Whig Party Convention, Bird-in-Hand, PA

[HagridOfTheDeep]

If it's my place to say, I think "the right" in Atlasia would greatly benefit by holding a joint primary to determine our candidate for the senate election. Although this system didn't necessarily work out for the Whigs in the presidential primary, it would be a good way to consolidate the right and ensure we elect a senator with the same values as clarence.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I'm only putting down my first choice, because it was hard enough choosing one out of the three, let alone ordering them.

[1] Simfan

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Ah, shyte. I totally missed his declaration. I assume Supersonic missed it as well. I'm not sure how to proceed here.

Is Republitarian choosing to forgo the primary? I'd assumed we'd all accept it, but that might have been naïve of me. I'm not sure there's anything in our party rules about running primaries at all. So the interesting thing is, any Whig could probably choose to forgo the primary and still have to recieve our endorsement.

I'll let Supersonic chime in here about what we'll do with this vote. Beyond that, we should probably have a discussion about whether we'd like to make primaries a permanent part of our party (and how we'll enforce the results).

[HagridOfTheDeep]

lol, it's okay. You definitely took the smart approach.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

So should I drop out of the race? Because I don't think two Whigs should be competing for the same senate seat...

Well, my vote might have been different if I'd known you were running. So I'm not going to tell anyone to drop out. I have no idea what we do in a situation like this one.


Luckily, this situation is for Supersonic to fix.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Paging Mr. Chairman...?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Well, the vote was for the special senate election (as Supersonic said in his initial post), but a lot of people seem to have missed that.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Well, I wouldn't go that far.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I'm going to try to smooth things over here within the framework of our by-laws.

Nothing in those by-laws talks about primaries. Since this vote was not official, in my capacity as nothing, I am calling the vote off immediately.

I move for a vote of non-confidence in Vice Chairman [vacancy]. I need a second.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Thank you, 20RP12. I should not have to do this, but our leadership is MIA and I interpret the by-laws as unclear enough to give me the wiggle room to proceed in whatever haphazard manner is convenient. I have no idea if this is the proper process, but hey—at least it makes it look like we're not a complete train wreck.

Do you agree to remove [vacancy] from the position of Vice Chairman?

Members, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain. Voting will last for 24 hours.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Aye

[HagridOfTheDeep]

As we continue with this vote (we really need some official leadership here), I'm going to go off on a semantics-related tangent....

Because I just realized something extremely convenient. I already said it earlier, but I didn't realize the implications of it:

The primary process is an unofficial operation of the party since it is not outlined in the by-laws. Thus, I imagine anyone could technically run the primary. So I could go right ahead and create a thread in the Voting Booth where we'd select our candidate. The problem is, any serious vote would probably have to take at least 72 hours... at which point we get very close to the election and lose out on a lot of time for campaigning.

So—I am going to send private messages to JCL and Goldwater to see if they even want a primary, or if they'd rather just take their chances in the actual election. At this point, I honestly don't give a sh*t what we do. Most of their second preferences would go to the other Whig anyway. I'm just letting you know for the sake of transparency.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Ah. Thanks Simfan... I must have missed it since it wasn't on the Wiki. Folks, I am so sorry. I'm trying. This vote seemed like the only thing I had the power to do.



I do see some room for continuing with our current process though. The amendment Simfan cited stipulates that the Chariman must run a vote to fill the empty Vice Chair position within three days. The Chairman did not do so. Thus, we're in grey territory here.

Considering that reality, the amendment does not seem to apply. I will use this to our advantage and revert to the old system, if only for the sake of passing time before Supersonic returns. The spirit of the amendment would suggest that only Supersonic is entitled to run a vote for Vice Chairman. The letter of the law, however, says nothing about what we do if the Chairman does not run such a vote.

So we will continue the non-confidence vote in [vacancy]. If Supersonic does not return by the time this vote ends (10:30pm tomorrow night), I will run a vote for the position of Vice Chair myself.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Now would be a good time for anyone else to declare too. For the record, I am absolutely not interested in the job, and will be eager to relinquish my power as De-Facto Hijacker of Party Affairs as soon as I can.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

With six (6) AYEs, zero (0) NAYs, and zero (0) ABSTAINs, this party has lost confidence in [vacancy]’s ability to fulfill the duties of Vice Chairman. [Vacancy] will no longer be the Vice Chairman of the Whig Party.

At this point, we will elect a new Vice Chairman. This amendment provides no provision for electing a new Vice Chairman if the Chairman of the party neglected to hold a vote for that position within three days of its becoming vacant. As such, I am entering the vacuum left by this loophole and I am claiming emergency powers to administer a vote for the vice chairmanship. We will use preferential voting. Voting will last for 72 hours.

VICE CHARIMAN BALLOT

[ ] 20RP12
[ ] Goldwater
[ ] Write-in: ___________

[HagridOfTheDeep]

VICE CHARIMAN BALLOT

[1] 20RP12
[2] Goldwater
[3] Write-in: Cathcon

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I will also note that I have not yet heard back from one of our two candidates for the special senate election. The longer I go without hearing anything, the more likely it is that we will not have a primary. To be candid, it is already very unlikely that we will have one.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Sorry for the delay, folks. With an abysmal five voters, the quota for winning the vice chairmanship is three (3).

Round 1

20RP12 - 3
Goldwater - 2

20RP12 reaches quota on the first round and is elected to the position of vice chairman of the Whig party.


I apologize for the state of disarray this party fell into. I hope my hijacking of this convention wasn't too unwelcome... I really felt like we needed to give ourselves some official leadership in Supersonic's absence, and the vice chairman vote was the only way to do it. I will now happily step aside for 20RP12.

Congrats.