FACE (Forum Affairs Commission on Elections)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I've made a couple of minor unsubstantive changes to the draft Voter Registration Regulations. If I don't hear any additional feedback on them over the weekend, I'll promulgate them as official regulations early next week.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I say that I find having to issue this particular regulation bothersome, as will the extra post I'll be making in the Voting Booth just to comply with MESRA I in the case of special elections.  I've also made minor modifications to section 2(f) of the draft ballot regulations, and section 3(d)(3) of the draft voter registration regulations.

Election Scheduling Regulations

Section 1. Controlling legislation.
   (a) It is the belief of the Secretary of Forum Affairs that the Constitutional and legislative provisions listed in this subsection are all of the controlling legislation for the time of holding elections.
      (1) Article I Section 4 Clause 3 of the Second Constitution states:
      “Elections shall be held from midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second to last Friday of a given month and shall conclude exactly 72 hours later, except in the month of December, in which case elections shall be held from midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second Friday of the month and conclude exactly 72 hours later.”
      (2) Article I Section 4 Clause 5 of the Second Constitution states:
      “If a vacancy shall occur in a Class B Senate seat, then a special election shall be called to fill the remainder of the vacated term within one week of the vacancy occurring; Such special election shall be held from midnight Eastern Standard Time on a Friday and shall conclude exactly 72 hours later. However, if a vacancy shall occur when there is a person due to assume that office within two weeks, then no special election shall be necessary.”
      (3) Article I Section 4 Clause 6 Sentence 1 of the Second Constitution states:
      "The Senate shall have necessary power to determine regulations for the procedure of and the form of Senate elections and shall have necessary power to determine a procedure for declaration of candidacy for such elections."
      (4) Article II Section 2 Clause 1 of the Second Constitution states:
      “Presidential elections shall be held in the months of February, June and October. Elections shall be held from midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second to last Friday of a given month and shall conclude exactly 72 hours later.”
      (5) Article II Section 2 Clause 2 Sentence 1 of the Second Constitution states:
      "The Senate shall have necessary power to determine regulations for the procedure of and the form of Presidential elections and shall have necessary power to determine a procedure for declaration of candidacy for such elections."
      (6) Article VIII Section 2 Clause 2 of the Second Constitution states:
      "The Department of Forum Affairs shall be responsible for administering all elections to the Presidency and the Senate."
      (7) Article VIII Section 2 Clause 5 of the Second Constitution states:
      "The Senate shall have appropriate power via legislation to repeal or amend anything in this Section."
      (8) Amendment XI Clauses 1 thru 3 of the Second Constitution state:
      “1. Regular elections to the Senate and Presidency shall begin between midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second to last Thursday of the month in which they otherwise would have started and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
      “2. Special elections to the Senate shall begin within ten days of the vacancy occurring and shall begin between midnight Eastern Standard Time on a Thursday and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after beginning.
      “3. The exact time at which a given election or vote shall begin may be determined by the voting booth administrator subject to such restrictions as may be imposed by Law.
      (10) Section 10 Clauses 4 and 5 of the Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 12-8) (as added by the Modified Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 13-5)) state:
      “4. The administrator of a voting booth shall give registered voters seven days advance public notice, in both the Fantasy Elections Forum and the Voting Booth, of the hours in which voting shall take place for all regular Senate elections.
      “5. The administrator of a voting booth shall give registered voters seven days advance public notice, in both the Fantasy Elections Forum and the Voting Booth, of the hours in which voting shall take place for all special Senate elections called on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday; and three days advance public notice, in both the Fantasy Elections Forum and the Voting Booth, of the hours in which voting shall take place for all special Senate called on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday."
   (b) It is the intent of the Secretary of Forum Affairs that these regulations be reasonable rules for the production of a ballot for use in elections that are within the scope of the Constitutional and legislative provisions listed in subsection (a).

DRAFT

Section 2. Regular Elections.
   Unless notice is given to the contrary, and in sufficent time as to comply with Section 10 Clause 4 of Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 12-8), regular elections to the Senate and Presidency shall be held beginning at 0000 UTC on a Friday, and conclude exactly 72 hours later.

DRAFT

Section 3. Special Elections.
   (a) Unless notice is given to the contrary, and in sufficent time as to comply with Section 10 Clause 5 of Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 12-8), special elections to Class B Senate seats shall be held beginning at 0000 UTC on the Friday following the second to last Thursday of a month, and conclude exactly 72 hours later.
   (b) If the provisions of Amendment XI Clause 2 of the Second Constitution permit a choice of Fridays, the later Friday shall be the Friday the election commences.

