[2339.AB] Amended Voter Registration Bill

Assembly
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1

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!

Ok, so maybe a military metaphor isn’t the best way to introduce a proposal designed to foster consensus and agreement, but it was the best I could come up with at the end of a long day.

Given the impending defeat of the current Voter Registration bill, 2333.AB, I’m proposing an amended version that strips out the WA requirements, which seemed to be the primary point of concern with the previous proposal. Specifically, the below legislative language is identical to that of 2333.AB, except:

  1. It no longer includes a requirement that citizens maintain a WA nation in TSP to be members of the Assembly.
  2. It no longer includes a requirement that citizens maintain a WA nation in TSP to be elected Prime Minister or serve as an appointed Cabinet member.
  3. The Legislator Act is no longer tagged as a constitutional law. Given that it no longer includes a WA requirement for legislator status, the Act now deals primarily with administrative / housekeeping matters that don’t seem to be of constitutional dimension.
  4. The transition resolution has been simplified to reflect the removal of WA requirements from the proposal.

I won’t rehash all the details of the proposal, which are canvased at length in the 2333.AB thread. But the core change that this legislation would make is decoupling the role of citizen from that of legislator. Citizens would have the right to (1) vote for the Prime Minister and Delegate; (2) serve in the Executive, Judiciary, CRS, or CG (provided they meet any other requirements applicable to those offices); and (3) become a member of the Assembly should they so choose. Citizens would be required to vote in elections to maintain their citizenship status (leaves of absence excepted), but they would no longer be required to vote on legislation in the Assembly. If they chose to become members of the Assembly, then they would be required to actively vote on Assembly matters to maintain their legislator status.

The basic rationale behind these changes is that there is only limited relationship between legislating and the other rights that TSP law currently ties to legislator status, which include voting for PM / Delegate, serving in the executive and judiciary, etc. One can be an involved, dedicated member of TSP without having much interest in or sufficient time for legislative drafting, debate, and voting. But, as things stand currently, folks in that category are required to be members of the Assembly and keep up with / vote on legislation if they want to participate in those other aspects of regional governance. This legislation would remove that requirement and make Assembly membership more voluntary, akin to service in the SPSF. Folks who are interested in legislative work can join the Assembly without any substantive requirements beyond citizenship, but citizens are not required to join in order to be fully involved in other aspects of TSP’s government.

Ok, enough from me, here is the proposal. I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts.

Amendment(s) to the Charter

III. RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

…

(6) A member of the Coalition is a player with a nation within the South Pacific.

(7) A citizen of the Coalition is a member of the Coalition that has applied for and been granted citizenship while maintaining the requirements for citizenship.

a. A standing committee of citizens will be tasked with granting and revoking citizenship status. The requirements to apply for, maintain, and revoke citizenship will be codified by the Assembly in a law.

IV. THE ASSEMBLY

…

(3) The Chair may appoint a deputy or deputies from the Assembly, to whom the Chair may publicly delegate any powers, responsibilities, or special projects of the Chair, subject to all regulations and restrictions imposed upon the Chair by law. The Chair may dismiss such deputies.

Legislator Eligibility

(4) A standing commission of legislators will be tasked with granting and revoking legislator status. All residents All citizens of the Coalition are eligible to attain legislator status through an application to the Chair. Continued legislator status requires compliance with the requirements for legislator status as specified by law.active membership and good behaviour.

V. THE EXECUTIVE

…

(4) Members of the Executive are required to be members of the Coalition. The Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers are required to be citizens of the Coalition. hold legislator status.

VIII. THE COUNCIL ON REGIONAL SECURITY AND CORAL GUARD

…

Membership of the Council on Regional Security

(2) The minimum qualifications for membership in the Council on Regional Security are: maintaining a nation in the South Pacific and having served at least six consecutive months as a legislator.

(2) To be eligible for membership in the Council on Regional Security, a person must:

  1. Have maintained citizenship for at least six consecutive months prior to the date of their application or nomination to the Council;
  2. Continuously maintain citizenship throughout their service on the Council; and
  3. Satisfy any other requirements set by law.

…

Membership of the Coral Guard

(13) The minimum qualifications for membership in the Coral Guard are: maintaining a World Assembly member nation in the South Pacific; having served at least six consecutive months as a legislator; and meeting requirements for influence and endorsements which are set and published by the Council on Regional Security.

