SR 114-27: Expel Senator Blairite (Passed)

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Expel Senator Blairite

Whereas, Blairite has been inactive repeatedly during multiple sessions and has not posted since march 24 2023 exceeding the 168 hour mark that would justify expulsion from the senate

Resolved, that –
(1) the Senate condemns and expels Senator Blairite from the Senate for inactivity

Sponsors: Lakigigar & West Midlander

[LAKISYLVANIA]

We have been too indecisive about inactivity in particular this session, and should become much stricter.

With threads like this popping up and partisan narratives being framed that the senate is inactive in particular due to one side, let's make an example and start expelling people who fail to be active in the senate and fail to submit a leave of absence that justifies their absence.

This will mostly be symbolic. Senator Blairite will soon be replaced by whoever succeeds him in the upcoming election. But Senator Blairite has barely been a senator at all over the last two full sessions. If you get elected, at least take the effort to contribute something in the senate.

I want to ensure that next session we will guard over activity more strictly.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Has anyone asked him about the possibility for proxy voting?

Let's not change subject. Senator Blairite has barely been around for about 6 months straight now and no-one has done anything about it. Good if you're trying to be funny or if you try to change subject, but it doesn't mean that this amount of inactivity should've been allowed to be neglected for this long. And I want to add that people should think twice before voting for someone who barely shows up or even care to show up.

With regards to proxy voting, i've expressed opposition to it, but we've lost valuable time so i express my opposition to the multiple attempts to fillibuster or deliberately delay bills from being passed.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Motioning to final vote

24 hours to object

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Hearing no objection, a final vote is now open for 72 hours or until closure. Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Aye

[LAKISYLVANIA]

I find it concerning that senator Blairite has not logged in since March 29th, and I consider such levels of activity to be unbecoming of a representative of the citizens. However, for the sake of fairness and stability I would recommend that we debate reintroducing formal activity requirements to the senate rules rather than expelling senators ad hoc.

They do exist in the senate rules, article 8

1.) Senators can be subject to either Censure (formal statement of disapproval) or Expulsion by their peers, so long as reasonable justification exists in the form of unethical or corrupt behavior, inactivity, treason and such other offenses or behavior.

2.) Censure proceedings shall be initiated if at least nine Senators have sponsored a motion of Censure, introduced in the Legislative Introduction Thread, against one of their Senate colleagues, citing the motives of why said Senator should be censored.

3.) The President Pro Tempore, or, if he is the subject of the motion, the Deputy President Pro Tempore shall open a thread and commence the debates. Debates shall last for no less than 96 hours. After the debates have elapsed, the President Pro Tempore or Deputy President Pro Tempore shall open a vote, which shall last for 96 hours. The assent of two-thirds of the Senate is required for the Senator to be censored, in which case they will lose their seniority.

4.) Expulsion proceedings shall be initiated if:

a.) a Senator has not posted anything on the Atlas Fantasy Government board for 168 consecutive hours and has not posted a valid Leave of Absence (then the time covered by that LOA shall not count toward those 168 hours, but periods of inactivity before and after the LOA shall count as a continuous period, provided there are no interceding posts).

b.) Two Senators have sponsored an article of expulsion, introduced in the Legislative Introduction Thread, against one of their Senate colleagues

5.) The President Pro Tempore shall open a thread and commence the debates. Debates shall last at least 96 hours. After the debates have elapsed, the President Pro Tempore shall open a vote, which shall last for a maximum of 3 days. When the articles of expulsion have enough votes to pass or fail, the President Pro Tempore shall announce that he or she will close the vote in 24 hours and that any Senator who wishes to change their vote must do so during that interval. In order to expel the Senator, a two-third majority of the sitting Senators is needed.

29 march is almost a month ago, the activity requirements are actually stricter than what is being used here.

There is no reason to vote against this senate resolution objectively.

