The Examiner: Election Tracker

[Јas]

The Examiner

16 March 2009

Earl Apologises; Wants to Remain SoFA

The SoFA, EarlAW, has apologised for his recent absence which delayed the certification of the recent Special Senate Elections. In a statement from the DoFA, Earl accpeted he has been unable to "fulfil [his] duties in a timely fashion", but expressed his strong desire to remain in the post ("I would love to continue"), preferably with a Deputy SoFA.

In the recent Examiner Poll Results, less than 8% of Atlasians felt that Earl should remain as SoFA. The vast majority, 81%, indicated their preference was that Earl should resign.

It seems clear that despite the lack of public support, Earl appears to retain the confidence of President bgwah who has since followed the SoFA's advice and moved to appoint TCash as Deputy SoFA.

The Examiner supports the appointment of TCash, but would advise the executive to ensure that the manner and form of the appointment is in compliance with the Deputy SoFA Act.

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Editorial: On the PPT Election

"It is also the PPT’s responsibility to present himself/herself to the rest of the Senate as an exemplary member and to make sure that the Senate’s debate remains civil and orderly at all times."

So says the rules of the Senate. With the PPT election underway, The Examiner feels it appropriate to highlight and underline the standards expected of that office.

Since our last edition, PPT-nominee DWTL has branded his fellow PPT-nominee HappyWarrior a "lousy Senator" and has dubbed his RPP colleague, MasterJedi "BenedictJedi" for not supporting him in this campaign. Digging through the Senate archives, it is not difficult to compile a list of similar remarks directed against many others.

The Examiner does not believe the behaviour of DWTL is in line with that which is required of the PPT, indeed we feel it is unbecoming of his Senatorial position. We urge all Senators to consider carefully which candidate they feel can best live up to those terms required of the PPT as set out in the Senate rules above. The Examiner has no doubt that Sen. HappyWarrior fits that profile best and accordingly endorses his candidacy for the position.

[Јas]

I still have not once, not once, and frankly you have numerous times, acted without tact during senate proceedings. 

So when,during Senate business, you called HappyWarrior a "lousy Senator" or when you said he had "idiotic" ideas,or when you called Al a "fascist" or when you said he was the "most childish/annoying Senator" since me - were you (a) being tactful or (b) not being tactful and so actually lying in the above quote?

(Further examples of 'tactful' behaviour available on request.)

[Јas]

Shades of Yes Minister; "unique and refreshing brand of tact".

[Јas]

I still have not once, not once, and frankly you have numerous times, acted without tact during senate proceedings. 

So when,during Senate business, you called HappyWarrior a "lousy Senator" or when you said he had "idiotic" ideas,or when you called Al a "fascist" or when you said he was the "most childish/annoying Senator" since me - were you (a) being tactful or (b) not being tactful and so actually lying in the above quote?

(Further examples of 'tactful' behaviour available on request.)

None of those (except for calling Happy's idea, not Happy idiotic) came during an actual senate debate

All of the above are from Senate proceedings (per your above quote).

[Јas]

Can you think of a reason I would make a bad PPT? 

Having spent a great deal of time in the Senate with you, I don't believe you understand the rules of the Senate.
For example, in the last few hours, you called for the opening of a Senate hearing on Deputy SoFA-nominee TCash however the Senate doesn't hold hearings on DSoFA appointments.

[Јas]

The Examiner

17 March 2009

PPT Saga Continues

Time is running out in the Senate PPT race which remains too close to call. HappyWarrior currently leads 5-3 in the official vote with Sen. Smid and Sen. realisticidealist left to vote. DWTL remains confident though that he will get the votes, stating on the Senate floor: "all indications point to a 5-5 tie at this point".

While the decision of the Senate is still unclear,the decision fof the people is clear-cut.  The Examiner Poll on the race has shown that by an almost 2-1 margin, Sen. HappyWarrior is the preferred candidate.

