Northeast Gubernatorial Recall Election Thread (Announce candidacies here)

[cinyc]

I haven't been paying attention to regional politics recently and didn't even know this vote was occurring.  Can someone please explain why we recalled the governor without having any successor?  And why don't we have a Lt. Governor or CJO?

FYI, I'm not convinced that the Recall Amendment was actually adequately passed, which is one reason why I didn't put it in with the Constitution when updating the Wiki.  Whether it was depends on the number of Northeast residents as of October 1, 2007, the date it was voted on.  17 or 25 seems to be the magic number, depending on the meaning of the key constitutional phrase.  Anything above that and the Amendment never went into effect.

[cinyc]

I've concluded that the Recall Amendment was never validly passed and is not part of the New Northeast Constitution.  Specifically:

The Recall Amendment was put to a vote on October 1, 2007.  Assuming the Wiki has been properly updated, the amending formula of the New Northeast Constitution in effect on October 1, 2007 stated the following:

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The Recall Amendment passed by a vote of 9-3-1.  More than two-thirds of the members of the Legislative Assembly (which was all Northeast Citizens back in 2007 - See Article V) voted in favor of the amendment.  But a majority of all members of the Legislative Assembly didn't vote in the election, let alone in favor of the amendment.  According to the Wiki, the Northeast had 32 residents as of both July 7, 2007 and November 14, 2007.  A majority would be 17.  Only 13 Northeasterners voted in the election, 9 in favor.  Either way, that falls short of a majority.

If you continue to go forward with this recall process, I will sue.  Why don't we have a CJO?

[cinyc]

Jake Matthews is Lieutenant Governor and the Recall Amendment is in the Constitution.

No it's not.  When I updated the Wiki to reflect older legislation, I specifically noted:

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Nobody has sued over whether the Recall Amendment is properly part of the Constitution because it never really became an issue.  It has now.

[cinyc]

We don't have a CJO because our Governor is ing useless. We also have Assembly vacancies.  According to the Wiki, a special election should be announced.

Well, if you want to remove the Governor, he or she should be impeached by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly, not by a recall that has no constitutional basis.   See Article IV, Section ix of the New Northeast Constitution.

[cinyc]

We don't have a CJO because our Governor is ing useless. We also have Assembly vacancies.  According to the Wiki, a special election should be announced.

Well, if you want to remove the Governor, he or she should be impeached by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly, not by a recall that has no constitutional basis.   See Article IV, Section ix of the New Northeast Constitution.

We came prepared for this. If the Governor will just do his job, none of this will be necessary.

Look, I don't disagree that if the Governor has been totally absent, he should be removed from office.  But it should be done the correct way.  I do believe that the recall amendment was never properly passed, though.

We probably don't need to do this, but perhaps we should recommend a CJO?  I'd suggest cinyc, if he's willing.

I'd take that job, even though I forgot there was a regional election last weekend instead of this weekend.  I forgot that the first Friday of April was April 1.

[cinyc]

We don't have a CJO because our Governor is ing useless. We also have Assembly vacancies.  According to the Wiki, a special election should be announced.

Yes, there should be a special election to fill vacancies.  But we kept the Vacancy Filling Act deliberately vague on who should run the special elections.  It has to be run by the "appropriate official."  Normally, that's the CJO.  But based on prior precedent, the Governor or Lt. Governor could open the booth, too.  If Jake Mathews is Lt. Governor, he should open one today or next Friday, depending on when the vacancy occurred.

[cinyc]

Well, Ghost_white named me the new Northeast CJO, so if anyone wants to sue about anything, feel free to post a notice in my office thread on the regional government sub board and PM me.

As CJO, I will generally try to abstain from making prior comment on constitutional issues that might come before me.  I probably would have to recuse myself from deciding whether the recall election was valid, though, given my prior public comments on the subject and the fact since I was named CJO by the Governor who would be removed, there's a huge conflict there.

[cinyc]

I think as long as you carry out your responsibilities according to the law as you interpret it...

I'm going to run elections and do my job based on the assumption that Governor Ghost_white is still in office because the Recall Amendment was never properly passed, making the recall invalid.  

If someone wants to sue over this, because of the inherent conflict, I will likely refer the case to a member of the Atlasian Supreme Court or the CJO of another region for an impartial disposition.  But I think I've made it pretty clear why I believe the Recall Amendment to have never been properly passed and I really don't really see any valid arguments to the contrary.

I suppose the conflict could be waived and I might be able to hear the case if the Lt. Governor agreed to name me CJO if the recall were deemed valid.  My initial reading of the law can be wrong, and I'm willing to entertain arguments claiming the amendment was validly passed.  In fact, I welcome this solution, as it would give clarity to the Constitution and end this potential constitutional crisis.

Lawsuits on anything else, including recent election happenings, are fair game for which I need not recuse myself.

[cinyc]

The SRC really must begin its work straight away, since now we cannot be convinced that certain laws passed at any point in the Northeast followed the proper legal route. With this revelation, I don't know if we can trust anything posted in the Wiki as a legitimate law.

I last updated the Wiki.  Everything in the Wiki was likely properly passed unless otherwise noted.  If anyone thinks a law wasn't, lawsuits are welcome.  I am also convinced that it is up to date through the last date it was updated.  I spent a lot of time going through old threads to consolidate pre-Assembly laws.

I noted that the Recall Amendment might not have been properly passed, which is why I never actually added it to our Constitution.