Ishan v. KaiserDave

[Continential]

To Lincoln Associate Justice of the Circuit Court Bacon King;

I am filing a lawsuit against the region of Lincoln for failing to conduct the special election for a seat in the General Court with the terms proscribed by the Lincoln Constitution.

Whenever a vacancy should occur in the composition of the General Court, the governor shall appoint a replacement. Should the vacancy have occurred fewer than 336 hours before the next general election, the deputy thus nominated shall serve the remainder of the existing term; otherwise, they shall serve only until a new deputy may be elected. If required, A special election for the General Court shall begin on the Friday following the creation of the vacancy; but if the vacancy shall occur on a Wednesday or Thursday, the special election shall begin on the second Friday following the creation of the vacancy.

All elections and referendums of this region shall be administered by the governor, or a person of their choosing. Whenever the governor and their designee if applicable should be unable to perform this duty, the speaker of the General Court, or in their absence the most senior deputy, shall administer the election.

Whereas, the Governor or a person of his choosing hasn't made a thread for the election, and as thus, I request that the Court enjoin KaiserDave or a person of his choosing to hold a special election beginning on 12:00:00 am Eastern Time on Friday, March 18; with the election concluding 72 hours later as specified in Lincoln's Constitution.

[Bacon King]

Time is of the essence here, so let us dispense with the formalities

Could the petitioner please state the following, for the record:

1. when the vacancy occurred,

2. whether the governor appointed a replacement,

3. whether a general election is scheduled to occur in the next 14 days (and if so, when),

4. when the missed special election legally should have occurred: this current weekend, or some time before?

[Sestak]

As a third party in this case, I would like to ask that this case be dismissed as quickly as possible. By petitioner's own citation, "Whenever the governor and their designee if applicable should be unable to perform this duty, the speaker of the General Court...shall administer the election." The Governor and his appointed designee have both failed to open the election for not one but two successive weekends; such failure surely qualifies as an inability to perform duty. Thus it falls to Speaker ReaganClinton, who has opened the election this weekend.

Petitioner intends to have this ongoing election invalidated while giving no actual ground to support such an action. It is a compelling interest that our elections be saddled with as little public doubt as possible while voting is ongoing; therefore I ask this Court for immediate dismissal.

J.K. Sestak, former President of the Republic

[Continential]

Time is of the essence here, so let us dispense with the formalities

Could the petitioner please state the following, for the record:

1. when the vacancy occurred,

2. whether the governor appointed a replacement,

3. whether a general election is scheduled to occur in the next 14 days (and if so, when),

4. when the missed special election legally should have occurred: this current weekend, or some time before?

1. The vacancy occurred when Utah Neolib failed to swear into the Lincoln General Court and her office was forfeited on February 26, 72 hours after the Court was adjourned on February 23.

2. Governor KaiserDave didn't appoint a replacement.

3. The next general election is scheduled to occur between Friday, April 22 and Monday, April 25th.

4. The missed special election should have occurred between March 4 and March 7.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Amicus Brief

The court should immediately dismiss this case - ReaganClinton is acting within his full rights as Speaker of the Lincoln General Court.

The vacancy was actually created back on February 26, 2022. The Lincoln Constitution states in Article IV, Section 5:

The terms of the Governor and General Court shall begin at 12:00:00 Eastern Time on the first Wednesday following their election. Prior to assuming office, the governor and deputies shall swear the following oath or equivalent: “I, [A.B.], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of [state office name] and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitutions of Lincoln and the Republic of Atlasia.” Any person elected to office under this constitution who shall fail to swear or affirm the aforesaid within 72 hours of the constitutional commencement of their term, shall forfeit their office.

A look at the swearing-in thread from Noon on February 23rd to Noon on February 26th shows that Utah Neolib never took such an oath: https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=36934.3650, despite being elected to the Lincoln General Court: https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=483423.msg8489451#msg8489451, therefore she forfeited her office as of Noon on February 26th.

