Northeast Assembly Legislation Introduction Thread

[homelycooking]

Statutory "Spring Cleaning" Act of 2011

1. The Assembly hereby creates a temporary Statutory Review Commission (hereafter referred to as SRC) comprised of one current Representative of the Northeast.
2. The SRC's member shall be appointed by the Assembly by simple majority vote.
3. The SRC shall be entrusted with preparing a report to the Assembly regarding the following:
a. The establishment of a centralized list of all statute signed into law since January 1, 2004;
b. The relevance, clarity and integrity of all said statute;
c. Whether certain laws in said statute contradict others, or are unconstitutional; and
d. Recommendations for future legislation or amendment of existing legislation intended to rectify problems relating to sections 3b and 3c above.
4. The SRC's commission to carry out section 3 above shall expire after the fifteenth calendar day after the SRC commissioner's appointment, on which the SRC shall present its report to the Assembly.
5. The Assembly shall then take action upon the SRC report by accepting and implementing, rejecting or qualifying the recommendations made by the SRC.

[homelycooking]

Vital Civic Information Act

1. The Government of the Northeast shall keep a complete and accurate record at all times of the names of current members of the Assembly, the names of the region's executive and judicial officers, the dates of any forthcoming general or special elections and any other information which the government sees fit to make its citizens aware of.

2. The information to be made public by this act shall be published within three days of the passage of this Act.

3. Any future changes to the above information must be made within three days of an event necessitating a change, such as a new officer/legislator's ascendance to or removal from his respective office or the calling of a new special election.

4. Any member of the Legislature, or of the Executive or Judicial Branches, may make any necessary changes to the above information.

5. The above information shall be made public through at least one of the following media:
a. A new thread in the Regional Governments subforum of the Atlas Fantasy Government forum; or
b. The appropriate pages in the Atlasia Wiki.

6. If any inappropriate information, such as any egregious self-promotional, offensive or irrelevant text is made public through the media specified in 5 a or b, the Chief Judicial Officer is hereby authorized to remove it, at his discretion, upon the recommendation of any Northeast Citizen.

[homelycooking]

Resolution Thanking Rowan Brandon

The Northeast Assembly hereby thanks Senator Rowan Brandon for his invaluable service to the Region and we on this day declare him Atlasia's greatest senator in modern history. The Assembly also hopes that his service to Region and Nation will continue as the nation's President.

Giovanni, I know you were elected through a statutory loophole, but could you please appear to be taking your job seriously? Certain people in the Assembly have important work to get done and do not need this sort of legislative clutter to get in their way.

[homelycooking]

Resolution Thanking Rowan Brandon

The Northeast Assembly hereby thanks Senator Rowan Brandon for his invaluable service to the Region and we on this day declare him Atlasia's greatest senator in modern history. The Assembly also hopes that his service to Region and Nation will continue as the nation's President.

Giovanni, I know you were elected through a statutory loophole, but could you please appear to be taking your job seriously? Certain people in the Assembly have important work to get done and do not need this sort of legislative clutter to get in their way.

If you want to look over some of the Bill proposed since in the sessions previous to your arrival... this is far from the stupidest thing proposed for the Assembly.

Perhaps I overreacted. But "Atlasia's greatest senator in modern history"? I don't see how this is meaningful or constructive, especially when we're in the midst of statutory review and a constitutional convention is being proposed.

[homelycooking]

Report of the Statutory Review Commission

The Statutory Review Commission of the Northeast, having concluded its review of the statute, recommends the following changes to Northeast law:

1. Section IV of the Northeastern Healthcare Act is amended to include:

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2. Article B, Section 2 of the Northeast Medical Savings Account Act is hereby repealed.

3. The Northeast Pornography and Age of Consent Act is amended to include:

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4. The Children's Healthcare Act is hereby repealed.

5. Sections 1, 2 and 3 of The Smoking Age Standardization Act are amended as follows:

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6. Section 4 of the Predatory Lending Prohibition Act is amended as follows:

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7. Section 1 of the Fair Property Valuation Act is hereby repealed.