DWTL to seek re-election
Reneging on his earlier promise to retire at the end of his current term, DWTL will be running again in the upcoming Senate election. Ironically, having argued against HappyWarrior's suitability for PPT as an "anti-DWTL candidate", DWTL gave his reason for the re-election bid as that"I [DWTL] must stay in the senate to oppose you [HappyWarrior]".

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Earl's Position Remains Unclear

President bgwah has given an indication that the position of EarlAW as SoFA has not yet been fully resolved. Speaking at The White House, the President said: " I'm still talking to Earl about the SoFA situation". Watch this space...

[Јas]

The Examiner

18 March 2009

PPT HappyWarrior

Sen. HappyWarrior has been elected PPT of the Senate with what turned out to be a surprising 6-3 margin of victory over Sen. DWTL. Though DWTL expressed confidence in winning this election right up until the end, his failure to maintain the support of his own party colleagues sealed his defeat. DWTL's hopes of attracting non-RPP support withered away when the deciding vote of Sen. realisticidealist (JCP) was cast for HappyWarrior.

HappyWarrior expressed his thanks to his supporters and offered to work with DWTL to ensure the smooth running of the Senate.

DWTL Reaction
Sen. MasterJedi's support of HappyWarrior and Sen. Smid's abstention are signs of some concern for the RPP leader - reflected in his having already implicitly accused MasterJedi of treachery. As of yet , DWTL has not passed comment on Sen. Smid's abstention.

DWTL has not though allowed the defeat to affect his public persona. Reacting to the news, he said: "Say hello to two months of an inactive senate" and "I will be vindicated".

[Јas]

The Examiner

19 March 2009

AG Confirmation Hearing Opens

The confirmation hearing of Attorney Gereral Marokai Blue has opened. The nominee seems to have been warmly received by most Senators, and early indications are the the nomination is very likely to be confirmed.

The chief focus of the hearings has been Marokai's plans to revitalise the AtlasiaWiki. The nominee announced his "plan to introduce a big public initiative to repair the wiki", envisaging public involvement in a collaborative effort to update and maintain the project.

Marokai also discussed the matter of the 'Julian Francis' account. He stated that he believes either Xahar or Conor Flynn of operating the acccount - indicating that he has evidence that Xahar has utilised the account. Marokai said that he will "investigate the matter fully" believeing that there is a case of voter fraud to be answered.

[Јas]

The Examiner

20 March 2009

Senate Back in Business

Following its recent sojourn, the Senate has returned to activity. PPT HappyWarrior has been quick to ensure that the Senate agenda is in full flow. Bills currently on the floor include Sen. DWTL’s Free Palestine Bill, Sen. Lief’s criminal legislation (introduced on behalf of Peter) the Voting Whilst Banned Bill and the Contempt of Court Bill, and the first tranche of Sen. SPC’s anti-government legislation.

SPC: Down With This Sort of Thing
Within his bill seeking to repeal environmental regulations, SPC proposes, among other things, a reduction in required motor vehicle fuel efficiency standards and the removal of a restriction on the supply of drinking water which doesn’t meet EPA standards.

SPC has also set his eyes on reducing access to subsidised day-care through his other bill on the Senate floor. His fellow Senators have been quick to seek to table the measure though given the newfound strength of the right in the chamber, attaining the requisite votes may prove difficult.

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Marokai Confirmed

Marokai Blue has been confirmed as the enw Attorney General by a vote of 6-0 and is expected to take office shortly. The new Attorney General has promised to work on improving Atlasia’s wiki.

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Editorial: Resign!

In sharp contrast to the re-energised Senate, sit Atlasia’s regional governments. Some would have us believe that Regional Government is crucial to Atlasia must be preserved. Unfortunately, though the RPP leadership is keen to underline their electoral record, they seem perfectly content to continue to ignore their chief shouting point.
   
An examination of recent regional activity leads to threadbare results. Indeed, when they are not compelled into action by federally directed matters, they tend to sit in stasis. In the Pacific, Gov. CultureKing has struggled to pursue an agenda since taking office. His last proposal, over 6 weeks ago, was the only regional matter to be considered this year in the region and failed to attract any significant attention.

