Southern Regional Committee

[Leinad]

Thanks for starting this NeverAgain--I'm also making a discussion/information thread, both to update people on the Committee's happenings, and to give everyone a chance to comment, ask questions, and offer suggestions.

I look forward to working with you four, and the Southern public at large, to promptly, thoroughly, and effectively putting together a Constitution for the South, and elect our first two Senators.

I accept the nomination for Committee Chair, and thank Tmth and Yankee for said nomination.

[Leinad]

Thanks, Truman, I'll make sure we vote on those!

That is a majority for Leinad - are there any objections or another nominations? If not, I say we get the ball rolling tomorrow with Leinad leading this.

Sounds good to me, Tmth.


Have we decided how we will elect Senate seats? Presuming no one takes issue with my nomination for Chair, I believe this shall be my first order of business.

So, I encourage the 4 other Committee members to present ways we can do this. Of course, it may seem obvious, but there are a few variations (partially given the fact that we have 2 separate Senate seats).

[Leinad]

I agree with Tmth on both counts--NeverAgain ninja'd me, I'll respond to his newest post tonight (I am currently needing to leave the house where my computer is ASAP, so bare with me...).

Regarding Peebs' declaration, it would be remarkably unfair to assume that people that are yet to declare are doing so for lack of interest. Rather, I'd presume they're doing so for lack of information. I mean, we'll most likely have separate elections for each seat--which seat is Peebs declaring for? The Feb/Jun/Oct one or the Apr/Aug/Dec one? Or will the former be based on appointment? It is not outrageous to suggest that the general hesitance to declare for Senate seats is due to the fact that we still haven't decided what method we will use for filling them.

Also,

What we could do is appoint Peebs now, then as we get more candidates we could have a Special Election in August for her, and also have one for the Class B seat.

Are you suggesting that we go multiple months with 1 Senator? If you are, I must very strenuously object to such an idea. We must ensure that the Southern Senate seats are filled promptly, according to President Griffin's timetable: where our region's two Senators are ready to swear in on Monday, June 6th. Anything later would bee wholly unacceptable.


Also, am I now the Committee Chair, since no one objected? (Yes, we're kind of making up rules.)

If so, I suggest we hold a vote on the method of selecting Senators. Unless someone thinks I should do this differently, I suggest we give 24 hours for people to discuss ideas, then we hold a vote at 6:42 (7:42 EDT) tomorrow. (After that we can, you know, make real rules. )

[Leinad]

Back home--and thanks for the clarification, Truman!

Anyway, I just realized that we seem to have 3 different factors:

-Will the Class I (Feb/Jun/Oct) seats be elected or appointed?

-Will the Class I (Feb/Jun/Oct) seats be filled for a few weeks, and then up for re-election at the normally scheduled time (which is yet to be determined, but will presumably be simultaneous with the Presidential election), or will we select a Senator to serve slightly longer than a full term--until October?

-Will the Class II (Apr/Aug/Dec) seats be elected or appointed?

There are 8 possible combinations from that (2*2*2=8). If we rule out any plan that appoints a Senator to serve for longer than a full term (i.e. until the October Class I election), and any hybrid plan (i.e. we appoint one and elect the other) in which the appointed Senator is in the Class that goes longer until election, we have 5 options:

-PLAN A: Elect both on June 3rd-5th, the Class I Senator until later in June, the Class II Senator until August. (One of Tmth's ideas.)

-PLAN B: Elect both on June 3rd-5th, the Class I Senator until October, the Class II Senator until August.

-PLAN C: Appoint the Class I Senator on or before June 5th until later in June, elect the Class II Senator on June 3rd-5th until August. (Tmth's hybrid idea.)

-PLAN D: Elect the Class I Senator on June 3rd-5th until October, appoint the Class II Senator on or before June 5th until August. (I believe this is NeverAgain's idea--correct me if I'm wrong.)

-PLAN E: Appoint both Senators on or before June 5th, the Class I Senator until later in June, the Class II Senator until August. (Another of Tmth's ideas.)

Did I miss anything? Of course, I'm not trying to limit what ideas we can go with, only trying to map out the most obvious ideas.

Presuming there are no other suggestions or ideas, I'll have a vote starting tomorrow with those 5 options. How long should the vote be for? 24 hours, perhaps?

