LRW-Compliant Chief Justice Selection Fix

[Sil Dorsett]

Quick bill I came up to fix the Chief Justice Selection process in case the 7-day timer runs out. Because of the weird 3-seat instant runoff voting we have now, I don't think it's very clear who would really have the "most votes" because votes move around as candidates are dropped from the results and seats are filled. So, I just added a quick clarification, just in case our justice selection process isn't changed by the other bill in the works. I did not take this one as far as to break ties by 2nd preference, 3rd preference, and so on, but if someone wants to come up with the wording for that, feel free.

Section 3.1 of the Legal Code is amended to read as follows:

Section 3.1: Chief Justice Selection
2. Whenever the position is vacant, the Justices shall elect a Chief Justice from among themselves by a majority vote.
3. In the event that a Chief Justice has not been elected by seven days after the conclusion of a Judicial election, including the conclusion of any required run-off votes, the Chief Justice shall be the Justice who received the highest number of first-preference votes in said election. In the event of a tie for highest number of first-preference votes, the Chief Justice shall be the one among those tied with the longest period of citizenship.

Spoiler: markup

Section 3.1 of the Legal Code is amended to read as follows:

Section 3.1: Chief Justice Selection
2. Whenever the position is vacant, the Justices shall elect a Chief Justice from among themselves by a majority vote.
3. In the event that a Chief Justice has not been elected by seven days after the conclusion of a Judicial election, including the conclusion of any required run-off votes, the Chief Justice shall be the Justice who received the highest number of first-preference votes in said election. In the event of a tie for highest number of first-preference votes, the Chief Justice shall be the one among those tied with the longest period of citizenship.

 

[Praetor]

Any reason for not having the Chief Justice be the Justice who first reached a majority?

 

[Sil Dorsett]

I was thinking about that too, but couldn't come up with the right wording.

 

[Praetor]

"the first Justice to be elected"? "the first Justice to receive a majority of votes"?

 

[Sil Dorsett]

I figured it couldn't have been just as simple as that. Laws never are. But I guess...

 

[Crushing Our Enemies]

Yeah, in cases where the first justice to reach a majority is not the one who got the highest number of first preference votes, the former had the better claim to chief justice, in my opinion. I agree that putting that into legislative language will be tricky though.

 

[Comfed]

3. In the event that a Chief Justice has not been elected by seven days after the conclusion of a Judicial election, including the conclusion of any required run-off votes, the Chief Justice shall be the Justice who received the highest number of first-preference votes who in said election was the first candidate to have achieved the quorum of votes required to be elected Justice during the counting of votes. In the event of a tie for highest number of first-preference votes, that two candidates achieve quorum in the same round, the Chief Justice shall be the one among those tied with the longest period of citizenship.

Does this work okay for a potential redraft? It probably could be improved, but the essentials are there.