This is a vote on [GCPR.2212] Elections Act, which was submitted, debated, and motioned on this thread in accordance with the provisions of the Great Council Convening Resolution.
This amendment requires a 60% majority of valid votes cast, excluding abstentions, to pass, and will remain open during the period listed below:
2022-12-04T14:00:00Z→2022-12-09T14:00:00Z
Read the Proposal
ELECTIONS ACT
An act to regulate regional elections
1. General Provisions
(1) This law is a constitutional law and has precedence over all general laws and regulations.
(2) This law applies to all elections of government officials.
(3) This law considers the following terms:
- Election - the process through which a voter accedes to an office via suffrage, from the opening of declarations of candidacy until the certification of the result.
- Voter - a voter as defined in the Voter Registration Act, who additionally meets any added qualifications within this law.
- Office - any government position with the exception of voters.
- Conflict of Interest Disclosure - a list of all current and past aliases, affiliations, and offices held across NationStates by a candidate.
- Participation - the ability to declare one's candidacy and cast votes in a given election.
- Candidate - an individual who is listed on the ballot for an election or the option to re-open nominations.
2. Election Commissioner
(1) The Election Commissioner is a voter appointed by the Security Council to administer elections.
(2) The Commissioner is responsible for the publication of election notices and information, the organization and moderation of the venues where the election is conducted, the verification of candidate eligibility, the tallying of votes, the certification of election results, and the resolution of election-related disputes or, when applicable, their referral to the relevant authorities.
(3) The Commissioner cannot hold any office that is subject to election, nor can they run for the office whose election they administer.
3. Election Methods
(1) Instant Runoff Vote is conducted with voters listing however many candidates they prefer, including an option to re-open nominations, in descending order of preference. Until a candidate has received a simple majority of first preferences, the candidate with the fewest first preferences is eliminated and the ballots are tallied again, ignoring any preferences for them.
(2) Majority Vote is conducted when voters list a single candidate whom they prefer or, alternatively, an option to re-open nominations. The candidate with a simple majority of votes is the winner. If no candidate obtains a simple majority and no tie has occurred, a runoff round of voting will be held with the two candidates who obtained the highest numbers of votes and without the option to re-open nominations unless it already qualifies for inclusion.
(3) Ties in elections under instant runoff vote are broken with the candidate with the fewest next level preferences being eliminated, until all levels of preference are exhausted. Ties in all other elections or in cases where other tie-breaking methods have been exhausted, will be resolved by mutual agreement between the candidates or via a method of chance determined by the Commissioner, provided that such a method must be publicly observable and use resources not controlled by either candidate or the Commissioner.
(4) If the option to re-open nominations wins, the election shall revert to declarations to elect the number of winners that remained unelected.
(5) Voters in offsite elections must have the option of casting public or private ballots, but ballots cannot be altered once cast. Ballots cast in private must be sent to a group inbox accessible only to the Commissioner, which should remain available for audit. The identity of private voters cannot be revealed.
4. Election Procedures
(1) Elections for all offices, unless otherwise provided within this law, are conducted in such a manner that declarations of candidacy extend for four days and voting extends for three days from the end of declarations or the previous round of voting, as may be the case. Candidates must submit an accurate conflict of interest disclosure before the end of declarations under penalty of disqualification. Voting, unless otherwise provided within this law, is limited to voters who were admitted before the start of declarations and is conducted via instant runoff vote.
(2) Elections for all offices, unless otherwise provided within this law, must begin no later than seven days after the occurrence of a vacancy unless the same occurred when less than half of the term remains, in which case the vacancy is filled in the following manner:
- For the Delegate, the next in line, according to the line of succession set by the Security Council, becomes Delegate for the remainder of the term.
- For other offices, the Prime Minister selects a successor, provided that such individual should be otherwise eligible to stand for election, subject to approval from the Assembly.
(3) Elections for the Chair of the Assembly will begin immediately upon vacancy of the Chair, or the passage of a resolution to start elections for Chair, the latter of which may only be passed no earlier than 2 months after the end of the last election. Elections will use the instant runoff voting method.
(4) Elections for the Delegate begin on the first of February and August and are conducted via a first round of instant runoff vote with two winners and a second round of majority vote, provided that voting for the second round is held via a regional poll limited to Native World Assembly Residents and posting on the Message Board with a tag to the Commissioner limited to members of the Special Forces identified by the Minister of Defense as being deployed during voting. Candidates in the first round must have a number of endorsements no lower than 80% of the general endorsement cap, rounded down to the nearest whole number, at the start of the election. Candidates in the second round are the winners of the first round.
(5) Elections for the Prime Minister begin 3 months after the conclusion of the last election.
- Yes
- No
- Abstain
0 voters