Guy's Constitutional Amendment: Rewording

[Catalyse]

Summary of changes:

• Substantive changes, or those clarifying ambiguities, are coloured. These are all changes other than those to Article 7.
• The change in Article 2 clarifies the meaning of the provision. If the Citizenship Council finds no security concerns, it must approve the application. It has been raised before that this is not automatic in the strict sense.
• Article 5: There have always been four Officer positions. There have been vacancies. But never any fewer or more than four positions.
• Article 5: Clarifies that vacant positions can be filled at the same time as replacing existing Officers.
• Article 7: Clarifies that citizens admitted after Delegate elections have begun are only ineligible to vote in that election, and not in other Assembly business.
• Further, Article 7 is entirely redrafted. The new text is easier on the eyes, and fits nicely with our Elections Law. It is longer, given it consolidates provisions from other Articles on elections.
• Our Constitution alternatively refers to "WA Delegate" and "Delegate". Ideally, I would prefer just one or the other. A simple "all instances of WA Delegate are to be changed to Delegate" should suffice.
• I think that shortening the voting period should be considered separately.

Article 2: Citizenship

• A: Citizenship may be granted to any person who has a nation in The Rejected Realms and an account on TRR's forums.
• B: All citizenship applications are subject to a security check by the Citizenship Council. Citizenship applications are automatically to be approved if no security concerns are found.
• C: Citizenship may be granted by a unanimous decision of the Citizenship Council, or if more than 7 days have passed since the application, by a majority vote. Any councillor may deny citizenship. Citizenship may be retracted by a majority vote of the Citizenship Council. A decision to deny or retract citizenship may be appealed to the Assembly as set out in Article 3.

Article 3: The Assembly

• A: The Assembly consists of all citizens of The Rejected Realms.
• B: The Assembly is responsible for voting on laws, treaties, declarations of war, constitutional amendments and appeals from the Citizenship Council, and electing Officers and the WA Delegate. and acting as a court of appeal.
• C: Votes in the Assembly are visible to all citizens, and last for seven days.
• D: Votes on laws, treaties and appeals require a simple majority vote to pass. Declarations of war require a 75% majority vote to pass or amend, and a simple majority to repeal. Amendments to the Constitution require a 75% majority vote to pass.

Article 5: Officers

• A: Officers of the region are responsible for carrying out the governmental functions of the region.
• B: There are four Officer positions. Up to four Officers may exist at any one time. Vacant positions will be filled before current Officers are replaced. Current Officers must not be replaced before vacant positions are filled.
• C: Elections shall begin for all Officer positions on the first day of April, August and December, as if a challenge had been made. Incumbent Officers must confirm their intent to stand as candidates, under Article 7 Clause A.

Article 7: Elections

• A: Any citizen who wishes to become an Officer or the Delegate may challenge for the position.
• B: Elections begin once a challenge is submitted. If the elections are for the position of Delegate, any citizens admitted after this time will not be allowed to vote until that election has concluded in that election.
• C: The challenge period is the first seven days of Delegate elections and first four days of Officer elections. Further challenges must be submitted during the challenge period. An official being challenged must confirm their intent to run during the challenge period.
• D: A challenge to an official within 30 days of their election requires the support of four other citizens. Otherwise, a challenge for Delegate requires the support of two other citizens, and a challenge for Officer requires the support of one other citizen.
• E: Following the challenge period, the Assembly will vote to elect the Delegate or Officer. Voting is to be open for seven days in Delegate elections, and four days in Officer elections.
• F: Simultaneous elections will begin for all Officer positions on the first day of April, August and December, as if a challenge had been made. Incumbent Officers must confirm their intent to run.
• G: If there are multiple vacant Officer position, each challenge is to be taken to be for all vacant positions, and a simultaneous election is to be held.
• H: The voting system is determined by law. If there is only one candidate in an election, a confirmation vote requiring a simple majority is to be held. Simultaneous elections are to be held as a single election for multiple positions, except that if the number of candidates does not exceed the number of vacancies, each candidate is to be subject to a confirmation vote.

I'm just posting this here so the other amendment topic can be used for the discussion on the voting time changes.

[Catalyse]

I think this has already had sufficient discussion in the other thread so maybe we could just vote on it? I'm not entirely sure what the usual procedure is.

[frattastan]

The timing of debate/vote is at the Speaker's discretion, pretty much.

I would like some time to think a better phrasing for 7f-h.

[frattastan]

F: The voting system is determined by law. If the number of candidates exceeds the number of positions, a single election for all positions will be held; in the other cases, each candidate must be confirmed by a simple majority vote.
G: Vacant positions must be filled before incumbent Officers can be challenged.
H: Elections will begin for all Officer positions on the first day of April, August and December, as if a challenge had been made. Incumbent Officers must confirm their intent to run.

I'd prefer this wording. I moved 7f to the end because it seems more logical.

[Catalyse]

I don't really like " The voting system is determined by law.". Sounds like a platitude, everything in the consitution or outside of it is determined by law, no? I think " The voting system shall determined by the Assembly." is a better way to word that.

I also think "Simultaneous elections (...) " is a better wording than " (...) a single election (...) ".

[frattastan]

1. Laws refers to regulations that are approved by the Assembly with a simple majority vote. Things in the Constitution are not 'laws' (hence the Constitution says "The Assembly is responsible for voting on laws, [...] constitutional amendments", stating them as two separate categories).

I think "The voting system is determined by law" (stating both who should make the decision, and what form it should take) is somewhat clearer than "The voting system is determined by the Assembly", although there isn't a big difference.

2. The confirmation votes can be "simultaneous" (concurrent) too, since they can occur at the same time. If there are only four candidates for four positions, the Speaker will open four confirmation votes, running simultaneously.

Besides, Guy's draft states the same thing: "Simultaneous elections are to be held as a single election...".

[Guy]

Fratt, the issue is that you have to define which elections have "multiple positions" and which do not.

Case 1: Scheduled "general" elections. There are clearly multiple positions.

Case 2: More than one vacant Officer position. Without further refinement, this group could be excluded from the "multiple positions" election, as the challenges to each position can occur at different times. However, it's clearly nonsensical to have e.g. four people challenge for one vacancy, and two for the other. Hence clause G.

Case 3: More than one incumbent Officer being challenged. Clearly here you would want each election to be separate. The timing would be a little out of sync too, the challenges (by different people) not being truly "simultaneous".

[Catalyse]

Can we take Guy's version to a vote now?

[drunkenconquerors]

I oppose striking article 5 Section C. It seems to leave an argument that Officer positions stay filled until challenged. That type of permanence sound suspiciously like stagnation, or even autocracy.

[Guy]

It's simply transferred to 7F.

[Catalyse]

So, wassup?

[drunkenconquerors]

Ayup. Missed that

[Opressed Ones]

It's up for a vote.

[Christian Democrats]

It's up for a vote.

Would you mind marking all of the changes being made to Article 7?

[Guy]

It's basically completely re-written: A mark-up would be impossible. I believe I marked the substantive changes.

[Christian Democrats]

It's basically completely re-written: A mark-up would be impossible. I believe I marked the substantive changes.

Yeah, I noticed that. I'd rather not go back and forth looking for all of the changes that have been made.