I have no personal issues with Blairite but I like the senate to be moving, esp. since that is what opponents have used as attacks, so if people really care about activity, the only right vote here is the Aye.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

It's not comparable. Yankee also posted a LOA which is what you're supposed to do if you know you aren't going to be able to be online or active for a certain period of time.

Blairite just got burned out and was passive, barely voting in nine months of time.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Has Blairite even been in the Senate since January?

I didn't realize he changed seats until someone mentioned he was in Pacific on Discord.

There is no oath in January for the Pacific seat and his At-Large seat expired that month and is currently held by Pyro.
https://talkelections.org/AFEWIKI/index.php?title=Senate_(Fifth_Constitution)

I don't think he ever swore in, so he was never in the senate, which means that every vote cast in the past is invalid since january, given we would be a citizen, not a senator.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Has Blairite even been in the Senate since January?

I didn't realize he changed seats until someone mentioned he was in Pacific on Discord.

There is no oath in January for the Pacific seat and his At-Large seat expired that month and is currently held by Pyro.
https://talkelections.org/AFEWIKI/index.php?title=Senate_(Fifth_Constitution)

I don't think he ever swore in, so he was never in the senate, which means that every vote cast in the past is invalid since january.

He hasn't cast any in that time period.

Why was he never recalled or replaced?

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The Pacific deserves better, and given people recently attacked the senate for being too inactive, this would be a step in the right direction.

Also this does change some things, given if you need a two third majority of the senate (or a majority in the senate), the math would be different depending on having 17 or 18 senators. In this case, the senate had 17 senators, not 18.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Can we even expel a senator that has never been a senator in the first place. I mean the position is just vacant.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

He deleted it at some point since January, but it was there.

And for march?

[LAKISYLVANIA]

He deleted it at some point since January, but it was there.

And for march?

Its a four month term.

Okay.

So the vote has to be finished. Just to clarify, does one need 12 or 13 aye votes?

[LAKISYLVANIA]

12 would be 2/3rds of 18 no?

The word majority confuses me given if one talks about a regular majority, can you speak about a majority if the other nine is the other majority. For two third majority, it makes it confusing for whether you need over 12 or if 12 is okay.

But i'm going to assume it's 12 unless someone says otherwise.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

(...)

When the articles of expulsion have enough votes to pass or fail, the President Pro Tempore shall announce that he or she will close the vote in 24 hours and that any Senator who wishes to change their vote must do so during that interval. In order to expel the Senator, a two-third majority of the sitting Senators is needed.

Given the article of expulsion has enough votes to pass, i will announce that i'll close the vote in 24 hours. Any senator who wishes to change their vote must do so during that interval.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Nay

This is not going to make any difference so it feels spiteful.

Depending on who we are talking about, you're not using the same standards.

Some of your quotes in the last two weeks.

The system we have in place works well enough, Senators should actually vote themselves and think for themselves, and if they are not able to do that, then they should take a break from being in the Senate.

Many people are dissatisfied with the quality of decision-making in this game, and the sheer immaturity demonstrated by the current lot of office-holders. People do think the game is deteriorating as a result. I have to say, I agree with them. It really doesn't matter to me that other Senators don't.

This Senate really is a joke.

Did the proxyvoting really make such a difference for you in that case?

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Nay

This is not going to make any difference so it feels spiteful.

Your're only saying that because Blairite is a Labor Party member. If I didn't show up for work for a month, I would be fired, and guess what, the reason wouldn't really matter either, barring extreme circumstances (i.e worse than what Yankee went through...but then again, he was gone for less time than that).

I don't think this vote has any significance, since Blairite is leaving office so soon anyway. So effectively this IS just a vote about whether or not we like Blairite.

I like to do some things in the last week and a half during this session.

That you are not interested in moving things forward is pretty obvious though.

This is not a vote about whether we like Blairite or not. And if you want to hear my thoughts about that. Yes I do like him.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Resolution passes 14-2-0-2

Blairite is hereby expelled from the senate.