Per Article I, Section 6 of the Lincoln Constitution:

"Whenever a vacancy should occur in the composition of the General Court, the governor shall appoint a replacement. Should the vacancy have occurred fewer than 336 hours before the next general election, the deputy thus nominated shall serve the remainder of the existing term; otherwise, they shall serve only until a new deputy may be elected. If required, A special election for the General Court shall begin on the Friday following the creation of the vacancy; but if the vacancy shall occur on a Wednesday or Thursday, the special election shall begin on the second Friday following the creation of the vacancy."

The governor's failure to appoint a temporary replacement does not negate the need for a special. There were well over 336 hours remaining before the next elections in April as of the vacancy's origination on February 26th, therefore as the 26th was a Saturday, the election should have began on Friday, March 4th. Ultimately, no one with proper authority started the election until Sunday, March 13, however in accordance with past precedent in such matters, the election has been extended such that it will last the standard 72 hours.

Now, how does ReaganClinton enjoy the authority to conduct this election? Well, ReaganClinton was elected Speaker of the LGC: https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=484049.0. As stated in Petitioner's own brief, Article IV, Section 3 of the Lincoln Constitution states:

All elections and referendums of this region shall be administered by the governor, or a person of their choosing. Whenever the governor and their designee if applicable should be unable to perform this duty, the speaker of the General Court, or in their absence the most senior deputy, shall administer the election.

When it is March 12th and an election that was supposed to start on March 4th has not yet been started, it would be reasonable to assume that the Governor and his designee are unavaliable and for the Speaker to undertake election duties himself as prescribed by the constitution to start an election on March 13, as ReaganClinton has done here. ReaganClinton's holding of an election into the workweek is more than justified given that the seat has gone without its due representation since February 26th, to push it out to the next weekend is an idea without constitutional requirement and one that would deny such representation for approximately another 7 1/2 days from today.

I would note for the record that I, once as Speaker and once as Dean (the 4th and final authority designated above) acted to certify elections with far less of a period of "unavailability" shown, with no challenge posed to my actions at the time. Additionally back in November of 2020, I was included in a suit resulting from an unavailability that had been shown for less than a third of the time we have here, and enjoined to hold an election as the Speaker if the Governor's failure continued, see: https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=415214.0

Thus the court should immediately dismiss this case. ReaganClinton's authority is very clear, he is already hosting the election needed here, and the Election must continue to provide an end to this torturous denial of due representation for the region.

[KaiserDave]

I hereby retain Sestak as Counsel.

[Sestak]

ISHAN, Petitioner

v.

KAISER DAVE, Governor of Lincoln

Brief of Respondent in opposition to granting of writ of certiorari and/or immediate enjoinment


I concur with the amicus brief of the former President (lmao), and ask that the case be dismissed. The vacancy has, as petitioner himself notes, existed since 26 February. The mandated date for the special election to begin was Friday 4 March. Not only was this date missed but a potential rerun one week later, Friday 11 March, was also missed. Given these circumstances, it seems evident that Respondent and his representative were unable to administer the election. As, again, Petitioner himself noted, the right of administration then falls to Speaker ReaganClinton.

Respondent has also since issued the following executive order; it has indicated that Respondent fully believes ReaganClinton has the authority to run the election; this further indicates that the situation was inability to open the election on time, and not "unwillingness" in an effort to prevent the election from occurring. In addition, to further remove doubt as to ReaganClinton's authority, he has now been designated as Respondent's official "person of their choosing" to administer elections.

Finally, a note on election timing: While elections that are completely missed are sometimes run exactly a week or two weeks after their original schedule, this is not a legal requirement, nor is it even universal. Election booths opening hours after their original schedule due to the administrator being unavailable for that time is a quite common occurrence. This election was opened while an election held exactly one week late would have still been ongoing; there is absolutely no reason that it should be considered any less legitimate than an election exactly one or two weeks late.

In conlusion, Respondent does not dispute that they failed to open the election voting booth on time. However, there already exists a constitutional remedy for such failure in the form of fallback officials to administer the election. As one of those such officials has carried out the constitutional remedy there is no further reason for this court to intervene. I ask again for immediate dismissal.

