Constitutional Amendment: Special Elections Amendment (Passed)

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I don't support this. We don't need to have a national election (which requires work from both party appratuses and our good elections administrator) every time a representative has personal problems and needs to step down.

From my understanding, this aims to avoid a repeat of the event colloquialy known as the Great Green Panty Raid. My counteroffer is that a special election be triggered only if the party chair is incapable of making a replacement within an allotted time period, or if the Representative in question is an Independent. That's a far more reasonable solution that addresses concerns while also sparing the voters of this nation from going to the polls every time a representative resigns.

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Regardless of the purpose this seems too burdensome for the voter. I'll propose an amendment limiting this to when a party leader fails to make an appointment or if there is no party leader, following sponsor advocacy.

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What if you made it so in janky situations, the Speaker of the House appoints a member who was registered in the vacating Rep's party at the time the vacancy arose? Just a thought

I would support this.

Likewise. This system is currently used in OTL Oregon (and other states) and would be a nice solution to this problem. If the resigning rep had an active/serving Party Chair, we can retain the current system.

If the Vice President isn't interested I can propose an amendment to this end following sponsor advocacy.

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I'll propose an amendment based on Ted's and Cao's comments on this issue. This would create a system handing the appointment over to the Speaker if the executive position of the resigning Representative's major party is vacated anytime after the creation of the vacancy (like in the GGPR), or if the executive is incapable of filling the seat in a timely manner. I'm not the best writer so feedback would be appreciated. I'm also open to replacing special elections entirely with this system but that amendment probably requires a separate discussion.

Special Elections Amendment
Section 3 Article 5 of the Atlasian Constitution shall be amended to be
Vacancies in the House of Representatives shall be filled by the executive of the affected Party; should the executive of the affected Party resign at any time between the creation of the vacancy and the appointment of a replacement Representative, or be otherwise unable to fill the vacancy within 72 hours, the Speaker of the House shall fill the seat with a member of the Party of the departing representative. But, should a vacancy occur as the result of the death, expulsion, or resignation of a Representative not being a member of a major Party, then a special election shall be held to choose a replacement to serve the remainder of the existing term.

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I believe that the amended version fixes the problems posed by the Great Green Panty Raid while also not creating burdensome special elections that could end up giving the majority even more power if a minority party representative resigns. But let's see what the House thinks.

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Aye!

Gotta love #bipartisanbills

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If required I will assume sponsorship. I'd be proud to sponsor this amendment, which has support from both the Labor and Federalist parties and will patch a gaping loophole in our election law.

Regarding Poirot's comments, a new title could be the "Constitutional Amendment: Revising Appointment Procedures Amendment". The intended purpose of the bill is to trigger a Speaker appointment of a party member if the chairmanship is vacated (as it was in the GGPR scenario), to close that loophole specifically, though I could see merit to potential changes if any member wants to offer them.

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Does anyone have any other comments on this?

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Aye