Constitutional Amendment on Voter Registration and Voting Rules

[Democratic Hawk]

Constitutional Amendment on Voter Registration and Voting Rules

Clause 6 of Section 2, Article V is hereby repealed


Sponsor: Sen. Dave 'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

From the debate on the Federal Activity Requirements Revision Bill:

I certainly agree with much of your rationale against either a) reducing or b) abolishing federal activity requirements altogether Senator; however, you do raise my priori concern:

I understand that their concern is the increasingly shallow voter lists.

Indeed, there you have it, shallow voting lists

When I was first elected, or rather more correctly jointly-elected, to the Senate last December there were 23 registered voters in the then District 4 and ever since it has has steadily eroded with each and every passing election cycle until now when it seems that the new districts shall average 11 registered voters

I think the decline to some extent can be blamed due to an increasing lack of competitive elections. My first election campaign was probably one of the most hard fought and tenacious Senate campaigns in the history of Atlasia. And, as election results go, it couldn't have been any closer, 10 votes each for myself and Bono, in both the first ballot and the run-off; hence, that history making split-term agreement. In fact, part of my decision not to seek re-election this month, stems from the fact that I had become an all-too intrenched incumbent and I wanting to make way for new blood and, ideally, a competitive race to succeed me

That said, I don't think the 25 post federal activity requirement in 8 weeks prior to the election is the real issue. I think its reasonable enough while, simultaneously, voicing opposition to such requirements; however, your arguments has swayed me more towards your position

The crux of the problem lies within the Second Constitution. Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 reads:

Any registered voter who fails to vote in elections for four months, and any first-time registrant who fails to vote in the first scheduled Senate elections for which he is qualified to vote shall have his registration no longer considered valid. This clause shall not be construed to deny a forum user the right to register anew.

So there you have it, the twin evils of a lack of competitive elections and the effects of above clause only confound the problems we face. As elections become uncompetitive and the voter rolls are depleted as a result of people not voting, this in itself only serves to deteriorate the situation, like a two-edged sword, given that the fewer voters we have, then the less likely we are to have competitive elections

So, there you have it Senators , it's not so much federal activity requirements I oppose but Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Second Constitution and its effects

In a nutshell, I believe we've lost more voters as a result of this clause then we ever have from voters not fulfilling federal activity requirements

Therefore, later this evening, I'll be introducing a Constitutional Amendment to remove said clause from the Second Constitution. Rest assured, on that, my convictions have seldom been stronger. I should have considered it months ago, and my apologies for not doing so sooner

Basically, sums how I feel up, however, I'm open to alternative amendments proposed by fellow Senators

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

Senator Jas responded and it is for him to state his position regarding my Amendment in this debate; while Peter Bell made this response:

I'd like to give a bit of background to the clause if I may, and importantly, why it was necessary in the older Republic.

When Atlasia was first founded, the federal census (and thus the districts) were based off the map of registered voters (this is how the districts were originally drawn before we even had a Constitution). When the first Constitution was drafted this scheme was maintained - it was soon realised that allowing voters to remain on the rolls indefinitely could chaos what were effectively rotten boroughs.

Imagine if a particular state or two were inundated with registrations and then most of those registrees went dead - this would leave an area with such a large population that it would cause a very small district centred around it. However, there would be so few active voters that it would either cause unchallenged elections, the movement of only a few people radically changing the actual political shape of a district, or worse still, somebody to get elected by stuffing the ballot box. Those of us who were around in those days remember only too well the December 2004 problems in New York and Pennsylvania that caused those elections to be utterly mired in controversy, and know only too well that it can happen here.

Faced with this problem, the founding fathers of the first Constitution decided in their wisdom to force all long term inactive voters (i.e. those not voting in 4 months) to be automatically purged from the rolls, thus allowing balanced, active districts to come out of redistricting.

When it came to the drafting of the second constitution, it was decided that the census should operate on the basis of those who voted at the last election. With hindsight, this would have been a much better solution to the original problem, but alas that is hindsight.

The provisions of Article V under discussion here were however not removed. The justifications for keeping it came down to a few arguments in my opinion:
*Retaining deadwood on the electoral roll is not healthy - it encourages candidates to bring everybody on the roll out to vote (legally active or not), who then don't hang around to suffer the consequences.
*It doesn't give a true picture of Atlasia - to date we have probably had several hundred, if not bordering on a thousand, registered voters. If these were all still on the rolls it might lead some to claim that Atlasia is fine when of course it isn't.
*If applied rectroactively, removing the provisions has many problems - records are far from complete and the original registration thread was deleted.

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

Well the only problem with your opinion that I have, Senator Hawk, is that the voting lists would then become very much clogged with registrants who have not participated in Atlasia for a very long time. If this was in place from the earliest days of the Republic we would still have eminent people like Gustaf, JFK, or Dunn on the rolls but that would do nothing more than articificially inflate the voting population to include people who have not participated in a very long time.

You raise a very fair point , Senator

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I'm favorable to extending the period from 2 elections to either 4 elections (8 months) or 6 elections (12 months). Both options, in my opinion, are certainly preferable to what we have now

Should you wish propose an amendment to the Amendment along those lines, I'd support it

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

I would submit the following amendment for consideration:

That Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Constitution be amended to read as follows:

Any registered voter who fails to vote in elections for eight months for which he is qualified to vote shall have his registration no longer considered valid. This clause shall not be construed to deny a forum user the right to register anew.

I consider your amendment to be a most reasonable compromise Senator and intend to support it

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

I hereby open the vote on the following amendment. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain

That Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Constitution be amended to read as follows:

Any registered voter who fails to vote in elections for eight months for which he is qualified to vote shall have his registration no longer considered valid. The said voter may only be deregistered after missing four federal elections, not including runoffs and special elections. A vote in a special election or runoff will be counted towards activity the same as a vote in a regular federal election. This clause shall not be construed to deny a forum user the right to register anew.

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

Aye

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

With 7 'Ayes', 0 'Nays' and 1 Abstention, this amendment has passed

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

I hereby open the final vote on this Constitutional Amendment. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain

Constitutional Amendment on Voter Registration and Voting Rules

That Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Constitution be amended to read as follows:

Any registered voter who fails to vote in elections for eight months for which he is qualified to vote shall have his registration no longer considered valid. The said voter may only be deregistered after missing four federal elections, not including runoffs and special elections. A vote in a special election or runoff will be counted towards activity the same as a vote in a regular federal election. This clause shall not be construed to deny a forum user the right to register anew.

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

Aye

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

This Constitutional Amendment has enough votes to pass. Senators now have 24 hours to change their votes

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

With 7 Ayes, 0 Nays and 1 Abstention, this Constitutional Amendment has passed. I hereby present it to the Regions for Ratification

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

Due to an error, I neglected to include the following into the vote on Senator Wixted's amendment and the final vote:

That Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Constitution be amended to read as follows:

It does not alter the substance of the approved Amendment, so I've made the appropriate adjustments to allow for it

'Hawk'