[Leinad]

Your Plan 1 is my Plan D, your Plan 2 is my Plan C, and your Plan 3 is my Plan E.

Okay, principle vote (sorry for being late on this, by the way):

Principle Vote

Question: how should we fill the two Southern Senate seats?

[ ] PLAN A: Elect both on June 3rd-5th, the Class I Senator until later in June, the Class II Senator until August.

[ ] PLAN B: Elect both on June 3rd-5th, the Class I Senator until October, the Class II Senator until August.

[ ] PLAN C: Appoint the Class I Senator on or before June 5th until later in June, elect the Class II Senator on June 3rd-5th until August.

[ ] PLAN D: Elect the Class I Senator on June 3rd-5th until October, appoint the Class II Senator on or before June 5th until August.

[ ] PLAN E: Appoint both Senators on or before June 5th, the Class I Senator until later in June, the Class II Senator until August.


The vote will last for 24 hours.

[Leinad]

You can use ranked-voting if you want, NeverAgain. Instant-Runoff-Voting.

[Leinad]

Principle Vote

Question: how should we fill the two Southern Senate seats?

[3] PLAN A: Elect both on June 3rd-5th, the Class I Senator until later in June, the Class II Senator until August.

[2] PLAN B: Elect both on June 3rd-5th, the Class I Senator until October, the Class II Senator until August.

[1] PLAN C: Appoint the Class I Senator on or before June 5th until later in June, elect the Class II Senator on June 3rd-5th until August.

[4] PLAN D: Elect the Class I Senator on June 3rd-5th until October, appoint the Class II Senator on or before June 5th until August.

[5] PLAN E: Appoint both Senators on or before June 5th, the Class I Senator until later in June, the Class II Senator until August.

[Leinad]

Yes, I agree with that timeline, Tmth. Let's do this!

[Leinad]

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Yeah, I support this.

Also, I look forward to seeing what Legislator Pingvin has to say regarding his quest for appointment--and thanks to Peebs for her answers, too!

[Leinad]

I would agree with what Tmth and Yankee said. While I agree that Peebs has a great political future, and it's hard to vote against someone referencing Seinfeld in their signature, Pingvin seems ready on day one (ick, Lindsey Graham reference...) to be one of the first Senators of this great region.

Unless someone objects to this, I shall open up the vote shortly...

[Leinad]

Official Ballot for Class I Senator

[ ] Peebs
[ ] Pingvin

The vote will last until 5 PM tomorrow, or when one candidate has a majority of all votes.

[Leinad]

Official Ballot for Class I Senator

[  ] Peebs
[X] Pingvin

[Leinad]

You guys are doing great at this!

Anyway, just to confirm, with 3 members voting Pingvin, 1 voting Peebs, and 1 not voting, Pingvin is elected Class I Senator.

I think Tmth's draft is a great starting point, and NeverAgain's to-do list is probably the best order for us to follow. So, that's a majority that supports both of those ideas.

Has Tmth's rules of order been passed since no one objected, or should I call a vote on that?

If not, determining elections is the next order of business. As far as the date, we could have it simultaneous, right before, or right after the Federal elections (should there be Federal elections that month), or, since they have not yet set Federal election dates, we could simply set dates ourselves, regardless of the Federal dates.

[Leinad]

Yes, the Constitution specifies two things: the months that we have elections, and that the regions are in charge of the matter. Changing either would be above the jurisdiction of this Committee, and instead would require a Constitutional Amendment. But outside of those two things, we can do basically whatever we want, as long as we have 2 Senators elected to 4-month terms (oh yeah, so I guess it's 4 things ).

I like how the South did it--Regional Legislative elections in odd-numbered months, and Gubernatorial elections at the same time as the midterm Federal election. Although I could also see the rationale for having the Gubernatorial elections on odd-numbered months, too, to have a nice federal/regional split.

[Leinad]

As outlined in Article I, Section 3 of our Committee's Rules of Order, I motion to remove Southern Gothic from this Committee, as he has been entirely inactive.

I also would support Peebs as his replacement--one the most active and eager citizens of the region not on the committee already.

[Leinad]

Vote for Removal of Member

Should Southern Gothic be removed from this Committee?