(2) To be eligible for membership in the Coral Guard, a person must:

  1. Have maintained citizenship for at least six consecutive months prior to the date of their application to the Coral Guard;
  2. Continuously maintain citizenship throughout their service on the Coral Guard;
  3. Continuously maintain a World Assembly nation in the South Pacific;
  4. Meet the requirements for influence and endorsements set and published by the Council on Regional Security; and
  5. Satisfy any other requirements set by law.
Amendment(s) to the Elections Act

2. Electoral Basics

…

(4) To be eligible to vote in, or stand for, a forum-based election, a legislator citizen must have been accepted by the Legislator Citizenship Committee before the period for nominations began for that particular election.

3. Office of the Delegate

(1) The Delegate will be elected in a two-round process constituting a single election, with the Assembly citizens voting on a slate of nominees on the forums, and candidates advancing from that process being voted on by regional poll on-site.

(2) Sixteen days before the first of every February and August, the Assembly citizens will convene for the first round of Delegate Elections.

  1. Any eligible legislator citizen wishing to run for Delegate may declare their candidacy, and the Assembly citizens will debate the merits of their platform. Any player who has been banned from World Assembly membership will be considered ineligible, and any candidate who is later discovered to be banned from World Assembly membership will be immediately disqualified. Legislators Citizens wishing to run for Delegate must hold a number of endorsements equal to at least 80% of the existing general endorsement cap at the commencement of the election period.
  2. The campaign and debate period will last one week, after which the Assembly citizens will vote for three days.

(3) …

  1. The Election Commissioner will create a six-day-long regional poll through which voters eligible members may cast their ballots. The poll must provide instructions for them on how to do so, and may only allow Native World Assembly members to participate.

4. Office of the Prime Minister

(1) Sixteen days before the first of every February, May, August, and November, the Assembly citizens will convene to elect the Prime Minister.

  1. …
  1. A two-day campaign-only period where candidates may campaign, and the Assembly citizens will debate the merits of their platforms.
Amendment to the Judicial Act

2. Judicial Conduct and Requirements

(1) …
(2) An Associate Justice must have legislator status in the South Pacific be a citizen of the Coalition and take an oath of confidentiality and impartiality.

Citizenship Act

Citizenship Act

An act to establish procedures for managing citizenship eligibility

1. Citizenship Registrations

(1) Members of the Coalition are eligible to become and remain citizens if they:

  1. are not joining or participating in bad faith,
  2. are not attempting to join with multiple nations or identities,
  3. are not considered by the Council on Regional Security to be a significant risk to regional security, and
  4. cast a ballot in all elections in which they are eligible to vote and are not on a leave of absence, provided that such review must take place no later than seven days after the end of said election, and for that purpose, the election commissioner must provide a list of voters who cast votes.

(2) Members of the Coalition may register for citizenship through an application with the Citizenship Committee, including at least the following:

  1. any colloquial aliases of the individual in use within the last year or in prominent use longer than a year ago;
  2. the current World Assembly nation of the individual (in case of a floating World Assembly membership, the applicant may list multiple nations such that World Assembly membership can be traced throughout the application process).

(3) The Citizenship Committee will strive to confirm the reception of each application and then will determine the eligibility of the applicant in consultation with any other institutions of the Coalition as needed and accept or deny each applicant based on that determination.

(4) The Citizenship Committee may request additional information as needed from applicants.

(5) Upon acceptance or denial of an application, the Citizenship Committee shall post the result (including a sufficient reason in case of denial) both in response to the application as well as per telegram to the applicant nation.

2. Citizenship Committee

(1) The Citizenship Committee is responsible for granting and revoking the citizenship of members.

(2) The Citizenship Committee is comprised of up to four citizens, each appointed by the Prime Minister and approved by the Assembly via a simple majority vote.

(3) A member of the Citizenship Committee is removed from the committee if the member:

  1. resigns,
  2. loses citizenship, or
  3. is recalled by the Assembly through regular order.

(4) If no member of the Citizenship Committee is available due to vacancy or leave, and there are outstanding duties to be performed, the Prime Minister may appoint an emergency member to handle any urgent matters of the committee. The Council on Regional Security may, on security grounds only, rescind the Prime Minister’s appointment. The emergency member’s tenure will last until the Prime Minister rescinds the appointment or until one week after a regular committee member is available, whichever happens sooner.