In the Northeast, AndrewCT has recently taken over as Governor. Though he must be allowed time to succeed of course, but the region has been far from a hive of activity in recent times.
   
The Mideast has been, by some considerable degree, the most active of the 5 regions for some time now. However, it has failed to attract much interest. The initial spate of procedural matters before the newfound Assembly has dried up and so the pace of legislating is slowing considerably. A significant measure of the success of the Mideastern Assembly experiment may be that interest in membership of that body is proving exceedingly limited.

This leaves the two most damnable executives. The executives of the Southeast and Midwest have long since given up pretence of interest in activity. Gov. Duke and ilv. GMantis seem to be positively allergic to regional issues and has striven to avoid them at all costs. That the Southeast, bastion of the Regional Rights Party, cannot summon up the will to create an active, nevermind burgeoning, community of regional enthusiasts is indeed particularly telling.

The Examiner has long been sceptical of how our regional governments have been operating and hopes that the ongoing Constitutional Convention will honestly address the issue. Whatever the Convention may bring though, the performance of certain regional executives has simply been unacceptable. The Examiner therefore calls on those regional actors who have failed to incite any significant activity within their regions to resign their offices rather than allow their comatose administrations to continue their charade. 

[Јas]

Jas, no one is resigning because you do not like us. 

I'm shocked.

Frankly, it only encourages us to keep running

Interesting to note that I'm so relevant to your motivations.
That you keep running doesn't concern me; that you are hypocrites does.

[Јas]

The Examiner

27 March 2009

Senate Divided on HIV Policy Bill

The latest part of SPC’s extensive anti-Government agenda, Repeal of the Act to Establish Atlasian Policy Towards HIV/AIDS has divided the Senate. The bill seeks to remove the existing measures in place to tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS through such measures as needle exchange programmes, condom distribution and sex education.

At present the vote is split 4-4, the RPP voting to extricate the Government from involvement with this issue. Only Sen. Bacon King and Sen. Smid have yet to vote. Should Bacon King turn up, he is expected to be a safe Nay vote. Sen. Smid though has been equivocating.

It has become clear from the early votes of the 30th Senate, that Sens. Smid and MasterJedi are more independently minded than the core RPP group of DWTL, SPC and PiT. Winning over either or both of these Senators appears to be key for the 5 non-RPP Senators to be successful in the chamber. This can be seen, among other matters, in the PPT election, the Voting While Banned Bill and the Environmental Policy Bill of 2009. The latter of which started out as an attempt by SPC to remove the Government from environmental issues but has been amended to a more moderate position (notably retaining though a reduction in required automobile fuel standards).

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Editorial: Gesta Non Verba

As may have been noted, The Examiner takes some interest in the issue of regional activity. As part of that coverage, we include below a table noting the time passed since the various regional governors have taken some action in their official capacity which hasn't been mandated of them.

The table is not a perfect instrument - Gov. CultureKing's petition regarding British Columbia has been an on-and-off measure and the only matter of any standing the Governor has pursued in recent months. Gov. Inks has made more effort than the rest of the Governors combined, helped by an active assembly.

The remainder however are more noticeable by their absence than their activity. Neither Gov. AndrewCT nor ilv. GMantis appear to have done anything which hasn't been absolutely necessary. Tracking official activity by the long-standing Southeastern Governor wasn't easy and indeed our inclusion could plausibly be excluded as not actually official activity. The Governor has had time to flirt with the idea of a Presidential run (to revitalize Atlasia!) and remains keen to recruit members to the RPP to help out (to do what, one can't be sure though).

Days of Gubernatorial Inactivity*

Governor	Days	Last Relevant Action
CultureKing (PAC)	2	(Motioned to petition the federal government to seek cession of British Columbia to the Pacific)
Inks (ME)	4	(Worked on updating Mideast matters on the wiki)
AndrewCT (NE)	25	(None)
GMantis (MW)	76	(None)
AHDuke (SE)	105	(Issued statement on ‘death’ of KotBP)

*Excludes acts mandated of the office.

