The Mideast Record-Courier (Exclusive Interview with Roy Barnes)

[cinyc]

No one has been elected yet. There is still a day left in the election.

Harry can still make a projection.

This

I mean, irl, there are projections before every vote is counted. There is nothing with that.

The headline does not say "projected." Discouraging voting by suggesting the election is over is not cool, imo.

It's pretty much what RL media does. Oh yes, they use a word "projection", but headlines are usually "XXX elected" way before it should be official.

The real life media doesn't project any states while the polls are still open there.  The Atlasian media is doing that here.

[cinyc]

Thank you for doing an unofficial tally.  I haven't checked everyone for Northeast registration and activity yet (I usually wait until the election is over), but I do know that Pessimistic Antineutrino's recent vote is invalid because he does not meet the activity requirements.  You shouldn't count his vote when you do your next unofficial tally.

[cinyc]

I believe Mr. Pryor's vote is also invalid (or rather irrelevant) since he preferenced NOTA.

That's what my cut-and-paste instructions in the booth say, although I'm not sure why that is or what the legal basis for that determination is.

[cinyc]

I noticed this in the federal elections and thought it was hilarious. I think it's incredibly clear that putting NOTA as your 4th preference with none others after it means you're purposefully voting a blank ballot. What other reason would there be to put "None of the Above" below your votes?

/ghost out

To declare that you don't approve of any of the other candidates other than those you ranked higher.

I still can't find the Northeast law on NOTA.  I think the feds changed their law so that preferences above NOTA ARE valid.  I'm not sure yet what effect that will have on the Northeast - probably none.  We can have our own ballot laws.

If I have time, some time next week, I am going to try to pull together all of the election laws so that we can have one Northeast consolidated election law.  Just from preliminary research, there are some incongruities that we probably should fix.  For example, the time to hold special Senate elections is technically, 7 days after the vacancy and does not necessarily cause the election to start on a Friday.

By the way, I think the Northeast doesn't allow ballots to be edited at all.  Unless it went down the memory hole somewhere, we have no 20-minute grace period. 

It also looks like candidates have until the day of the election to declare for special elections (who knew?).

Our Wiki is also in serious need of work, particularly during the dark period when SirNick deleted Assembly threads.

[cinyc]

Unless it was subsequently repealed, the Regional Voting Regulations Act 2014 specifically took the None of the Above option off of Northeast ballots, and provides for specific text to be included in the voting booth that removed the NOTA instruction.  Thus, unless that law has been repealed, I erred in even putting a NOTA option on the ballot and the language in the voting booth.

So unless that law was repealed, Rpryor's vote should count.  I am further researching the subject, though, so this could change.

[cinyc]

FYI -  Assuming the registrar's listing of morgieb as a Mideast resident before this week is accurate, morgieb's vote is invalid for failing to be a resident of the Northeast 7 days before the election.

Edited to add: My prior count of AutumnLeaf's posts is innacurate.  I think he or she made exactly 10 posts in the 56 days prior to the election.  So his or her vote should be valid.

[cinyc]

Thinking Crumpets Crumpet's vote is invalid due to failing the 7-day residency requirement.  I'm currently researching whether Oakvale's vote should be too, as he registered in the Northeast the Friday before the election, exactly 7 days but not 168 hours before the election began.

[cinyc]

Thinking Crumpets Crumpet's vote is invalid due to failing the 7-day residency requirement.  I'm currently researching whether Oakvale's vote should be too, as he registered in the Northeast the Friday before the election, exactly 7 days but not 168 hours before the election began.

why do northeast elections always end up like this?

8 minutes too late, and the vote gets struck off

Even Atlasian federal elections employ the 7-day rule for new registrants and region moves.  It is in both the Atlasian Constitution and the Northeast's own voting regulations from as far back as 2004.  Even if it weren't (apparently) Northeast law, we can't ignore the Atlasian Constitution's rule of when a move is effective because the Atlasian Supreme Court has ruled that we can't create a separate Northeast voting roll.  So I really have no choice but to follow those rules for the two or three voters who registered or moved in the past week.

I asked the SoFE for clarification on how the 7-day rule works, and he said it's usually interpreted as 168 hours.  So Oakvale's vote is probably invalid, too - though I've asked for further clarification and am still researching.

I'm not disqualifying any votes with a view toward changing the outcome - in fact, I haven't even calculated the current outcome or how disallowing any vote would change it.

[cinyc]

It's the price of being an active region

Regardless, it'd probably be a good idea for a list of voters who fail activity requirements to be published along with the sample ballot, or something along those lines.

Normally, the SoFE makes these determinations and the Northeast elections officials follow the SoFE's lead, as there can only be one voter roll.  The only exception is for the very few people who vote in regional but not national elections.  There is no SoFE role in special elections, so it all falls to the Northeast official opening the booth in a special election.

It would take a long time to go through 40+ potential Northeast voters to check for potential issues before the election, especially when about half of them historically won't vote.  It is much easier to check after someone casts a ballot.  I'm not even sure how to check the last posts of a poster other than by clicking on that poster's name in a thread.  If they don't post a vote, how can I do that?

[cinyc]

I shall be launching a legal challenge to the result should Messrs. RPryor and Twistory's votes be counted. It is also deeply unsettling that an election may have taken place with clearly misleading instructions given to voters, and would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the result, whoever may win.

What's wrong with Twistory's vote, exactly?  He also had 10 forum posts in the relevant period, so it's not inactivity.

[cinyc]

I shall be launching a legal challenge to the result should Messrs. RPryor and Twistory's votes be counted. It is also deeply unsettling that an election may have taken place with clearly misleading instructions given to voters, and would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the result, whoever may win.

What's wrong with Twistory's vote, exactly?  He also had 10 forum posts in the relevant period, so it's not inactivity.

The question is whether, since most of those posts are, well, votes, they should count as "posts" proper. I'd argue not.

Then your problem is not just with Twistory.  It is with AutumnLeaf and perhaps others. 

[cinyc]

I re-rechecked AutumnLeaf's posting history, and he doesn't meet the activity requirement.  The posts on May 25 don't count, so he only has 5 posts in the relevant period.

After speaking with the SoFE, I also will have to invalidate Oakvale vote for not being a resident of the Northeast 7 days (168 hours) before the election.  He registered on the Friday a week before the election.  SoFE homelycooking indicated that he usually uses a 168 hour standard, requiring a move or registration on or before the Thursday the week before the election.