I provide below a version of the bill with annotated changes, as well as inline comments in italics explaining the changes.
Election Streamlining (Amendment) Bill
N.B. Constitutional amendments start here.
1. Article 2, Clause 5 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
5. The Regional Assembly will elect a Speaker every four months by a plurality vote. 5. The Speaker is removed after having served for 120 consecutive days. The Regional Assembly will elect a Speaker by a plurality vote whenever the position is vacant.
N.B. This wording is used throughout. It means that whenever there is a vacancy, there is a new election. A vacancy may be either because of resignation, removal, etc., or because the term for that office expired.
2. Article 3, Clause 8 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
8. If the Delegate is removed or unable to serve Whenever the position of Delegate is vacant, the Vice Delegate will assume the duties of the Delegate powers of the office of the Delegate until a new Delegate is elected. If the Vice Delegate is also unable to serve, the first available person in the line of succession will assume the duties of powers of the office of the Delegate.
N.B. The original "removed or unable to serve" is changed to just "office is vacant". Vacancy is defined in detail in the Legal Code 4.2.8. Furthermore, the intent of the new wording is to make it explicit that the VD or whoever is in the succession line only has the powers of Delegate temporarily, until an election can be held.
3. Article 3, Clause 9 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
9. The Delegate and Vice Delegate will be elected by the Regional Assembly by a majority vote every four months. The Delegate is removed after having served for 120 consecutive days. The Regional Assembly will elect a Delegate by a majority vote whenever the position is vacant. No person may serve more than two consecutive terms as Delegate for more than 240 consecutive days.
4. The following is inserted to Article 3 of the Constitution of The North Pacific,
10. The Vice Delegate is removed after having served for 120 consecutive days. The Regional Assembly will elect a Vice Delegate by a majority vote whenever the position is vacant.
N.B. Delegate and Vice Delegate election provisions have been split two clauses for clarity. Under the new system for elections, term limits are trivial to define.
5. Article 4, Clause 5 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
5. Justices will be elected by the Regional Assembly by a plurality vote every four months. A Justice is removed after having served for 120 consecutive days. The Regional Assembly will elect a Justice by a plurality vote whenever a Justice position is vacant.
6. Article 6, Clause 1 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
1. All government officials must maintain membership in the Regional Assembly. Candidates in any election must maintain membership in the Regional Assembly for the fifteen days before the opening of nominations and throughout the election.
N.B. Under the old wording, someone could be in the RA for 15 days before an election starts, then resign their membership and stand as candidate as simple citizens, and then resume their membership once they are elected, therefore also taking the position they won. The addition in green fixes that.
6. Article 6, Clause 6 of the Constitution of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
6. Procedures to fill vacancies in elected offices on an interim basis for the duration of elections may be established by law.
N.B. The addition in green is because now all vacancies result in new elections, and therefore only need to be filled in the interim.
N.B. Constitutional amendments end here. Legal Code amendments start here.
7. Chapter 3, Section 3.1, Clause 2 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
2. The Attorney General will be elected during Judicial Elections. 2. The Attorney General is removed after having served for 120 consecutive days. The Regional Assembly will elect an Attorney General by a majority vote whenever the position is vacant.
8. Chapter 4, Section 4.2, Clause 5 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
5. "Candidates" are those citizens Regional Assembly members who declare themselves, or have accepted a nomination by another Regional Assembly member preceding the close of nominations, as a candidate for an office to be chosen at that election. Candidates may only stand for one office during a given Election Cycle.
N.B. "Citizens" has been changed to "RA members". Even though it is already covered in the Constitution that only RA members may be candidates, the change to avoid any unforeseen problems. The second sentence, about only standing for one office, may need re-writing or removal, due to the fact that under the proposed system "syncing" of elections is not possible. Technically, though, it is functional when combined with the definition of "election cycle" below.
9. Chapter 4, Section 4.2, Clause 6 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
6. "Election Commissioner" is an individual designated to commission a given election. No one who may be a candidate in an election may serve as an Election Commissioner during it An Election Commissioner may not be a candidate in an election they commission.