[Јas]

The Examiner

30 March 2009

RPP: United in Disunity

The attempt by anti-Government Senator and self-proclaimed Mexican leader/mercenary warlord SPC to end Government sponsored needle-exchange, condom distribution and sex education seems today set to fail following the casting of the 5th Nay vote by Sen. Bacon King and the continued refusal by Sen. Smid to cast a vote on the matter.

The vote highlights the surprising lack of party unity by the RPP in the chamber this session. With the swearing-in of the 30th Senate, the RPP threatened to dominate proceedings having grown to occupy 5 Senate seats. While RPP leader, Sen. DWTL has lauded the party as a ‘united front’, the 5 RPP Senators have though only twice all voted together in the 16 votes called in the 30th Senate so far – both occasions seeing unanimous Senate votes, including ironically, a vote to table one of DWTL’s own pieces of legislation. Contrast this disunity with the 5 non-RPP Senators, spread across 3 parties, who have voted identically on 9 occasions thus far – a figure which would certainly be higher but for some absences.

Despite being of the party with half the Senate seats, DWTL, PiT and SPC are the Senators least likely to be part of a majority vote in the chamber – doing so less than half as often as either Sen. Franzl and PPT HappyWarrior. DWTL has been keen to gloss over the surprising lack of control, and instead speak highly of these Senators and their apparent compromising spirit. Sen. PiT though disagrees with his leader’s assessment. “They're less compromising & more slowly re-writing bills to fit their own bleeding-heart agendas because they know that we're too fragmented to stop them.” The willing acceptance of DWTL of every amendment submitted on the Free Palestine Bill Middle East Peace Act of 2009 being a case in point.

DWTL though must clearly have noticed that his voice has been proven to be surprisingly easily drowned out in the chamber and that the compromising spirit he rejoices can quickly become a deaf ear. Despite the strong objection of the core RPP trio to the Voting Whilest Banned Bill, for example, the measure passed 7-3. The vote was not unique either - following on from SPC's effort at removing support for pre-school childcare and, of course, DWTL's campaign for PPT.

Key to this isolation has been the willingness of the more moderate conservatives of the RPP, Sens. Smid and MasterJedi, to side with the non-RPP group. Indeed, their voting records show they are almost twice as likely to side with their SDP, DA and JCP colleagues rather than their party leader. Until DWTL can reign in his team, the legislative agenda (largely comprising SPC's many anti-Government bills) is likely to get short shrift, or at best be the subject of substantial 'compromise'.

Perchance this explains why DWTL has sought solace recently in the Southeast, effectively displacing Gov. AHDuke and attempting to provoke some activity there (noticeably very shortly after this paper decried that Governor's inactivity). It may though be noted that it seems that whether in the Senate or the Southeast, he can still it seems only command Sens. PiT and SPC to follow.

[Јas]

The Examiner

31 March 2009

Flat tax: On the Table?

Almost immediately after this paper highlighted the RPP’s disunity in theSenate this session, the party have found an issue that unites them against their non-RPP Senate colleagues – DWTL’s proposed flat tax. Well, not quite. The 5 RPP Senators banded together to prevent the Senate from immediately dismissing DWTL’s proposal without debate – however it seems that even they can’t conceive of allowing the proposal to actually be passed.

DWTL’s closest Senate ally, Sen. PiT has confirmed his intent to vote against the bill at final vote. Sen. MasterJedi has adopted a similar stance though offered some implied praise for his leader’s work, describing it as having “some kind of merit” and not having been “horrible [sic] done”. High praise indeed - is this the beginning of a rapprochement between party colleagues following their recent falling out?

The anti-tabling anti-flat tax antics though have caused some frustration for the non-RPP Senators. Sens. Franzl and Lief having voiced their disgruntlement at it as a "waste of time". Perchance a show of RPP strength was suddenly considered worthwhile?

