PRESS RELEASE     Ruling on Vote Openings and Changes by Cryo 19 MAY 2022 Yesterday, Legislator @philipmacaroni attempted to switch his vote from "Aye" to "Abstain" but the poll had closed 9 minutes before the clock said it should. Debate started quickly. This ruling was made following the considerations of arguments from @anjo, @Ryccia, @philipmacaroni, and others. Before we can begin, some key facts must be established. Firstly, the vote is auto-formatted and creates the clock which rounds to the nearest half hour. The poll is made second with the thread, which leads to a minor difference between the two. This typically isn't a problem, however @philipmacaroni's last minute change did cause a problem as a major difference had formed due to an accidental discrepancy between the two that I did not realise. One argument was if @philipmacaroni's vote should be counted in the first place due to him being readmitted after previously indicating intent to resign. As legislators are only removed after each month, he was still a legislator with all of the powers of a legislator. His votes still count. Now on to vote timing. The Legislative Procedure Act,[1] a constitutional law, states that votes end either in 3 or 5 days exactly, no more, no less. The Times Act[2] on the other hand is one tough cookie. The letter of the law says nothing about being the exact deadline, although the spirit of the law implies it. Therefore, the clock deadline is simply a suggestion of the actual deadline, which is when the poll closes. Given that the L.P.A. is a constitutional law and the T.A. a general law, the L.P.A. holds more weight and trumps the T.A. With this being said, @philipmacaroni's vote change was after the "official" deadline, that being the poll, and therefore shouldn't count. The stated deadline was wrong. However, this would be unfair to @philipmacaroni, who reasonably thought that he could switch his vote. But it'd also be unfair to allow his original vote to stand. This unfortunately forms a draw, where both sides could win based on if the vote is punished ex post facto or I if give an exception (although not a perfect tie). I have decided ignore @philipmacaroni's vote entirely (he will still be a voting member to prevent non-compliance) and make a casting vote, which is implied by the Charter to maintain order and decorum.[3] This vote will be announced with the announcement of results. In summary, @philipmacaroni's last minute vote change was after the voting period had officially came to end, but was caused by confusion due to a discrepancy between the poll and clock deadlines caused by mine own mistake. To be fair to both sides, his vote will be ignored and he will be simply marked as "Present" rather than count or discount it, and I, as Chair of the Assembly, will make a casting vote to decide the outcome from this draw. In the future, I will strive to prevent this from happening again. References: [1] Legislative Procedure Act, Article I, Section 3 [2] Times Act, Article II [3] Charter of the South Pacific, Article IV, Section 2   This ruling is to be considered null and void following the opinions on [2206.RR] Review of the Chair of the Assembly's Decision to Mark a Vote Invalid and [2207.HQ] In re Assembly Vote Closures.     @Press Gallery [/font]

(This post was last modified: 06-14-2022, 01:25 PM by The Haughtherlands.)

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PRESS RELEASE Appointment of BlockBuster2K43 as Deputy Chair by Cryo 25 MAY 2022 Fellow legislators, I have decided to appoint @BlockBuster2K43 as my Deputy following my offer due to my unfortunate and unforeseen events. I believe in their abilities to aid me and look forward to working with them. For the extent of the Deputy Chair's powers which can be exercised without the Chair's explicit prior approval (albeit with notification to the Chair), please refer to the following list: Open and close votes Generally including relevant sub-powers (such as slightly editing a bill to comply with formatting before bringing it to vote) Sub-powers that need to be motioned (e.g. waive debate time, cancel voting) if informing the Chair beforehand Approve Leaves of Absence Approve Political Parties' subforum petitions if informing the Chair beforehand Archive inactive discussions Fulfilling most writing based projects (RMB updates, Gazette, etc.) @Press Gallery

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PRESS RELEASE Appointment of Jebediah as Clerk by Cryo 29 MAY 2022 Fellow legislators, I have decided to appoint @Jebediah as my Deputy to aid with the Journal of the Assembly and record keeping in general. They will act de facto as the Clerk of the Assembly. I believe in their abilities to aid me and look forward to working with them. For the extent of the Deputy Chair's powers which can be exercised without the Chair's explicit prior approval (albeit with notification to the Chair), please refer to the following list: Write and publish records for the Assembly Journal and Gazette Write and publish Chair's Briefings @Press Gallery

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PRESS RELEASE     Certification of Results from A2205.02 by Cryo 10 JUNE 2022 Fellow legislators, per the opinion on [2207.HQ] In re Assembly Vote Closures, I have been instructed to certify the results of A2205.02 and make adjustments to bring it into compliance. As the timestamp was second to the poll closure, @philipmacaroni's vote change counts. Because it failed, a game-side referendum couldn't have been held, so R2201 is rendered void. Therefore the final, final result is below: Final Result     Ayes: 25 49.0% | 59.5% (discounting abstentions)   Nays: 17 33.3% | 40.5% (discounting abstentions) There were 9 Abstentions (17.6%); 12 legislators were absent. Thus, attendance for this vote was 81.0%. In light of these results, the proposal fails, having fallen short of the required majority (>60%).   — Chair of the Assembly @Press Gallery