HOUSE BILL: Federal Electoral Act of 2018 (Passed)

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Can we please get some debate going on this bill that would enact highly important changes to our electoral system.

What are the main changes from the Federal Electoral Act of 2016?

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Can we please get some debate going on this bill that would enact highly important changes to our electoral system.

What are the main changes from the Federal Electoral Act of 2016?

Among other things this bill:
-Establishes a procedure for parties to expelling members
-Reduces the missed election clause to 2 (this would not be retroactive)
-Reduces the lame duck session to one week
-Reduces the move between region clause to 120 days and ensures it doesn’t expire upon deregistration.
While I understand that some of you may not support everything in this bill it is my hope that we can work out a workable final bill before the upcoming election. 

I wasn't sure if those were the things that were changed, or if they were just key components of the bill.

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I move to assume sponsorship. I'll read the whole text tonight and I may offer an amendment or two.

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Here's an amendment:

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Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Pending
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I'll post explanations tomorrow.

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Alright, explanation time.

Section 4.2: spelling correction
Section 4.4: changing "Senators" to "elected officials" to ensure it applies to all federally-elected Atlasians

Section 5.2: by not allowing candidates who previously ran in the election a chance to run again, we are infringing upon their democratic rights (and the populace's rights, too, they might now want to vote for a former candidate)
Section 5.4: same reasoning as 5.2

Section 12.7: To make sure the concession is official
Section 12.8: To ensure the candidate intentionally made the concession (to prevent situations where the candidate was under duress, or if the candidate was drunk, etc.)

Section 15.1: see "Voting Clarification Amendment" for background, basically to make sure the exact poll closing time is known
Section 15.2: same reasoning as 15.1
Section 15.3: same reasoning as 15.1

After reading the amendment over and reading the feedback, I also offer the following:

Amendment offered - Section 5.2

Section 5: None of the Above
If the None of the Above option has won more votes than any candidate, then a new election shall be held under the following procedure:
1. The new election shall be held between midnight Eastern Standard Time on the first Thursday after the initial election and 0001 Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday thereafter, and shall conclude exactly 72 hours after the beginning.
2. There shall be no "None of the Above" option in this new election.
3. The candidacy declaration deadline for the new election shall be the same as for special elections.

To prevent a "None of the Above" win from happening twice in a row.

Amendment offered - Section 12.7

Section 12: Concession of Victory
1. If a candidate shall concede their victory of a People’s House election after the certification of the election result, then the candidate with the next greatest number of highest preference votes in that election shall then be declared victor.
2. If both members of a Presidential ticket shall concede their victory in the Presidential election after the certification of the election result, then the members of the ticket with the next greatest number of highest preference votes in that election shall then be declared victors.
3. If a victor who has conceded shall wish to retract their concession, then they may only do so with the permission of the newly declared victor.
4. If an election shall produce a tie, then any candidate or ticket may decline to go forward to the runoff. If such actions shall leave only one candidate or ticket in the runoff, then that candidate or ticket shall be declared the victor.
5. If a tied candidate or ticket that has withdrawn shall wish to re-enter the runoff, then they may only do so with the permission of the other candidates or tickets in the tie.
6. Concessions made before the certification of election results, or on or after the date on which the newly elected official is due to be sworn in, are of no legal effect whatsoever.
7. For a concession to take effect, the Secretary of Federal Elections must certify the concession.
7. The candidate must post the concession in the "Department of Federal Elections" board for the concession to be official.
8. If the candidate believes the concession to be made in error, they may withdraw their concession for up to twenty-four (24) hours after their concession.

Citizen visiting the House

I still don't see the rationale in adding one minute to the voting hours. It has been exactly 72 hours. Just clarify midnight 0 seconds for the closing time if someone could exploit a loophole. No need to go to 72 hours 1 minute of voting time. 

Also Section 14, point number 6 raises the number of members in a party from 3 to 5. This change was hidden because there was not strike or bold in the first post.

It's dangerous to vote for something if the changes are not visible. There could be other changes hidden.   

I did not make that change intentionally. Likely, I (or someone before me) accidentally pressed the "5" key. No malicious intent, and I always bold changes I make.

Additionally, it is important to remember I was not the original sponsor of this bill, so I may have missed something that I am not responsible for.

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I plan on reading this through more closely later, but at first glance: there is no such thing as the "People's House." (I know why Yankee uses that name, but our Supreme Court is not fond of imprecision in electoral law, so I would recommend using the constitutional name for the lower house to avoid any trouble down the road.)

Interesting, I just noticed that. I may offer an amendment to fix that now or just one large amendment later.

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I'll revise the draft when I get on lunch in a few hours. I'd rather not have a typo.

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Well if you been waiting this long for a lunch break, I suggest getting an attorney specializing in labor law.

I need to strike!

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Amendment offered:

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Also when offering amendments

Try to do one of the following -


"

"I offer the following amendment:

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or:

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Something like this?

Amendment offered - Section 5.2

But, in all seriousness, I'll edit.

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Since the amendment's been adopted, and debate has winded down, I call for a final vote.

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Aye.

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Nay


Not that I don't want this to pass, but I think the lame duck session issue is problematic, especially for the holiday season. Starting a Congress on December 20th or 26/27th (give or take) would likely be a severely handicaped session because of the Holidays and my preference would be for that period to come at the end of a session then at the beginning of a new one.

Unfortunately I realized too late that the original sponsor included that in the bill, as I would have removed it had I known. I fully support keeping the current session.

That being said, I encourage the rest of the House to vote Aye as I will propose an amendment shortly after the bill's passing.