[Јas]

The Examiner

1 April 2009

Rumblings of Dissapproval?

By any standards, President bgwah’s second term has been a quiet one. This is not a great surprise, indeed, it’s arguably something the people endorsed in the last Presidential election having strongly backed bgwah despite a rather reserved first term, and no substantial promise of much different for his second term. Where possible he has been keen to act privately – such as in relation to the recent scandal surrounding Earl’s unexpected absences.

His relative quiescence may have just recently started to get some attention though. This morning, Sen. Franzl voiced his annoyance: “I'm seriously disappointed in the President's inactivity. Get to work, Mr. President!”. The Senator might not be alone in wondering whether the Commander-in-Chief is pulling his weight. Indeed, questions may be asked as to whether the Attorney General has full confidence in the President’s efforts to perform his legal obligations.

Just a few days ago, Sen. realisticidealist introduced The Beginner's Guide to Atlasia Act onto the Senate legislative agenda on behalf of Attorney General Marokai Blue. The bill seeks to replace the Introduction to Atlasia Act – a piece of legislation which gives the President responsibility for the upkeep of an Introduction to Atlasia thread. The measure though has been oft ignored; indeed no President has performed their responsibilities under the Act since its introduction.

The Attorney General’s draft is almost identical to the original act in every way – save that it proposes to transfer the responsibilities from the office of the President to the office of the Attorney General. The Examiner has no doubt that Marokai is acting from noble motives; but it may be difficult to characterise the measure as something other than a demonstration of a lack of faith in his boss’s activity.

[Јas]

The Examiner

4 April 2009

Bacon King To Stand Down

Sen. Bacon King (JCP) has announced he will not be running for re-election. The Senator didn't offer any further comment on the reasoning behind his decision to leave the body at the end of this, his 5th term in the chamber.

Eyes may now turn to the JCP to see whether the party will be putting forward a candidate to defend a seat they've held for over 2 years.

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Examiner Poll: Senator Approval

The latest Examiner Opinion Poll snapshots public opinion of the 5 incumbent Senators whose seats are up for election later this month.

The returns so far disclose very strong favourability ratings for Sens. Franzl and Lief coming to the end of their first terms of office. Sen. Franzl has both the highest 'strongly approve' returns (57%) an the lowest disapproval ratings of any Senator. The returns should come as some comfort to both heading into the upcming election. The results give some credit also to the retiring Sen. Bacon King also. He leaves the body with a 2 to 1 favourability rating.

RPP Senators South Park Conservative and DownWithTheLeft appear to be much more divisive than their colleagues - Sen. DWTL almost achieving a dead-even split in approval/disapproval terms. He also registers the most 'strongly disapprove' returns of any Senator (45%).

	Approval -	Disapproval -	Net Approval
Franzl (DA)	76.2%	4.8%	71.4%
Lief (SPD)	76.2%	14.3%	61.9%
Bacon King (JCP)	57.1%	28.6%	28.6%
SPC (RPP)	52.4%	38.1%	14.3%
DWTL (RPP)	50%	45.5%	4.6%

[Јas]

Perhaps a more accurate series of polls could be done where people vote for their first preferences, and then the last place is dropped, followed by second preferences, etc. until you get 5 "winners." But that's up to how you want to run things.

The polls aren't really intended to predict the election result - I don't believe a polling effort for the 5 seats is really doable to a sufficient degree of accuracy to be worthwhile.

The approval ratings are worthy enough in themselves, IMO - though I do think that one can draw a number of conclusions from them which are useful in considering how the election may play out.

[Јas]

The Examiner

5 April 2009

Southeast Considers Monetary Independence

Th Southeast region is currently balloting on a number of propositions, including the Freedom of Currency Amendment. The measure, put before Southeasterners for the second time, proposes to remove Atlasian dollars from circulation in the region in favour of a Southeastern currency backed by (presumably as yet inexistent) gold reserves.

