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I assume Tsu means moving just the court elections to follow the court calendar. But I still have to disagree, because this still has the potential to lead to the same issue I hope to avoid with this, only being a month before rather than two. There's no perfect solution but I feel the shorter we make the gap the better.

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I assume Tsu means moving just the court elections to follow the court calendar. But I still have to disagree, because this still has the potential to lead to the same issue I hope to avoid with this, only being a month before rather than two. There's no perfect solution but I feel the shorter we make the gap the better.

If am I am not mistaken, I think Tsu wants to run the elections concurrently as you suggest, but more the General Election months to the Court months rather than vice versa.

I think this would be fine, as long as people don't mind having the next term be extended somewhat.

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In my option it should been moved to the same time as the General Election as it would be much simpler and more people would know about them meaning a higher turn out. However I very much doubt people will agree with me .

Europeian Ambassador to The South Pacific
Former Local Council Member
Former Minister of Regional Affairs
Former High Court Justice

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In my option it should been moved to the same time as the General Election as it would be much simpler and more people would know about them meaning a higher turn out. However I very much doubt people will agree with me .

I think most people agree about them being the same time, the only question is what time should that be?

Though if people disagree that they should be concurrent, they should speak up too!

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Well the current times we have are in my option is fine.

Europeian Ambassador to The South Pacific
Former Local Council Member
Former Minister of Regional Affairs
Former High Court Justice

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