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islands_of_unity · 08-17-2019, 06:15 AM

How would y'all recieve a proposal to establish a quorum of 50-60% of legislators voting (from the whole assembly group) requirement for forumside elections and votes?

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(This post was last modified: 08-17-2019, 09:40 AM by Amerion.)

***Roavin*** · 08-17-2019, 06:52 AM

I don't feel too strongly about having a quorum, though in the past we've circumvented the outright need for it by having mandated minimum debate and vote times, plus the precedent to ping Legislators when something's up.

**Amerion** · 08-17-2019, 09:39 AM

(08-17-2019, 06:52 AM)Roavin Wrote: I don't feel too strongly about having a quorum, though in the past we've circumvented the outright need for it by having mandated minimum debate and vote times, plus the precedent to ping Legislators when something's up.

I second Roavin's thoughts.

islands_of_unity · 08-17-2019, 10:19 AM

The issue is that while the stated measures could allow for a certain quorum (or the entirety) of the assembly to participate, the proposed idea would make it compulsory. It is possible that even with these measures the assembly does not reach a 50-60% quorum

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**Belschaft** · 08-17-2019, 12:36 PM

Quorums never work in NS, as you inevitably end up with a large pool of of semi-active or inactive players who maintain membership on paper but don't show up to vote. Due to our legislative activity requirements that would be mitigated somewhat, but you'll still end up in a situation where an overwhelming majority of people vote for something but it fails because only 59% of all eligible voters showed up.

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islands_of_unity · 08-17-2019, 03:07 PM

Perhaps a 50% quorum would be more acceptable? I would claim that not having half of the assembly voting is a disservice to our democracy, that is that a law or election that isnt interacted with by more than half of us isnt truly representative of the assembly

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**USoVietnam** · 08-17-2019, 03:18 PM

This proposal assumes legislators are equivalent of elected lawmakers in real-life. The fact is that legislators are more or less volunteers who write laws. Because they are volunteers, forcing a number of them to show up in order to allow something to be done is illogical. This proposal will make sense if legislators are elected and have responsibilities strongly vested in them. You can say that activity, as enforced via minimum voting participation number, is the thing that separates a “real” legislator to a “trainee” legislator.

Practically, if we have too many inactive legislators, the Assembly’s actions on critical issues and conduction of elections (especially delegate elections) can’t happen and this means the biggest security hole ever exists in a GCR democracy.

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Nat · 08-17-2019, 10:43 PM

There is also the possibility that a divisive piece of legislation could be knocked down by a minority who have an opinion but who refuse to vote. Say that out of 100 legislators: 40 are for, 30 are against, 25 don't vote, and 5 abstain. If the 30 who are against decide to refuse to vote (rather than voting no), the vote would fail a 50% quorum (as 55 total would be non-voting). I concede this type of underhanded tactic would be hard to coordinate, but strategic non-voting is still another issue with a quorum (alongside those listed above).

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Omega · 08-21-2019, 02:47 PM

I'll just echo what others have said. Of anything in rules of parliamentary procedure, I don't believe a quorum is a thing we should implement here in TSP. They serve a purpose IRL which is to ensure adequate representation from most groups on a motion but where we are unelected, it feels... burdensome. I would be opposed to any effort to institute a quorum in the Assembly.

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Qaweritoyu · 08-23-2019, 05:34 AM

I second Omega.

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