The proposal appears to be in direct contradiction with the federal Constitution. As stated in Article 1, Section 5.8, the Senate shall have the power "to establish coin and currency, which shall be the sole legal tender of the Republic of Atlasia, regulate the value thereof, with respect to other coin and currency.To establish coin and currency, which shall be the sole legal tender of the Republic of Atlasia, regulate the value thereof, with respect to other coin and currency."

The legislation would appear to be a declaration of monetary independence from the Republic of Atlasia - an economic secession from the Union. As of yet, the federal government has not yet offered any response to the proposal which would have very significant implications for economics and trade in Atlasia.

[Јas]

The Examiner

9 April 2009

Southeast Favours Economic Anarchy

The Southeast region has declared monetary independence deciding to forcibly remove the Atlasian dollar from circulation in favour of economic anarchy. The Freedom of Currency Amendment just passed by the region instructs the regional government to take Atlasian currency out of circulation to be replaced by a new voluntary Southeastern currency, backed by as yet inexistant gold reserves, but which will not have any status as legal tender.

The measure passed on a turnout of just 5 (all RPP) voters - something which itself would seem to contradict de facto Southeastern Governor DWTL (who ran the initiatives thread; moved for them to be voted on as emergency legislation; and demanded certification) who lauded his party and region in the ongoing Examiner Senate debate for its healthy activity and partisanship, but overlooked that it would take a rigourous search to find any significant activity by a non-RPP member in the Southeast in recent times.

The new Southeastern legislation has been strongly criticised by Sen. Bacon King who highlighted contradictions and redundancies within the 'Help the Dirty South Study Act'; the vast waste in abandoning the recently built $1 billion capitol complex; as well as the many inanities arising from the Freedom of Currency Act.

The White House nor the Office of the Attorney General have yet to make known their response to the Southeast's decision to move for economic independence.

[Јas]

The act amkes clear it intends to take it out of circulation though voluntary means. This could be done through dollar-dixie currency exchange. I admit that the act was poorly worded, and I should write it better for next election's ballot.

The Act does no such thing. Section 1a is very clear in committing the regional government to removing dollars from circulation.

The measure is both legislative and economic nonsense. In the real world a similar measure would result in national economic turmoil and extreme volatity. It marks a vote of no confidence in the national currency and is arguably only marginally short of a declaration of independence. It is a wonderful example of regional negligence and incompetence.

For reference:
Freedom of Currency Amendment
1. Article I, Section XII, shall be added to read the following:
a. The government of the Dirty South shall gradually take Atlasian dollars out of circulation within the Dirty South.
b. The government of the Dirty South shall circulate currency called "dixies," which can be exchangable for a pegged amount of gold at any time.
c. Section 2 will be enforced on a purely voluntary basis, and no legal tender laws will be used to force businesses to accept dixies as currency.

[Јas]

While I greatly appreciate the reference to my opposition of the Southeast's recent initiatives, please not that I will not be known as "Fmr Sen. Bacon King" until my term expires in a few weeks.

Oops! Sorry!

[Јas]

'Tis interesting that The Examiner does not see fit to point out the fact that Senator Bacon King failed to participate in the initiative debate thread and in the actual voting, making his belated complaints rather hypocritical.

Seeing as your use of 'hypocritical' doesn't make sense in this context, I'd ask that you explain your point further.

Perhaps those who decry the lack of activity in the Dirty South or the quality of legislation should actually try to set an example and participate in the process.

Now this is hypocritical. You have been an almost non-existent Lt. Governor who has proposed a total of 0 bills, amendments or resolutions and whose voice hasn't been spotted anywhere close to the legislative process until now - seeking to defend the indefensible.

You can't blame others for your own decision to vote for nonsensical legislative rubbish. At any rate, this paper and other persons highlighted serious issues of concern over the legislation before the vote and were roundly ignored. You can't then blame us for your own voting farce.

