Passed Elections (Amendment) Act, 2021

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EUKBICR

EUKBICR

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Oct 25, 2020
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A MOTION

To amend the law "The Elections Act UL-018"
Introduced into the SENATE of the Union of Democratic States on the DAY of MONTH, YEAR, by KADE VASENTIUS
As follows:
​

RECOGNIZING that the nature of long, drawn out elections do not benefit the Union,
NOTICING that the two day campaigning period has fallen to disuse,
BELIEVING that the current system employed by the EC deserves enshrinement in regional law:
BE IT ENACTED by the Senate :

Section 1: Definitions and Short Title
1. This Act may be referenced as the "Elections Act Update of 2021"


Section 2: Provisions
1. Any references to the Office of the Chancellor shall be changed to read Office of the Electoral Commission
2. Section 1, Clause 5 shall read "Run-off elections shall occur no later than 48 hours after the first multi-seat election and shall follow other electoral rules prescribed by the Electoral Commissioners."
3. Section 3, Clause 1 shall read "Elections shall last for a total period of 4 days, on the final 2 days of the election citizens may cast a single ballot aligned to the system in Section 1 and 2."
4. Section 4, Clause 1 shall read "In the event of a vacancy in the Senate, a by-election shall be held lasting 6 days. For the first 2 days of a by-election the Office of the Electoral Commission shall release a candidacy form which shall close on the 2nd day, and the ballot shall open within 24 hours after candidacy has closed."
 
The campaign period was not heavily used and has fallen out of touch with what we do today. The Union has adopted an accelerated elections schedule to reduce the total time down to four days from six days as originally prescribed in the elections act, on or around the implementation of the new Constitution. This amendment endorses this accelerated schedule, removes outdated chancellor references, and a minor grammar correction in 1.5

I invite questions as necessary

v/r
Kade Vasentius
 
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I think it is sensible, seeing as none of us campaigned in the last senatorial elections.
 
Kade said:
The campaign period was not heavily used and has fallen out of touch with what we do today. The Union has adopted an accelerated elections schedule to reduce the total time down to four days from six days as originally prescribed in the elections act, on or around the implementation of the new Constitution. This amendment endorses this accelerated schedule, removes outdated chancellor references, and a minor grammar correction in 1.5

I invite questions as necessary

v/r
Kade Vasentius
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Sorry, could you clarify whether this bill is actually in contradiction to something listed in the Constitution? Or is it just not aligned to our new regional 'tradition' of election schedule?

In general, I am in favor of keeping a long election period, I feel that there are little to no benefits of shortening the amount of time that someone could use to campaign (if they don't want to campaign, then just wait until later to start), but there are a few drawbacks to shortening the time available to a candidate to do whatever they want to run for office.
 
I think that the campaign period need not be so long, but eradication may be a stretch. Shortening it to 24 hours allows use if someone does wish to use it but doesn't take as much time since 2 days is unnecessarily long.
 
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EUKBICR said:
I think it is sensible, seeing as none of us campaigned in the last senatorial elections.
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I mean I did :p

I think we should still have a campaigning period but shorten it like Prorescia said (24 hours would work as it caters for time zones)
 
I would be very, very, very against a 24 hour campaign period, unless I'm completely misunderstanding what the campaign period means.

Yes, not many of us campaigned on this senate election because we had more available seats than candidates, but I'd certainly hope that that isn't the case in the future, and this was just an anomaly.

I think only giving candidates 24 hours (1 singular day) to interact with voters and lay out their vision for the role, answer questions, etc is way too short.
 
I believe one day is easily long enough. This gives all time zones a chance to make a post and if questions are asked, they should have enough time to respond. A 24 Hour campaign period also is a decent compromise as it provides a shortening of the length of Senatorial elections while also easily allowing time for candidates to post campaigns. If you would so kindly, please provide me a scenario in which 24 hours is not enough time for a candidate to campaign.
 
Prorescia said:
I believe one day is easily long enough. This gives all time zones a chance to make a post and if questions are asked, they should have enough time to respond. A 24 Hour campaign period also is a decent compromise as it provides a shortening of the length of Senatorial elections while also easily allowing time for candidates to post campaigns. If you would so kindly, please provide me a scenario in which 24 hours is not enough time for a candidate to campaign.
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Frankly, I think this ignores the fact that a lot of times people have obligations and things to do outside of playing NS. As I get closer to starting university in the fall, I have found that there have been more and more days here and there that I've been occupied with taking care of other business, and not really checking into NationStates. And on those days that I do check in, I might not always have the bandwith to read through platforms, ask questions, etc. And while yes, 24 hours does allow for everyone in a timezone to respond in some way, I could ask a question halfway through the campaign period, and the candidate might not be able to respond until the end of the campaign period. And what if I have a follow up?

I think if you have a period of only 24 hours, then you have to really acknowledge that you will lose many people who might have otherwise been involved in this process, simply because they were busy that day, or happened to not check into the forums on that day.

I have been since informed that candidates are able to campaign during the candidacy period (which I probably should have thought of earlier). If the proposal is to shorten the campaign period to one day, I suggest we seriously abolish that completely, and just have a regular candidacy + campaign period. Those who submit late platforms will just have to face the consequences of not having as much time to campaign, people not knowing they were running, etc. I see no good reasons for why we need to set aside an additional 24 hours, where no one can sign up to run, but also supposedly no one will really campaign either.
 
@moe - would extending voting to three days work better in that case? Allow campaigning and more time to vote in one swing?
 
I don't know if that's the best solution imo, because people are able to vote, and might cast their ballot before a candidate has the time to follow up on a question, post new info, etc. If we're taking days away from the campaign period, then I think they should be added to the candidacy period, tbh, or honestly if we're going to 1 day of campaigning, just combine the campaign and candidacy periods.

What are people's concerns with combining the two?
 
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moe said:
I don't know if that's the best solution imo, because people are able to vote, and might cast their ballot before a candidate has the time to follow up on a question, post new info, etc. If we're taking days away from the campaign period, then I think they should be added to the candidacy period, tbh, or honestly if we're going to 1 day of campaigning, just combine the campaign and candidacy periods.

What are people's concerns with combining the two?
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Yeah, as long as the system doesn't discourage campaigning then I'd be fine with it. For example, what if we merged the candidacy and campaign periods into a single 4 or 5 day period? Alternatively we could just stay with what we have now :p
 
I think reaching a consensus on direction of this bill is wise prior to amendments. I have attempted to catalog the ideas here:

  1. Original Idea: remove campaign period, shorten election period to four days
  2. Candidacy and campaigning combined, four days for this, two days to vote.
  3. Shorten campaign period to 24 hours
  4. Reject the bill, return to enforcing two day campaign period
I do apologize if I missed an idea shared on the discord. I would like to hear from our senators which ideas they believe have merit so we can hone this discussion further.

kwv
 
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A motion to close debate has been moved. Those in favour may say Aye, those against may say No.
 
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