Election Timing Act

[St George]

1. Chapter 4 of the Legal Code will be amended as follows:

Section 4.5: General Elections
30. The election of the Delegate, the Vice Delegate, and the Speaker will begin on the first day of the months of February, June, and October.
31. If there are more than two candidates for an election, voters may rank the candidates, with the candidate ranked 1 being the first preference, the candidate ranked 2 being the next preference, and so on.
32. All first preference votes shall be counted first. If no candidate achieves a majority, the candidate with the least votes shall be eliminated, and the next preference of all voters who had voted for the eliminated candidate as first preference shall be counted, with the process repeated until a candidate achieves a majority.
33. If all of a voter's preferences have been eliminated, the voter's ballot shall not be used in further counting.

Section 4.6: Judicial Elections
34. The election of the Justices will begin on the first day of the months of April, August, and December.
35. If there are more than three candidates for Justice, voters may rank the candidates, with the candidate ranked 1 being the first preference, the candidate ranked 2 being the next preference, and so on.
36. All first preference votes will be counted first. If no candidate achieves a majority, the candidate/s with the least votes will be eliminated, and the next preference of all voters who had voted for the eliminated candidate as first preference will be counted, with the process repeated until a candidate achieve a majority.
37. When a candidate achieves a majority, they will be elected. All votes will then be recounted using the same process, ignoring all preferences for the elected candidate. This will be repeated until three candidates are elected.

2. Ongoing terms at the time this act is passed will end at earliest possible date in order to meet the new election schedule. Shortened terms will count as full terms under Article 3.13 of the Constitution.

Something I've been mulling over for months now is the Summer lull, and ways we can possibly combat it. The May to September executive term is brutal. It's genuinely horrible for activity and getting worse year by year, and largely it's not been the fault of anyone that has been elected to high office for those terms. People are just busy. So to hopefully help prevent the wasting of a third of the year each year in TNP, I'd like to suggest these changes to our election calendar:

General elections move from January, May and September to February, June and October. In order to maintain the current two month gap between General and Judicial elections, I propose moving Judicial elections to April, August and December.

There are potential problems with my changes to the Judicial schedule - December is obviously a busy month for a lot of people and that may pose a problem, but I think that's a smaller risk than just swapping the current schedule around - we no more want a wasted judicial term than we want a wasted executive term. Another potential option is to load our elections in two month blocks, so the month following a General Election could be the month where the Judicial is held, for a Feb-Mar, June-July, Oct-Nov schedule.

Spoiler: Markup version

Section 4.5: General Elections
30. The election of the Delegate, the Vice Delegate, and the Speaker will begin on the first day of the months of January, May, and September February, June and October.
31. If there are more than two candidates for an election, voters may rank the candidates, with the candidate ranked 1 being the first preference, the candidate ranked 2 being the next preference, and so on.
32. All first preference votes shall be counted first. If no candidate achieves a majority, the candidate with the least votes shall be eliminated, and the next preference of all voters who had voted for the eliminated candidate as first preference shall be counted, with the process repeated until a candidate achieves a majority.
33. If all of a voter's preferences have been eliminated, the voter's ballot shall not be used in further counting.

Section 4.6: Judicial Elections
34. The election of the Justices will begin on the first day of the months of March, July, and November April, August and December.
35. If there are more than three candidates for Justice, voters may rank the candidates, with the candidate ranked 1 being the first preference, the candidate ranked 2 being the next preference, and so on.
36. All first preference votes will be counted first. If no candidate achieves a majority, the candidate/s with the least votes will be eliminated, and the next preference of all voters who had voted for the eliminated candidate as first preference will be counted, with the process repeated until a candidate achieve a majority.
37. When a candidate achieves a majority, they will be elected. All votes will then be recounted using the same process, ignoring all preferences for the elected candidate. This will be repeated until three candidates are elected.

 

[Comfed]

Doesn't the new June to October term cover all of the summer months and therefore the same "summer slump" period?

 

[St George]

Doesn't the new June to October term cover all of the summer months and therefore the same "summer slump" period?

It's one less summer month - May and one more autumn month - September, where activity is generally higher. It gains more than it losses.

 

[Comfed]

It's one less summer month - May and one more autumn month - September, where activity is generally higher. It gains more than it losses.

Fair enough. I support this idea. I assume clause 2 of the bill (the part that isn't in the legal code) just means that new general elections have to happen right away if this passes?

 

[Eluvatar]

So is the intent to create interstitial 5 month terms or to split the 5 months into two different terms?

 

[St George]

Fair enough. I support this idea. I assume clause 2 of the bill (the part that isn't in the legal code) just means that new general elections have to happen right away if this passes?

That's how I'm viewing it, I think.

Might need some more thought and clearer wording.

 

[Sil Dorsett]

Fair enough. I support this idea. I assume clause 2 of the bill (the part that isn't in the legal code) just means that new general elections have to happen right away if this passes?

If this were to pass before May 1st, then the upcoming general election would be June 1st instead.

If it passes after May 1st, then the next general election would be... June? >_>

 

[St George]

Happy to accept suggestions on changes to 2. I'm having trouble deciding the best way to do it.

 

[Eluvatar]

I would suggest a more graduated transition:

2. When this act is passed, every ongoing term will be adjusted in the following manner:

1. A two-term period will be defined beginning when the ongoing term began and ending with the next scheduled election under the new calendar that is at least 4 months since that term began.
2. The two-term period will be divided in half, and an election will be held at the midpoint.
3. If the new election calendar would call for an election before the end of the two-term period, it will be skipped as part of the transition above.
4. An election will be held under the new schedule at the end of the two-term period.

 

[Chipoli]

It's one less summer month - May and one more autumn month - September, where activity is generally higher. It gains more than it losses.

I thought May wasn’t a summer month?

 

[Eluvatar]

I thought May wasn’t a summer month?

It is a spring month on the calendar. I think formally spring begins at the solstice near the end of June. But at the same time people do often think of May as a summer month, not sure why.

 

[St George]

I would suggest a more graduated transition:

So if this were to be passed by May 1st, when would we be looking at for elections?

 

[Eluvatar]

Oof I didn't think that through. I need to correct the text.

Edit: Take two:

2. When this act is passed, the election calendar will shift from the old to the new schedule as follows:

1. A transition period will be defined as beginning with the last election under the old calendar to begin no more than two months after the passage of this act and ending with the next scheduled election under the new calendar that is at least 4 months since that beginning.
2. If the transition period is more than four months long, will be divided in half, and an election will be held at the midpoint.
3. If the new election calendar would call for an election before the end of the transition period, it will be skipped as part of the transition above.
4. An election will be held under the new schedule at the end of the transition period.

So if the law passes in the last two weeks of April, it will effectively take effect after the May elections, splitting the May-September term with the addition of October into two terms, May-mid-July and mid-July to October. For the judicial elections, it would mean it takes effect faster, affecting the March-July term and splitting it into March to mid-May and mid-May to August. Two terms of 2 1/2 months each instead of one term of 1 month and 1 term of 4. :shrugs:

If the law passes in May, it would have the same effect as above on general elections, but judicial elections would remain in July, however there would be an "extra" election in mid-September followed by a new-schedule election in December.

I think with the protocol above no matter when the law were to pass it would result in two evenly 2.5 month terms as part of the transition.

 

[Simone]

Given the situation we have right now, perhaps we should postpone this for the moment? Or that we want to push this through because of the current situation?