N.B. The old wording appears to be saying that anyone eligible to be a candidate may not serve as EC. This practically excludes all RA members from serving as EC, unless they were accepted within 15 days of the election. The proposed change resolves this issue.
N.B. Note that the clause right after the above one in the Legal Code is:
"7. "Election Cycle" is defined as the period of time that begins on the first day on which nominations, or a declaration, of candidacy are made and concludes with the final declaration of results for an election. The dates for the Election Cycle will be designated at least 30 days in advance by the Delegate."
The last sentence may need changing if we want the election cycle to specify how election cycle is to start, say 25 days ahead of the end of the end of a full term.
10. Chapter 4, Section 4.2, Clause 7 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
8. A "vacancy" in an office occurs when the holder of it resigns, is removed, or abandons it . An office is abandoned when its holder does not log onto the regional forums for two weeks without prior notice, or when an election winner or appointee fails to post the Oath of Office. Vacancies of elected offices are filled through a special election unless a it cannot be completed prior to the beginning of the appropriate scheduled election cycle. Pending an election, however, a vacancy may be temporarily filled as provided by the Constitution, this Legal Code, or a rule adopted by the appropriate body. Vacancies of appointed positions may be filled in accordance with proper appointment procedures.
N.B. The deleted part is no longer applicable. For the last sentence, we could specify directly here that when an election is triggered by expiration of a term, the incumbent stays as an interim until the triggered election concludes.
11. Chapter 4, Section 4.3 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
Section 4.3: Overall Election Law
9. In General and Judicial elections, Election Commissioners will be appointed by the Delegate to oversee the nomination and election processes at least one week before the month in which the election begins. If an appointment of Election Commissioners has not been made by that time within 48 hours of the election becoming necessary, the Chief Justice shall promptly make the appointment within 48 hours.
10. The period for nominations or declarations of candidacy shall last for seven days.
11. Voting will begin three days immediately after the period for nominations or declarations has closed and last for seven five days.
12. If a run-off vote is required it will begin within two days of immediately after the first vote ending ends and it shall last for five days.
N.B. There are some adjustments to scheduling of elections, mostly aiming to shorten the electoral period.
12. Chapter 4, Section 4.4 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
Section 4.4: General Elections for Delegate and Vice Delegate
13. The election cycle for the terms of the Delegate and Vice Delegate, and of the Speaker, will begin on the first day of the months of January, May, and September.
14 13. Non-incumbent candidates for Delegate or Vice Delegate may not obtain an endorsement level during the election cycle greater than the level authorized for members of the Security Council under Chapter 5.
13. Chapter 4, Section 4.5 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is amended to read as follows,
Section 4.5: Judicial Elections
15. The election cycle for the terms of Justices, and the Attorney General will begin on the first days of the months of March, July, and November.
16 14 Whenever the position is vacant, the Justices shall select a Chief Justice from among themselves by a majority vote. Justices may remove the Chief Justice by a majority vote.
17. In the event that seven days after the conclusion of a Judicial election, including the conclusion of any required run-off votes, a Chief Justice has not been elected, the Justice that received the highest number of votes in said election, and in the event of a tie for highest number of votes the Justice among those tied with the largest amount of elapsed time since that Justice's most recent admission to the Regional Assembly without an interruption, shall become Chief Justice.
N.B. The old clause for what happens when the Justices cannot elect a CJ can no longer be used. The current draft does not provide a fail-safe clause, and assumes that the Justices will always elect a CJ. However, suggestions for a new fail-safe clause are welcome.
14. Chapter 4, Section 4.6 of the Codified Law of The North Pacific is repealed.
N.B. This is the "Special Elections" section, which is now redundant.
N.B. Legal Code amendments end here. Special provisions start here.
15. Holders of elected offices at the time of the enactment of this legislation will be subject to the provisions amended by this law. For the purposes of the provisions amended by this law, they will be deemed to have served in their respective offices for the number of days that have elapsed since the conclusion of the last election in which they were elected.