8. The Northeast Speed Limit Standardization Act is hereby repealed.

9. The Northeast Region Legislation Standardization Act is hereby repealed.

10. The Preferential Voting Act is amended as follows:

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11. Subsections 1 and 2 of Section 1 of the The Campaigning for Invalidation of Votes Initiative are amended as follows:

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12. The Nullification Resolution is hereby repealed.

13. Section 2 of the Proposition on the Officialization of the Separation of Religion and State is amended as follows:

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14. Section 5 of the Northeast Assembly Speaker Act is amended as follows:

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15. Subsections a and c of Section 1 (Proposed Legislation Thread) of the Standing Order on Assembly Procedure are hereby repealed and subsection e of Section 2 (Movement of Legislation to the Northeast Assembly Floor) of the Standing Order on Assembly Procedure is hereby repealed.

16.  Section 2 (Movement of Legislation to the Northeast Assembly Floor) of the Standing Order on Assembly Procedure is amended to replace all references to the Lieutenant Governor with references to the Speaker of the Assembly.

17. Section 2 (Movement of Legislation to the Northeast Assembly Floor) of the Standing Order on Assembly Procedure is specifically amended as follows:

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18. The Northeast Tax Initiative of March 2005 is hereby repealed.

19. The following amendment shall be made to the Northeastern Green Jobs Act:

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20. The Self Defense Act is hereby repealed.

21. The Wiki Emergency Act is hereby repealed.

22. The Northeast Order of Precedence Act is amended as follows:

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23. Section 2 of the Vacancy Filling Act is amended as follows:

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We, the undersigned commissioners, do hereby endorse these recommendations and urge the Assembly to adopt them forthwith.

Signed this 11th day of May 2011,

x homelycooking, Commissioner
x Dallasfan65, Commissioner
x Polnut, Commissioner
x Napoleon, Commissioner

[homelycooking]

Call to Vote Amendment

Section 3 of the Standing Order on Legislative Procedure is hereby amended with the addition of a sub-section (i), as follows:

(i) The Speaker of the Assembly shall notify all members of the Assembly via private message of an ongoing vote on the floor of the Assembly no later than one hour after the commencement of the voting period.   

[homelycooking]

Write-in Votes Act

I. Any person who wishes to accept write-in votes cast at an election for himself or herself must declare, in the Candidate Declaration Thread, that he or she will accept write-in votes at least twenty-four hours before the opening of a regional election.
II. No candidate shall be declared elected to any office of the Northeast who has neither declared his acceptance of write-in votes in the manner prescribed in section I of this Act nor secured a place on a regional ballot by declaring his candidacy at least seven days before the opening of a regional election.
III. All write-in votes cast for persons who have neither declared his acceptance of write-in votes in the manner prescribed in section I of this Act nor secured a place on a regional ballot by declaring his candidacy at least seven days before the opening of a regional election shall be considered null and void.
IV. A write-in vote, cast for a candidate who has secured a place on a regional ballot by declaring his candidacy at least seven days before the opening of a regional election, shall not be construed to have not been cast for that candidate.
V. A person's casting of a write-in vote for himself or herself at a regional election shall not be construed to constitute acceptance of write-in votes, unless that person has already declared his acceptance of write-in votes in accordance with section I of this Act.

[homelycooking]

Ballot Standardization Act

1. The Chief Judicial Officer of the Northeast is hereby authorized to open a voting booth for any and all Northeast Regional regular and special elections.

2. Any other official of the Northeast, including and limited to the Governor, Lt. Governor and members of the Assembly, are hereby authorized to open a voting booth for any and all Northeast Regional regular and special elections only if:
a. The Chief Judicial Officer declares a leave of absence encompassing the first day of the election, or otherwise states publicly his inability to open the polls on time; or
b. The Chief Judicial Officer does not open the polls one hour after an election's constitutionally or legally mandated start time.


3. The post with which the authorized opener of a voting booth begins the election must contain the following text before the listing of candidates running for office, with the bracketed items correctly filled in:

"As [name of authorized poll-opening officer], I hereby declare this polling place open.

