RON For Delegate

Hello, everyone.

I'd like to talk about the state of our Delegate elections. We have one candidate who is the incumbent and is qualified and competent (Madjack). We have a joke candidate (LD). And we have a candidate who is a new citizen, and while I'm glad to see new citizens get involved in the electoral process, this candidate seems rather inexperienced in the executive and also has no campaign thread. As a result, the Delegate election is virtually uncontested.

An uncontested election, especially for the highest office in the region, is bad. It's not providing voters with a choice, it's asking them to rubber-stamp the current incumbent. Fortunately, the electoral process provides us with an option if we don't want the election to be a mere formality: the re-open nominations (RON) question on the ballot. Usually, people don't say "yes" to this option because they like at least one of the candidates. All ballots have to say yes or no to this question, though, because it's important. I'd like to ask you to vote yes to re-opening Delegate nominations.

This is nothing against Madjack or any of the other candidates, but an uncontested election is not really an election. If the region votes to re-open nominations, anyone can stand again - it's not necessarily against the current candidates. It is now too late for anyone else to declare their candidacy for Delegate, but this does not mean that we have to rubber-stamp anybody. I hope my fellow citizens join me in voting to re-open nominations for Delegate so we can have a real election for the highest office in the region.

No guarantee of that though. If no one else steps up or you get more joke candidates or something, you’re back to square one. I like competitive elections too but if you have a solid incumbent and no one is willing or able to challenge them, you get a race like this.

I would strongly consider RON if I knew a solid serious candidate were ready to step forward and simply missed the deadline or something but short of that, this just seems like it would make this election longer without changing the outcome.

I won't pretend to be upset at facing a largely uncontested election, but I certainly would've liked to see someone challenge me and offer an alternative vision for the region.

Full support

big fan of ronald, full support

Pallaith:

No guarantee of that though. If no one else steps up or you get more joke candidates or something, you’re back to square one. I like competitive elections too but if you have a solid incumbent and no one is willing or able to challenge them, you get a race like this.

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That is true, but there is no possibility of a contested election if nominations are not re-opened. Re-opened nominations may send a message to potential candidates that candidates besides the incumbent are wanted and may encourage them to run.

I mean, in a way I agree with this point. Lord Sutch (RIP) was clearly a joke candidate. But there is no reason to believe he would not be a good MP if elected. But if RON wins, you still might be able to attract more qualified candidates on the next try, like the Speaker election last time.

Pathoal:

That is true, but there is no possibility of a contested election if nominations are not re-opened. Re-opened nominations may send a message to potential candidates that candidates besides the incumbent are wanted and may encourage them to run.

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St George:

I won't pretend to be upset at facing a largely uncontested election, but I certainly would've liked to see someone challenge me and offer an alternative vision for the region.

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For what it's worth, it could also mean that you're really, really popular.

I am sympathetic to the aims of a RON campaign, but I agree with others that it's fairly pointless if you don't have potential replacements.

I said this on Discord, but in my view a RON campaign is useful if:
- There really aren't any good candidates (or at least ones you would be okay with winning)
- There are other potential candidates who could reasonably be a challenge

Only one need be true, and in this case I've not seen one person doubt MJ's abilities/competence or raise someone else who would run and make it an actual race.