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

The vote will last 24 hours or until 4 members support removal, or 1 opposes removal (therefore making it impossible for the vote to be "unanimous among other members" as specified in the Rules of Order).

[Leinad]

Vote for Removal of Member

Should Southern Gothic be removed from this Committee?

[X] Yes
[  ] No

[Leinad]

I'll wait for Leinad to do his declaring as chair of this committee, but I will say that after this I think we can unanimously appoint Peebs (As I think we all agree, I may be wrong though).

I concur, as long as she is willing to join!

Well, I am willing to join, so it's all good!

With no objections and a majority in support, I officially declare Peebs as member of the Committee!

[Leinad]

Okay, the next/current order of business is this:

1. Determine when we want elections (and referendums) to be conducted and how we do so. Personally, I think this is the most important and should be debated on first before we get to the humdrum things.

We can't choose what month the Senate elections are (amending the Constitution is way above our jurisdiction), but we can most certainly decide when in the month Senate elections are (a set date? Or relative (before/after/simultaneous with) the Presidential/House elections?), not to mention when we have the Gubernatorial elections, Legislative elections, and referendums.

Thoughts?

[Leinad]

I'm assuming the Legislature will be two-month terms--or two classes of staggered four-month terms--and the Governorship will be four-month terms. But I suppose we could also change that.

In the old South we had Gubernatorial elections in Apr/Aug/Dec (even-numbered months, same as Class II), while in the old Mideast they had Gubernatorial elections in Jan/May/Sep (odd-numbered months). Based on the presumed timetable of this Committee (i.e. if we finish in a month), having Mar/Jul/Nov might be a good idea.

I think we need to have Legislative elections in odd-numbered months--i.e. not simultaneous with Presidential/Senatorial/House elections. I like how, in the old South, we had either the Regional Senator, the Governor, or the Legislature up every month. Now, of course, we have Regional Senate elections every two months, so we'll have to hold two of those simultaneously. But still, I'd totally prefer with Jan/Mar/May/Jul/Sep/Nov for the Legislative elections.

[Leinad]

We should probably have elections on the second-to-last week of each month--not sure about referendums, though.

[Leinad]

This is probably what we should do next:

Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[ ] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[ ] A week before Federal elections

[ ] A week after Federal elections

[ ] Other


Vote will last for 24 hours, or until all members have voted. If "Other" wins, we shall hold another principle vote.

[Leinad]

Principle Vote

Question: how should we hold elections for the Southern Senate seats?

[2] Simultaneous with Federal elections

[1] A week before Federal elections

[3] A week after Federal elections

[4] Other

I'll go with this. Both for what Yankee said, and because this gives the option for people who lost the Senatorial election to run in the House election last-minute if there's a lack of candidates in the latter. Hopefully that's not a problem we'll have, though, but you never know.

[Leinad]

So will the June 2016 race for Senate be held alongside the federal election? It's a bit late for the election to take place as we voted.

Well, hopefully the federal election starts on the 24th, so then ours could start next weekend. I'm still not quite sure what is happening federally, but I feel that we're prepared to open up the voting booth next weekend. Perhaps we pass a resolution stating that this first election will be next weekend regardless of what happens federally?

I just assumed the federal election would begin next Friday. I will also support a resolution to solidify the June 2016 race for Senate to begin on the 17th.

I also support that resolution. Is that a majority in favor of it? Not sure if Tmth was explicitly supporting it or merely floating the idea.

I'll assume the former unless he clarifies otherwise, so the Class I Senate Election will definitely happen from June 17th-19th.

[Leinad]

Okay, it's time we speed this up.

Based on NeverAgain's order, we're still on elections and referendums (step 1).

I propose that we hold off discussions on elections to the regional government until we determine the structure of the regional government (step 3), and on referendums until we determine the recall and amending procedures (step 4). This is merely from experience discussing the Judicial Branch of the Federal government at the ConCon--where a previous principle vote before we even thought about the different things we could do made it harder to implement a FAR better plan. Fortunately we overcame that, but not without controversy.

Thus, I think we should go straight to discussion on how regional senators are elected and how they are replaced (step 2), and wait to discuss elections and referendums until we talk about those specific things. Any need for a principle vote on that?

Also, I think we should have the Senate elected by the people. Any need for a principle vote on that?

Once two people consent to both of these things, we'll start discussion on Senator replacement.