Constitutional Amendment to Create a House of Representatives

[Brandon H]

Thank you for Mr. PPT for bringing this to the floor.

A while back the idea for a House of Representatives was proposed. Somehow that idea got turned into a Parlement and a complete rewrite of our constitution and how our government is run. I believe that many Atlasians will be receptive to the idea of House of Representatives as long as it does completely alter our form of government.

One argument against this will be that we do not have the numbers required given our low turn out in both the number of candidates we have been having as well as the number of voters. Consider the following: everyone gets to vote  or run for a Senator every two months, a governor every two or four months, and a president and vice president every four months. Not everyone wants to be President and it takes roughly a year for one to work their way up through Atlasia to become the president. So that leaves one able to run for Senator or Governor (or Lt. Governor). If one has a popular incumbent, s/he would be discouraged from running.

A House would create more opportunities for these people to run. Rather than trying to unseat a popular incumbent, if someone wants to serve Atlasia, they will now have another opportunity.

There are a few things that I personally would prefer to do differently, but I sought the opinion of the citizens when writing this. One example is I would have preferred to make all Senators regional since the House would be based on population, but most people preferred our current system of one regional and one district Senator, so I left that as is.

While I am sure this is not the solution to all of Atlasia's problems, I believe this could improve things and I hope that you will support this amendment.

[Brandon H]

What I have in mind is that the number of Representatives per region would be the nearest multiple of 5 of that regions population as of the number of voters in the last Presidential Election. Ex. between 8 and 12 is 2 while 13 - 17 would be 3. This would be roughly 20% of the population. For the elections there would be some form of Single Transferable Vote. (Section two of the amendment states that before going into affect, the above must be passed via legislation.)

I would like to hear from a few other Senate members first, but, given that this would create enough offices that would be roughly 2/3 of Atlasia in some office, I am willing to
a) table the amendment until Atlasia's population reaches 100 or
b) add a stipulation that this amendment shall not go into affect until the population of Atlasia reaches 100.

[Brandon H]

I would like to introduce an Amendment that would rewrite section 2 as follows:

Amendment Section 2: Conditions for Changes to take affect

In addition to Ratification by the regions, before this amendment shall go into affect, the following shall occur:

A. The Senate shall pass the following legislation:
   1. Legislation to define the method and frequency of apportionment that determines the number of seats each region shall have in the House of Representatives in accordance with Section 2, Clause 2.
   2. Legislation to define the time and other requirements for congressional elections in accordance with Section 4, Clause 4.
   3. Legislation to define the method of election for the members of the House of Representatives in accordance with Section 4, Clause 5.

B. The population of Atlasia (based on the number of votes cast in the preceding Presidential Election) must reach 100.

[Brandon H]

Aye

[Brandon H]

Aye