This is the Northeast regional polling booth for the scheduled [name of election].  In this polling place, Northeast citizens are electing [names of offices up for election].

Votes for offices in this region are cast using PR-STV.  Voters who wish to preference more than one candidate should allocate a first preference for a candidate by marking a [1] in the space provided by that candidate's name, and proceeding to number as many preferences as they desire by marking a [2], [3], etc for as many candidates as they so desire.

A vote will be counted so long as the voter that casts it is eligible to vote in this election and casts  a formal ballot. A vote is formal so long as it contains numbered preferences with no duplicate numbers. A ballot containing Roman Numerals is not considered informal. A ballot in which candidates have been ranked a,b,c, etc is not considered informal so long as no letter has been repeated, and so long as a single candidate has been ranked a, for as long as the letters are consecutive with no duplicate letters. A ballot is formal if the CJO can determine the intent of the voter without interviewing that voter.

Per past practice, write-in votes are only counted for a candidate if he or she publicly declares a willingness to receive write-in votes for a particular office in the [name of election] before the polls close in the Candidate Declaration Thread or writes in his or her own name on the ballot for that particular office.

Votes for "NOTA" or "None of the Above" for any office are formal regardless of the preference assigned to it. Should a voter preference "NOTA" as well as other candidates, only his vote for "NOTA" will be counted.

This booth shall remain open until [time prescribed for the closing of the polls]."

4. Candidates shall have printed on the ballot certain basic information, limited to the following:
a. their full usernames and display names as of the time of the opening of the polls, should they differ from their usernames;
b. the name of the political party to which they belong, or the affiliation "Independent" in its place should a candidate not belong to a political party;
c. the name of the state in which they reside.

5. All information printed on a ballot must pertain immediately to the election at hand and may not contain solicitation, propaganda, or hyperlinks to other pages.

6. Absentee ballots need not contain all of the information mandated in sections 3 and 4, though it must be provided by the Chief Judicial Officer upon request to an absentee elector at any time beginning one week before the election.

7. An opening post that does not abide by the above clauses of this act inaugurates an election that shall not be recognized as the legitimate voice of the people of the Northeast and shall be rendered null and void.

[homelycooking]

Partners in Civic Engagement Act

The Government of the Northeast shall match any individual contribution dollar-for-dollar, up to five hundred thousand dollars, to any tax-exempt charity or organization intended to promote the establishment and continued operation of:

- after-school programs in school districts in which more than one quarter of the student population is impoverished;
- educational or recreational summer camps for disabled or handicapped youth;
- public libraries;
- educational, domestic or recreational services for senior citizens;
- parks and land conservation organizations;
- animal shelters;
- soup kitchens for the poor, addiction rehabilitation centers or groups and homeless shelters; and
- medical research into finding a cure or more effective treatment for a communicable disease or genetic disorder.

[homelycooking]

The Jake Matthews Memorial Act

1. The southernmost bridge spanning the Delaware River that connects the states of New Jersey and Delaware is hereby renamed "The Jacob T. Matthews Memorial Bridge".
2. All Northeast residents who present a valid Northeast drivers' licence, or other identification showing residence in a state of the Northeast, to a toll collector for the above bridge on the sixteenth day of January shall have their toll for crossing the bridge on that day waived.

[homelycooking]

Stone Wall Preservation Act

The Northeast Assembly acknowledges that stone walls constructed as agricultural and administrative boundaries are tangible legacies of the generations that lived and died before the present day, and in so doing, declares the following:

1. That to knowingly deface, damage or dismantle a stone wall on public property is prohibited, and punishable by a $500 fine on the first offense;
2. That subsequent offenses shall entail four hours of community service for each subsequent offense and an increase in the fine by an additional $250 for each subsequent offense;
3. That any land sold by the Northeast or by any municipal or local government therein to a private landowner may only be sold on the condition that all stone walls located upon the property may not be defaced, damaged or dismantled in the process of the development of the land; and
4. That the Northeast Government shall offer grants totaling $250,000 to historians and scholars who aim to develop registries, maps and archives of ancient stone walls within the Northeast Region.

x homelycooking