[Јas]

This sends a message to Nyman that the Southeast would like to reconsider a gold standard, and will take it into its own hands if it doesn't.

lulz

Yes indeed. The RPP have sent a strong message to the RPP plurality Senate and the RPP endorsed President about RPP policy by submitting an unconstitutional, economically disastrous, incompetently drafted piece of nonsense in regional politics - long known as strongly influencing federal policies.

What complete and utter twaddle.

[Јas]

The Examiner Senate Election Tracker - April 2009

With balloting now underway in the mid-term elections, The Examiner will endeavour to provide updates on voting developments as the election progresses.

Count 1	Votes
South Park Conservative	3	(benconstine1, RowanBrandon, South Park Conservative, dead0man)
DownWithTheLeft	2	(DownWithTheLeft, AHDuke)
Bacon King	2	(Bacon King, Al)
Franzl	1	(Franzl)
afleitch	0
Lief	0
Purple State	0
AHDuke*	0
Al*	0
Inks*	0
Rowan Brandon	0
Daniel Adams*	0

* These candidates have not, as of yet, accepted write-in votes cast for them.
¹ The Examiner has some doubts as to the validity of this ballot and has given notice of same to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Forum Affairs. Due to these doubts, the vote is not currently included in the above count.

The Examiner will publish full vote counts at a later stage when more ballots have been cast.

[Јas]

The Examiner Senate Election Tracker - Update

Last Voter: bgwah
Total Valid Votes Cast: 16
Current Quota: 3

Count 1	Votes
South Park Conservative	6	(benconstine1, RowanBrandon, South Park Conservative, dead0man, Persepolis, tmthforu94, PiT)
Bacon King	4	(Bacon King, Al, BRTD, bgwah)
DownWithTheLeft	2	(DownWithTheLeft, AHDuke)
Lief	1	(opebo)
Franzl	1	(Franzl)
afleitch	1	(Speed of Sound)
Purple State	1	(Purple State)
AHDuke*	0
Al*	0
Persepolis	0
Rowan Brandon	0
Inks*	0
Daniel Adams*	0

Notes
* These candidates have not, as of yet, accepted write-in votes cast for them.
¹ benconstine's vote was cast during the period he has been prohibited from voting within and is presumed invalid.

Candidates tied on 1^st preferences, are ranked in order of the number of 2^nd preferences received and so on. For example, in the current instance, Lief, Franzl, afleitch and Purple State are tied on 1 vote, but have received 4, 3, 1 and 0 2^nd preferences respectively.

Full count updates will be published from tomorrow. For information though, if the election ended now the following would be elected: SPC, Bacon King, DWTL, Purple State and Franzl. (However, both Lief and afleitch would jump into slots 4 & 5 by voting for themselves.)

[Јas]

How does this "redistributing" thing work?  Someone point me to the rules, please. 

The Proportional Representation Act sets out the rules on how these election counts are to be conducted.

I understand the part about eliminating the lowest, and moving those voters votes to 2nd choices (as is apparantly happening with my vote).  I'm not following the "redistribution" of the "surplus".  Count 3 above has Bacon King with 7 votes but still lists 9 voters. 

This election system (STV) is essentially the IRV system adapted for multiple seat constituencies. In an IRV election, the target for a candidate is a majority (half the votes + 1). In an STV election this is adapted so that for a 2-seater, the target is one third of the votes + 1; for a 3-seater, the target is one quarter + 1 and so on. In the current election, we have 5 seats, so the target (technically called the 'quota') is one sixth of the votes + 1.

Where candidates receive votes above and beyond the quota, this is their surplus. As this system is predicated at least somewhat on the idea of proportional representation, surpluses are redistributed. So in the above example, Bacon King has a surplus of 2 votes. The surplus is redistributed by looking at the second preferences of the 9 people who voted for Bacon King - and each are passed on to the second preference at a reduced value. That value being the result of the formula surplus/total votes or in this case ²/₉.

The system is quite complex, however it does tend to reflect the preferences of the voters and has ensured competitive elections for these seats in an era in Atlasia of fewer candidates and generally uncompetitive elections. Feel free to ask any further questions you ma have.