Section Four: Election Procedures
1. In advance of any regularly scheduled election, Election Supervisors will obtain lists from the Speaker's office of all citizens who are eligible to run for office. In the case of a special election, such a list must be obtained before the close of candidacy declarations.
2. After voting begins, Election Supervisors will promptly obtain a list from the Speaker's office of all citizens who are eligible to vote.
3. During candidacy declarations, Election Supervisors are obligated to include a list of declared candidates in the opening post of the thread for candidacy declarations. They are encouraged, but not required, to include lists of those who have been nominated, those who have declined nominations, and those who were nominated, but not eligible to run. In some circumstances, such as when all citizens have been nominated for office, it would be appropriate to omit such lists, or put them inside spoiler tags.
4. During voting, private ballots will be announced in separate posts. If a private ballot is changed, the corresponding post will be edited accordingly.
5. Public ballots may be changed by the voter either by editing the original ballot directly or by making a new post in the voting thread. Any time a voter casts more than one ballot, only the latest one will be counted.
6. Election Supervisors will endeavor to keep an up to date tally of votes available to the Election Commission at-large. The Election Supervisors may modify how each ballot is counted until they certify the final results, or present the results to the commission at large to be certified.
7. Any time during the voting period, or six twelve hours thereafter, any Election Commissioner may privately challenge a particular ballot and submit an alternate interpretation of how it should be counted. The Election Supervisors may accept or deny any challenge.
8. If a ballot is modified by the voter, any prior challenge of that ballot will be null and void.
9. If the results of challenged ballots could change the outcome of the election, tThe results must be promptly certified by the Election Commission at large. Otherwise, the Election Supervisors will promptly certify the results after the voting period endsonce the challenge period is over.
10. To certify the results at large, the Election Supervisors will promptly present the results of the election to the Election Commission for certification by majority vote. Simultaneously, the Election Commission will also vote on the outcome of each any outstanding challenged ballots. If the vote to certify the results fails, then each challenged ballot will be counted according to the outcome of their respective votes. The results will then be considered certified. All certification votes will end as soon as an absolute majority of non-absent commissioners have voted or twenty-four (24) hours have elapsed from the start of the vote, whichever is sooner.
Section Six: Citizen Petitions
1. While an election is in progress, Ccitizens may petition the Election Commission at large to review a decision of the Election Supervisors in a thread in the Elections forum.
2. When such a petition is submitted, the Election Commission at large will promptly vote between the following options:
a. Uphold the decision of the Election Supervisors
b. Overrule the decision and continue the election
c. Overrule the decision and restart the voting period
d. Overrule the decision and restart the election
3. When an election is not in progress, citizens may petition the Election Commission at large to amend certified election results they believe to have been counted or recorded incorrectly in a thread in the Elections forum.
4. When such a petition is submitted, the citizen must present an alternative count and identify the perceived error(s) in the count, and the Election Commission at large will promptly vote between the following options:
a. Affirm the certified results
b. Overturn the certified results and revise the election results with the petitioner's alternative count
c. Overturn the certified results and revise the election results with a new count determined by the Election Commission during the review of the petition
5. A majority vote by the Election Commission to overturn certified results and revise them with new results will be considered a new certification vote, and a note will be added to the official original results thread stating that the original results were overturned and revised with a new set of certified results. These revised results will be recorded along with a note of which vote(s) were reconsidered in the decision and the date of the new certification.
26. During this process, if an election is in progress and three or more Election Commissioners move that the election should be halted, the Election Supervisors will immediately halt the election.
37. Election Commissioners can only vote for one option, and if an option gains a majority, it will be put into effect.
48. If no option gains a majority and an election is in progress, the election will be halted (if it has not been already) while the commission deliberates.
59. The Chief Election Commissioner will endeavor to efficiently determine a course of action that has majority support of the election commission, and put it to vote.
