The Examiner: Election Tracker

[Associate Justice PiT]

Turnout is at 87.5% of eligible voters!  My PM worked

Oh, PB, where are you...?  I'm leaving for Europe on Wednesday so it would be nice if he could vote before then

EDIT: Ah, positive development!  My hotel in London, where I'll be on Friday, has WiFi throughout the hotel!

     Until some American short-circuits the hotel with his/her American electrical plugs, of course.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The SDP-endorsed candidates' showing was incredibly strong, considering the dominance of the JCP over the region. You see, unlike the RPP, we're not a Southern regionalist party.

     Yet at the same time incredibly weak, considering that Xahar was trumpeting this election as being the downfall of the JCP.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'm getting a strong feeling this is a 2 horse race for that final spot

     That's bad for us. There's more folks to vote for Lief than there are to vote for SPC.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'm getting a strong feeling this is a 2 horse race for that final spot

That's bad for us. There's more folks to vote for Lief than there are to vote for SPC.

SPC should be safely elected, quite possibly to seat #2.
The last seat will be close though.
At this stage I'd suggest it's too close to call between any 2 of Lief, Franzl and Bacon King for seats 4 and 5.

     Has the Atlasian Center fallen so far that they are less electorally viable than the Atlasian Right? That's shocking, though I suppose true.

[Associate Justice PiT]

You might want to review the official RPP talking points...I don't think you're supposed to openly admit that the RPP is of the Atlasian Right.

The party is not necessarily of the right, but the candidates are

     Indeed. I don't think anyone would deny that DWTL & SPC are both right-wing.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I honestly did not think there was any way both myself and SPC could win

The RPP has 22 voters.
9 votes wins a seat.

Anything less than 2 seats would have been a very poor performance by the RPP.

Of that 22, does that include King of the Bench Press and The Populist?

     Them as well as Dabeav.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Marokai Blue

6

(MaxQue, Marokai Blue, opebo, Earl, Lief, radicalidealist)

Really?

     Yes:

National:

Marokai Blue

[Associate Justice PiT]

I think his point is that "realistic" and "radical" are not the same words.

     I didn't notice that. I must be getting old.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Marokai Blue

6

(MaxQue, Marokai Blue, opebo, Earl, Lief, radicalidealist)

Really?

     Yes:

National:

Marokai Blue

Mind letting me know what I've proposed that's "radical?"

You really have no clue what's going on, do you?

Uh, I guess not? What are you talking about?

     I didn't notice that Jas called him radicalidealist. I thought he was merely questioning that he voted for you. A rather embarrassing mistake on my part.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I guess the Atlasian Centrists aren't as dead as they had previously seemed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The Left's advantage has always been overblown, I've thought. Thing is, there has generally been a massive Centrist advantage in Atlasia (though not as much in recent months). As you implied, the Centrist are actually center-left. Because of that, in a straight up Right v. Left race, they tend to support the Left-winger.

     That combined with the Left's general numerical advantage has meant that it's been harder for the Right to really succeed. In the RPP's time, we've often had to go into races relying on only our own voter strength to win. Unsurprisingly, we've frequently lost those kinds of races. Generally, the RPP has more success when it can get other people to support its candidates (Inks vs. afleitch, Smid vs. Eraserhead).

     This is after all (I think) only the second Senate in Atlasia's history where the Right has come to make up half of the Senate. Compare that to all the times of Left/Centrist domination & it's easy to see that the Right's current strength is an anomaly in Atlasia.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I ran the figures for partisan composition of the new Senate. Changes from the beginning of the 29th Senate:

Party	Current Strength	Net Change
RPP	5	(+2)
DA	2	(nc)
JCP	2	(+1)
SDP	1	(-1)
HTUPHWEP	0	(-1)
Ind	0	(-1)

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I suspected my bleeding-hearts comment would end up in a newspaper sooner or later.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I'd say it's rather uncommon for a party to actually have enough Senators for meaningful observations about intra-party politics to occur. I'm happy that someone is taking advantage of this opportunity.

[Associate Justice PiT]

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.

Oh my, it has been a while hasn't it? I wonder if that's a record.

     How many parties have existed continuously in any significant form for over two years?

[Associate Justice PiT]

I believe the vote of Benconstine was indeed invalid and breaks the Voting Whilst Banned Act and possibly the Contempt of Court Act, as you expressed concern for to me.

Starting on the 19th of Jan. Ben was prohibited from voting for 13 weeks, or 91 days. Unfortunately the date of his vote, the 15th of this month, is not outside of that limit and as such is illegal. I'm afraid I'm going to be forced to press charges.

     Ignorance of the facts is a valid defense in Atlasia, right?

[Associate Justice PiT]

With all due respect to Ben, he can count and should have known better. It's unfortunate that he (I believe) mistakenly did this, but it's clear he broke the law and that's something that I'm duty-bound to pursue.