(5) The Citizenship Committee may additionally conduct security checks on citizens at the request of other government officials.

3. Citizenship Checks

(1) Citizens retain their citizenship until resignation or removal by the appropriate authority, the latter upon the determination that the citizen:

  1. No longer meets the qualifications prescribed in Article 1, Section 1, provided that no unlawful expulsion from the region may be used to support a conclusion of failure to meet the qualifications; or
  2. Has been declared persona non grata by the Coalition.

(2) Citizens may request a leave of absence for a non-indefinite period, specifying the end date of such leave, which will be subject to discretionary approval from the Citizenship Committee before the voting period for each election. Citizens shall not have their status removed if they fail to cast a ballot in an election for which the majority of the voting period is contained within their leave of absence.

  1. An otherwise active citizen can be granted leniency for failing to vote during an election at the discretion of the Citizenship Committee.

(3) At least monthly, the Citizenship Committee will revoke the citizenship of all citizens who are no longer eligible.

4. Constitutional Law

(1) The Citizenship Act is a constitutional law, and further amendments to it must meet constitutional amendment requirements.

Amendment(s) to the Legislator Committee Act

Legislator Committee Act

An act to establish a commission to and manage legislators status

## 1. Scope

(1) The Legislator Committee is the commission responsible for granting and revoking legislator status to members.

(2) The Legislator Committee comprises no less than three and no more than five legislators that have each been appointed by the Prime Minister and approved by the Assembly via a simple majority vote.

(3) A member of the Legislator Committee is removed from the committee if

a. the member resigns,
b. the member loses legislator eligibility, or
c. the member is recalled by the Assembly through regular order.

(4) If there is no member of the Legislator Committee available due to vacancy or leave, and there are outstanding duties to be performed, the Prime Minister may appoint an emergency member to handle any urgent matters of the committee. The Council on Regional Security may, on security grounds only, rescind the Prime Minister’s appointment. The emergency member’s tenure will last until the Prime Minister rescinds the appointment or until one week after a regular committee member is available, whichever happens sooner.

2 1. Legislator Applications

(1) Any member citizen of the Coalition is eligible to attain legislator status if the Chair of the Assembly does not opine that they are seeking legislator status in bad faith.

a. the Legislator Committee does not opine that they are seeking membership in bad faith,
b. they have a nation in the South Pacific,
c. are not attempting to join with multiple nations or identities, and
d. are not considered by the Council on Regional Security to be a significant risk to regional security.

(2) A member of the Coalition may attain legislator status through an application with the Legislator Committee. The Committee shall confirm the reception of an application within 48 hours. The Committee will determine the eligibility of the applicant, consulting any other institutions of the Coalition as needed to inform its decision, and shall strive to accept or deny each applicant within a week.

(32) An application for legislator status must include at least:

a. the current nation in the South Pacific;
b. any colloquial aliases of the individual in use within the last year, or in prominent use longer than a year ago;
c. the current World Assembly nation of the individual (in case of a floating World Assembly membership, the applicant may list multiple nations such that World Assembly membership can be traced throughout the application process); and

a. A link to their accepted citizenship application,
b. Any relevant updates to the citizenship application that changed since the application was made, and

d.c. a pledge to uphold the laws of the Coalition of the South Pacific.

(4) The Legislator Committee may request additional legitimation steps from applicants, such as requesting a telegram from a World Assembly nation. An applicant may choose to publicly withhold some information and only disclose it to the Council on Regional Security in case of reasonable concerns of confidentiality.

(53) Upon acceptance or denial of an application, the Legislator Committee shall Chair of the Assembly shall post the result (including a sufficient reason in case of a denial) both in response to the application as well as per telegram to the applicant nation.

a. The applicant may appeal a rejection to the Assembly at large for a vote.

3 2. Legislator Checks

(1) Continued legislator status requires active membership and good behaviorur.

(2) Within the first week of each calendar month, the Legislator Committee Chair of the Assembly will remove legislator status from a legislator if they failed the voting requirement in the past month, if applicable, or otherwise no longer meet the eligibility requirements as described herein. If a legislator no longer meets the eligibility requirements (not including the voting requirement), and it would be impossible for them to meet the requirements before the first week of the following calendar month, the Legislator Committee Chair of the Assembly may remove their legislator status at their discretion before the appointed week. The Legislator Committee Chair of the Assembly may exercise discretion and not remove legislators under reasonable extenuating circumstances.