DRAFT

Section 4. Modified Electoral System Reform Act compliance.
   (a) The promulgation of this regulation is deemed compliance of the requirement for notice in the Fantasy Elections Forum board of the time of election for all elections.
   (b) The inclusion of election times in the absentee ballot thread is deemed compliance of the requirement for notice in the Voting Booth board of the time of election for all regular elections.
   (c) Because the absentee ballot thread will not have opened in time to comply in the case of special elections, a special notice shall be posted in the Voting Booth board at the time of the announcement of the special election, indicating the office(s) to be elected and the time of election.

[Peter]

Regarding Consolidation legislation:

As I understand it, once the present amending bills to the ESRA have come to their conclusion, Senator Hawk plans to introduce a bill to consolidate the provisions of existing electoral law into one bill for ease of reference.

There are a few points surrounding this that I want to raise:

1. When we put Sections 1-3 of the UEC back into force whilst taking Sections 1-4 of the ESRA out of force, we actually lost a little bit of reform that hadn't been intended, namely:

a. The provision in Section 1, Clause 7 of the ESRA that allowed for Senate votes in the wrong district to be considered non-extant.
b. The provision in Section 4, Clause 5 of the ESRA that allowed for the SC to delay runoff elections where litigation was pending.

If we are consolidating, I do not think it would hurt to put these back in.

2. Something Ernest raised with me whilst the Flexi-Time Amendment was in the pipeline was that there is no longer certainty over when the candidacy declaration period will end because we have statutorily fixed it at 7 days before the election begins, but even under the new arrangements just passed, we do not know when the election begins until the SoFA announces it 7 days before hand.

I think it would be prudent to move the end of candidacy declarations to something like 7 days before the earliest possible opening time for a regular election, thus meaning that everybody would know when the deadline is, and would not be guessing.

3. Presently runoff elections and elections caused by the victory of NOTA start on a Thursday at 1800 EST under statute. It may be advisable to move these to the same flexi-time arrangements as exist for regular and special elections.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

2. Something Ernest raised with me whilst the Flexi-Time Amendment was in the pipeline was that there is no longer certainty over when the candidacy declaration period will end because we have statutorily fixed it at 7 days before the election begins, but even under the new arrangements just passed, we do not know when the election begins until the SoFA announces it 7 days before hand.

I think it would be prudent to move the end of candidacy declarations to something like 7 days before the earliest possible opening time for a regular election, thus meaning that everybody would know when the deadline is, and would not be guessing.

Probably a good idea, however, at least as long as I'm SoFA there will be a fixed time for all elections I administer, as I've set a fixed time of midnight GMT (7pm EST/8pm EDT) in the draft scheduling regulations.  What I would really like is a bit of statutory time between the ending of the declaration period and the start of absentee balloting.  As it is, I'll probably end up being slightly in violation of the law, especially if there are any last minute declarations.

[Peter]

That would be quite difficult as we are dealing with a constitutional requirement: Article V, Section 2, Clause 8

If any voter will be unable to vote in a federal election during the time allotted, he or she may request to absentee vote at any time between the end of the filing deadline for candidates and the beginning of the election. The Senate may by appropriate legislation determine the procedure for absentee voting.

There may be a little wiggle room in that the requirement only talks about "request", not about the actual act of casting the absentee ballot, though we should be careful not to abuse intent.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I've made a small change to the voter registration regulations so as to affect the timing of deregistrations due to inactivity.  As they were written, then in the case of J.R. he wouldn't have been able to vote in the upcoming elections no matter what since he wouldn't have been deregistered in time ofr him to register so that he could vote.

[Democratic Hawk]

I'm still working on the Consolidated Electoral Reform Bill, which will put all existing federal election law together

Regarding Consolidation legislation:

As I understand it, once the present amending bills to the ESRA have come to their conclusion, Senator Hawk plans to introduce a bill to consolidate the provisions of existing electoral law into one bill for ease of reference.

There are a few points surrounding this that I want to raise:

1. When we put Sections 1-3 of the UEC back into force whilst taking Sections 1-4 of the ESRA out of force, we actually lost a little bit of reform that hadn't been intended, namely:

a. The provision in Section 1, Clause 7 of the ESRA that allowed for Senate votes in the wrong district to be considered non-extant.
b. The provision in Section 4, Clause 5 of the ESRA that allowed for the SC to delay runoff elections where litigation was pending.

If we are consolidating, I do not think it would hurt to put these back in.

I've put the above provisions 1. a. and 1. b. back in

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But I'm not sure as how best to incorporate points 2 and 3 into it

Thanks

Dave 'Hawk'