Secret Ballot Procedure Bill

[Peter]

I have PMed some recommendations to Joe on how to overcome the constitutional issues (its going to need an amendment); This should not be taken to mean I support this, I simply like to facilitate making things as simple as possilbe when modifying the constitution.

[Peter]

Its just me, but given all the mentioning of possible corruption that might occur, you'd think that .... oh .... I don't know, we'd criminalise that corruption before the horse bolts.

[Peter]

Well, if it does pass, I am sure it can and will be challenged at the SC level.

The rationale proposed by Peter Bell and Joe Republic to get around the Constitutionally-mandated is weak in my mind and could probably be defeated by a good case at the SC level.

I never proposed that rationale, and I have been completely silent on it. Make of my deliberate silence what you will.

[Peter]

Last night, in a fit of boredom, I decided to play a little game on paper with the provisions of this Bill:

What would have happened if we actually had this in the last election?

First, to form the Electoral Committee:

Vice President - vacant
PPT - Gabu
SoFA - True Democrat - running, thus recused

Reserves:

SecState - Siege - running, thus recused
AG - MHS2002 - running, thus recused
SecDef - Emsworth - running, thus recused
SecTre - vacant

D1 - Supersoulty - running, thus recused
D2 - PBrunsel
D3 - King - running, thus recused
D4 - Preston
D5 - Gabu - PPT

ME - Jedi - running, thus recused
MW - DanX - running, thus recused
NE - Colin - running, thus recused
SE - Sam - running, thus recused
Pac - vacant (noting that MAS had resigned, we only had 9 Senators)

Thus you can quickly see that the only allowable Committee is Gabu, PBrunsel, Preston. If one of these persons had been unwilling or unable due to other absence to participate, we actually could not have formed a Committee.

In any regular Senate election it is not unreasonable to assume half the Senate is recused due to their conflict of interest. When this is then coupled with the Presidential election, we quickly run out of available office holders. Any of those who are allowed to sit on the Committee must be willing to confirm their availability a week in advance, and then must be willing to go through the painful process of:

1. Actually convening as a group. Anybody who thinks getting 3 people online at the same time is easy just needs to ask the Supreme Court about its recent deliberations, especially if we have to work across large time differences or persons who usually do not spend large amounts of time on AIM or other messenging softwares.
2. Then counting the votes in the precise and painstaking way that will be needed to ensure accurate results.

My guess is that if a committee is able to be formed, it may take several days before results are declared, and any post-election litigation that could occur might actually run past Inauguration Day. In effect, the two week buffer built into the Constitution to ensure that legal disputes are settled could be lost.

In effect, this legislation stacks the deck against the Forum Affairs Dept from the outset by leaving us with very few options to form a Committee in an election with a large field. The result could be a total train wreck with a victor not declared for some days, or even worse, no Committee at all and thus the entire set of secret votes thrown out from the start.

It is the opinion of this Interim Secretary of Forum Affairs that my Department cannot with any confidence report to you that an election conducted with this measure as it stands would necessarily be practicable. The Senate has much work to do on this legislation before it is allowed out of this chamber.