     But if you believe that it was an honest mistake, it makes little sense to pursue a case that's a surefire loss.

[Associate Justice PiT]

With all due respect to Ben, he can count and should have known better. It's unfortunate that he (I believe) mistakenly did this, but it's clear he broke the law and that's something that I'm duty-bound to pursue.

     But if you believe that it was an honest mistake, it makes little sense to pursue a case that's a surefire loss.

And how is it a surefire loss? I'm pretty sure I can count. This case boils down to:

Was Ben punished by being banned for 13 weeks from voting? Yes
Did Ben vote before his ban was up? Yes

Case closed.

     In the real world, mistake of fact is a valid legal defense. Unless for some odd reason the same does not hold true in Atlasia, you just caused yourself a small problem. If Ben's attorney can convince the presiding justice that Ben voted without being aware that his penalty was still in effect, your case is in deep jeopardy.

     On second thought though, maybe "surefire loss" is a bit harsh as I am not educated in the case law relating to that particular defense. I mostly know of it being applied to a friend of my mother who was arrested for possessing a marijuana plant without knowing what it was.

[Associate Justice PiT]

It's pretty obvious Ben knew what he was doing when he voted.

     It was pretty obvious that he knew that his sentence was still in effect & that he was violating the terms of it? Cite please.

[Associate Justice PiT]

With all due respect to Ben, he can count and should have known better. It's unfortunate that he (I believe) mistakenly did this, but it's clear he broke the law and that's something that I'm duty-bound to pursue.

     But if you believe that it was an honest mistake, it makes little sense to pursue a case that's a surefire loss.

And how is it a surefire loss? I'm pretty sure I can count. This case boils down to:

Was Ben punished by being banned for 13 weeks from voting? Yes
Did Ben vote before his ban was up? Yes

Case closed.

     In the real world, mistake of fact is a valid legal defense. Unless for some odd reason the same does not hold true in Atlasia, you just caused yourself a small problem. If Ben's attorney can convince the presiding justice that Ben voted without being aware that his penalty was still in effect, your case is in deep jeopardy.

     On second thought though, maybe "surefire loss" is a bit harsh as I am not educated in the case law relating to that particular defense. I mostly know of it being applied to a friend of my mother who was arrested for possessing a marijuana plant without knowing what it was.

This is different.

Ben has been through these proceedings and had been clearly punished. The fact that he got the date wrong is his own responsibility, and no one else's. It's not like your friend happening upon marijuana and not knowing what it was, Ben's situation is akin to someone sitting through a Driver's Ed course and getting traffic laws wrong once he's out on the open road.

It's his fault for not taking the responsibility to remember these things, especially since Ben has been in trouble in this area before. This is not a matter of some silly mistake, this is a matter of Ben not taking the responsibility of following the very clearly laid out punishment that was given to him. He can count, this wasn't complicated.

     Here, it says that the law must provide for mistake of fact as a defense. With that in mind, I guess I was way off-base the whole time. If I understand it correctly it means that mistake of fact actually does not exist in Atlasia, rendering this whole discussion moot.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Wait, what has just happened? I am now confused.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     If it is true that Purple State wins, then the new breakdown of the Senate would be:

RPP: 4(-1)
DA: 4(+2)
JCP: 2(nc)
SDP 0(-1)

     How long has it been since the last time only three parties were represented in the Senate?

[Associate Justice PiT]

There are two issues left to deal with in this election's aftermath.  First we need one or two new assembly members.  I'd first recomend devilman and then persepolis.  Then if SPC does drop his bid does the next person after him take the spot or does the present vote count and we move on to a special election for the last seat.  Assuming he does'nt take the seat as he says he won't.

     I think Devilman & Persepolis would make excellent choices for Assembly.

[Associate Justice PiT]

There are two issues left to deal with in this election's aftermath.  First we need one or two new assembly members.  I'd first recomend devilman and then persepolis.  Then if SPC does drop his bid does the next person after him take the spot or does the present vote count and we move on to a special election for the last seat.  Assuming he does'nt take the seat as he says he won't.

     I think Devilman & Persepolis would make excellent choices for Assembly.

It would get Persepolis more active.

     Not to mention it would give both of you a bright start to your political careers. Atlasia can always use more newbies getting into the political ring, so to speak.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The Pacific Region officially runs on PST... However, the times were adjusted to 9:00 PM PST (or, midnight EST) to be able to run concurrently with federal booths and election law. Not sure how that will affect their eligibility to vote in the regional election.

I'm pretty sure they are still eligible for regional elections, but I am not entirely sure. It isn't stated in the regional constitution.

Unless specified otherwise in the Constitution, we adhere to federal election law.

I guess well have to wait and see if they actually are eligible federally then. Where is CK? Should we have Alcon go ahead and open the booth? CK has been missing since the 16th.

     Well, they registered more than a week before the Constitutionally mandated start time of Pacific elections, so I do not see why they wouldn't be able to vote in the Pacific regional election.