(3) A legislator fails the voting requirement if they are absent for more than half two-thirds of all votes finished in the previous calendar month, if a minimum of two three votes occurred.

(4) Legislators may request a leave of absence for a non-indefinite period of time, specifying the end date of such leave, which will be subject to discretionary approval from the Chair of the Assembly or their deputies. During such time, legislators on a leave of absence are exempt from the voting requirement.

(5) The Chair of the Assembly may order the Legislator Committee to suspend legislator privileges for disruptive members. Frequent suspensions may be grounds for ineligibility, if found appropriate in a fair trial by the High Court.

## 4. Constitutional Law

(1) The Legislator Committee Act is a constitutional law, and further amendments to it must meet constitutional amendment requirements.

Resolution on Citizenship Transition

Resolution on Citizenship Transition

A resolution to provide an orderly transition from Assembly focused citizenship to election-focused citizenship

Resolved by the Assembly of the South Pacific;

  1. Upon passage of the various accompanying amendments, all current legislators will automatically be granted citizenship and will retain their legislator status.
  2. All current members of the Legislator Committee will become members of the Citizenship Committee unless they should choose otherwise.
  3. All current legislators, in being considered for positions that involve duration of Citizenship status as part of the application criteria, shall have the duration that they have held Legislator Status counted as part of their time as a Citizen of the South Pacific.
2

I find this to be acceptable.

3

This topic has been designated its relevant identifying information.

BlockBuster2K43, Deputy Chair of the Assembly

4

I’m going to look theough this in more detail later, but right now the only thing I think should be changed is the loss of citizen status. I’m not sure of any laws relating to voting, but I think it should be more of a right than a requirement, and that the loss of citizen status would be strange.

5

Citizenship gives access to voting in elections. If you don’t vote in elections, then citizenship is not necessary.

All nations in the region are still members and are still afforded their good faith protections under the law.

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I think this proposal would benefit from a cooling-off period given that a similar set of proposals is in the process of being rejected by the Assembly. While the original debate focused largely on the WA requirements, which have been dropped by this version, it’s possible that there are more widespread objections and it would probably be prudent to reach out and understand those rather than brute-forcing the legislation by trial and error.

It is worth recalling that both the Assembly and the recent Great Council have considered similar moves to decouple voting rights from Assembly membership in the past, and these have not gathered the required support. If I recall correctly, the “Citizenship and Residency” proposals on the old forums were rejected in part because of concerns about creating a two-tier citizenship status. This appears to be similar to the concerns expressed by Legend above. It could just be a matter of terminology, which is possibly an easy fix, but maybe not - I would be interested to know what efforts have been put in by the supporters of this proposal to find out.

For my part, as a fairly hands-off legislator - I read all the Assembly threads and vote accordingly, but rarely post, or participate in elections - I would oppose being required to vote in elections as a prerequisite for legislator status (since citizenship is required to be a legislator, and citizens are required to vote in all elections). I appreciate my position is unusual, as generally, interest in voting in elections is wider than interest in legislating, but it is an example of a potential reason why these proposals may be more problematic than the issues highlighted so far.

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7

An addition to Griffindor’s point, I would also mention that there already is a voting requirement if one wants to retain the ability to vote in elections, namely the requirement that one participate in Assembly votes. Voting in PM / Delegate elections currently requires being a legislator, and maintaining legislator status requires voting in at least half of all Assembly votes. So this legislation wouldn’t so much impose a voting requirement, as it would replace the requirement of Assembly voting that’s already in place with a different requirement of voting in elections. And that new requirement is designed to be both less burdensome (there are fewer election votes than Assembly votes) and more germane (a requirement of voting in elections seems more relevant to being able to vote in elections than does a requirement of voting on legislation in the Assembly).

I fully agree with part of this statement, namely that we should understand and discuss any more general, non-WA-requirement-based concerns with the proposal before voting on it. But that is exactly what I was hoping would take place in this thread. I might have poorly framed it, but the goal here wasn’t (isn’t) to brute force this new legislation through. It’s to discuss the merits of the legislation without the WA requirement, which almost entirely dominated the debate on the previous version, such that it was hard to generate any discussion of the pros-cons of the rest of the bill.

8

Pronoun has, on multiple occasions and in various media, tried to see if there is any other subset of this proposal that legislators wanted to argue. By and large, it has been the WA requirements.