N.B. The effect of this is that, for current incumbents, the new provisions will apply as soon as their regular terms expire, or as soon as they resign. The exception of this rule is Jamie, whose partial Delegate term is expanded to be a full, 4-month term. If there are strong objections to this, this can be edited to have an election triggered as it would under the old system in May. Also, it may be preferable to specify what happens with those under restrictions for term limits (currently only Eluvatar).
16. No provision of this law will take effect unless every provision of this law takes effect.
This is a comprehensive bill that changes, to different extents, almost all of the election-related clauses in our statute. Firstly, I would like to thank Crushing Our Enemies for his input on this and comments on the draft.
The main effect of this bill is that it abolishes special elections and fixed "election cycles". Instead, every elected officer is elected for a specific number of days (term lengths are approximately preserved, i.e., 120 days). If an officer resigns or is removed before the end of their term, then an election for a new, full term is triggered; that is, the person elected will serve a full 120-day term unless they also resign. Otherwise, if the officer does not resign mid-term, an election will be triggered at the end of their 120 days in office, whenever that may be.
The reason for this change is twofold:
- simplify our electoral legislation; and
- reduce the number of elections per office.
For the first point, you need only look at the large number of proposals that have appeared in the Regional Assembly recently, changing one or another aspect of our electoral/succession law. The majority of our issues are caused by our insistence on maintaining a fixed election schedule through legislating for special elections. By eliminating those, our electoral legislation is made both considerably shorter and much more straightforward. Note that this bill subsumes both the Delegate Succession Bill and Delegate Term Limits Bill that are currently at vote, by addressing the issues they were introduced to resolve, though not necessarily in the same way as they do.
The second point is, I believe, self-evident. Consider the number of partial terms we have had since the adoption of the current version of the Constitution. When it comes to Delegates, Mcmasterdonia was forced to seek reelection a couple of months after he was elected in November's special election. Jamie will serve for less than a month, and that is after the region has been left without a Delegate for about a month. If we look at Vice Delegates, the same thing occurred late last year, with Blue Wolf serving for less than a month before seeking (and achieving) reelection, after the region had been left without a Vice Delegate for a month. The examples continue, with Sanctaria's election as Justice for I believe less than three weeks last February.
Beyond the impractical number of elections, more severely the system of special elections results in extended periods of each office being unoccupied, or having occupants contesting elections instead of actually running their offices. This is grossly inefficient, and harmful to the governance of our region. In the cases of the offices of Delegate and Vice Delegate, the very frequent transitions that special elections can result in pose risks to the security of the region. My proposed change addresses this serious shortcomings by eliminating their systemic root, the system of special elections.
The removal of special elections and fixed terms has another effect. We can no longer synchronize elections for multiple seats to take place together. As a consequence, down the line and after a few resignations have occurred, elections for Delegate, Vice Delegate, and Speaker will be held separately. Similarly, the three Justices will each be elected at separate elections, and the Attorney General will be elected separately from the Justices.
In the case of Justices, I view this as a desirable change, as it ensures some continuity in the Court; this is desirable both for efficiency and effectiveness reasons. With regards to the other offices, it will have the consequence of contributing to an increase of the total number of elections. However, this increase will be countered, I believe, by the decrease in the total number of elections elections due to the elimination of special elections. And, at the same time, the number of elections
per office will be decreased.
One disadvantage, and the only one I can identify, of the proposed change is that we will be required to keep track of when the next election for each office is due. However, I have observed this maintenance requirement being easily tackled in plenty of other regions, and I am sure we will have no problem seeing to it here in The North Pacific either.
Finally, the bill makes changes to a number of other clauses pertaining to elections. Most of them are trivial, correcting issues of imprecise or incorrect formulation. The most important would be the changes to electoral scheduling, where the interim between the end of nominations and the beginning of voting has been eliminated, as has the interim between an election and a runoff; and also voting has been shortened to five days.
As a closing note, because of the length of the bill, I would please ask that members take some time to go through it in detail. The inline notes I have left in the annotated version should explain the intent of every change in the amendment list. I am happy to take questions or suggestions on any of these changes.