There have been other opinions, and I know Legend, Belschaft, Kringle have voiced them during the voting period, but I’ll appreciate Welly’s introducing the proposal again in a new topic to help clear the atmosphere, so to speak.

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9

I think it’s worth noting that at some point it’s on legislators to get involved in the legislative process. The threads are there for everyone to read and contribute, so people who choose not, either actively or by omission, to have only so many reasons to complain.

10

It’s also worth remembering that “didn’t comment in the debate” doesn’t equal “didn’t read the debate and form an opinion”.

11

That may be true, but the game isn’t played just by reading.

12

True, but you don’t need to post your opinion to have read and understood an argument on the merits of a proposal. I would refute the argument that Legislators who vote without participating in the debate are uniformed or otherwise negligent.

13

My objection is that you have to vote in elections to maintain citizenship status. Which means you have to vote in elections to maintain legislator status. I think that if you are a legislator, you should be able to maintain citizenship and legislator status by simply doing the duties of a legislator.
Relatedly, why should you have to vote in an election to maintain citizenship status at all? Unlike being a legislator, you should not have to be active to maintain citizenship.

14

Why shouldn’t you be?

15

Let me preface this by saying that when I say citizenship, I mean it in the context of this bill. For instance, if we called legislators citizens and what are currently citizens residents, I think an activity requirement for citizens is a good idea.
This proposal only allows citizens to vote in elections and become a legislator. I don’t see any benefit in forcing people to vote in elections they would never vote in the first place. Especially, if they want to do X as a citizen as I discuss below. Not having an activity requirement allows people to play the game how they want to, instead of how others want them to. They can contribute what they want to.
This does not promote regional health but damage it because you are forcing people who might only care about being able to vote in elections they care about or only want to be a legislator. Another example is someone only caring about who is the Prime Minister but not the Delegate. Under this proposal, they are required to vote in all relevant elections and, therefore, would have to vote in Delegate elections. Thus, people might vote “Re-Open Nominations” or vote for whatever everyone else seems to be voting.

16

I think that at some point we need to get real. We are participating in a democratic region within a political simulation game, and that means elections. If you can’t be bothered to just submit a post to vote in an election that happens every 3-6 months then you’re not doing the bare minimum.

18

Spoiling your ballot by voting incorrectly (as I have mistakingly done in several elections) would (in my mind) count toward casting a vote in an election since ballots can’t be edited once submitted.

19

I’m not sure I follow this argument, unless it is intended as a critique of both the status quo and this proposal. Currently, we do have an activity requirement that mandates folks be active members of the Assembly in order to vote in elections or serve in executive / judicial office. Thus, we do require people to vote on matters about which they may not have otherwise voted–namely legislation–in order to maintain their electoral voting rights. And we do require folks to contribute in a particular way–serving as legislators–even if that is not what they are interested.

So your hypothetical citizen who only cares about voting for Prime Minister is currently required to vote in at least 1/2 of all Assembly votes in order to do so. It seems to me that requiring them to vote only for PM and Delegate is a reduction of activity requirements, not an increase.

20

This increases the requirement to be a legislator. Because citizenship is a requirement to be a legislator, unless I understand it incorrectly, you would lose legislator status by not voting in an election because you would no longer be a citizen.
After re-reading the proposal, I think I have misunderstood it. To be a legislator, it seems you have to be a citizen; then, to stay a legislator, you have to do nothing. Because the Charter would say “Continued legislator status requires compliance with the requirements for legislator status as specified by law.” Nowhere in the proposal does it seem that citizenship is required to maintain legislator status.

21

I believe your initial reading was correct, i.e., that citizenship is required to maintain legislator status. The combined operation of the following two provisions establish as much:

Since citizenship is an eligibility requirement for legislator status, someone who lost citizenship would no longer meet the eligibility requirements as described by the Legislator Act and would be subject to having their legislator status removed by the Chair.

Given that, I agree with you that this proposal does increase the requirement to be a legislator by requiring citizenship and hence voting in elections. It strikes me that there may well be a larger number of individuals who would like to vote in elections but are not interested in participating in Assembly affairs than the other way around, meaning that the proposal on net would reduce barriers to suffrage. And in any event, as Griffindor / Kringle point out, it is a fairly low barrier to vote in elections (or even simply cast a spoiled ballot) if one has no interest in the region’s executive governance but still wants to partake in legislation.