J. K. Sestak, counsel for respondent.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Amicus Brief in support of Petitioner Ishan

On behalf of His flock in the Southern Region, we wish to file a brief brief in this case. Given that an election has been opened weeks after the required deadline, and on a day upon which elections are not typically scheduled, we in the Southern Region believe a summary dismissal of this case misses the point. No adequate advance notice has been provided to the voters of Lincoln. It is clear that the "election" open now is constitutionally infirm, given that the people have had no notice of the election, which is again being held at a time and date not set by law.

Article VII, Section 3 of the Atlasian guarantees a republican form of government to each Region. There is nothing republican about secret ambush elections. We submit that the Court grant the writ of certiorari in this case and reject the motions to dismiss. We submit that the remedy is to stop the "election" occuring now, plainly post a public notice not less than 1 week prior to any future special election informing the public of such special election, and maybe even a PM to all registered voters similarly informing them of the special election. Anything else denies the people of Lincoln a Republican form of government.

Respectfully submitted,

- Mr. R, Southern AG

[Continential]

I will post a response to Sestak in a few hours or tomorrow after the houseparty I'm in is over.

[Sestak]

Brief of Respondent in response to the Southern Attorney General

The standard proposed by amicus is wholly unrealistic and would retroactively invalidate tens of elections held over the last several years. One of these elections, amusingly, is his own recent election to the Senate, which was opened approximately one hour late. If his argument is that this was within a few hours so it's acceptable, then this still invalidates the even larger number of elections held exactly one week late. If these are also fine, then it makes no sense to declare that elections held within hours of the scheduled time are legitimate and those held exactly a week late are legitimate, but those that miss being exactly a week late by a few hours are not.

The standard of asking for 1 week notice is even more absurd. The Lincoln Consitution does not even necessarily provide one week between a vacancy and in some cases mandates that the election occur as soon as 48 hours and 1 minute after a vacancy. In addition, once again, this standard automatically invalidates the large number of elections held one week too late since it is impossible to give notice of such an election a week in advance; doing so would require giving notice before the initial election had even been missed.

Finally, the ridiculous request to PM every voter in Lincoln is a clear indication that amicus does not take their positions or this case remotely seriously. We reiterate our request for summary dismissal.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Reply Brief in Response to the Respondents Brief in Opposition

We merely wish to point out that despite the parade of horribles suggested by the Respondent in his Brief in Opposition to our Amicus brief in support of certiorari, that no retrospective relief is being sought and no prior elections are being challenged. This case relates to a pending election, and only prospective relief is being sought. Accordingly no prior election results are or would be at risk were the Court to grant the remedy sought in this case.

Further, we submit that providing 1 week notice of an election to be held at a time and date not set by law is, in fact, reasonable. Respondents point that some special elections are legally required to occurr less than a week following a specific triggering event misses the point, as those times and triggering events are already set by law and the people of Lincoln can be presumed to know and have advance notice of the law. This case involves a special "election" occurring weeks removed from the triggering event and date set by law. We submit that this is not mere harmless error. Instead it is a mockery of democracy. Even now, there does not appear to be a public announcement that an election is occurring in Lincoln. If a rightwing government in the South called a secret election weeks after such election should have legally occurred and only notified rightwingers of such election, I find it hard to believe that such decision would be considered a republican form of government.

Therefore, we respectfully ask the Court to disregard the reply brief in opposition to the amicus brief in support of certiorari so that justice might be done.

[Bacon King]

Findings of the Lincoln Court:

Candidate Utah Neolib was duly elected to the Lincoln General Court during the region's February 2022 General Election to a term that began on February 23rd. However, the candidate-elect declined to perform the legally required oath of office within 72 hours, as required by the Lincoln Constitution's Article IV, Section 5. The seat has therefore been vacant since noon on February 26th.

Such vacancies are filled according to Article I, Section 6 of the Lincoln Constitution. In part, it states:

A special election for the General Court shall begin on the Friday following the creation of the vacancy; but if the vacancy shall occur on a Wednesday or Thursday, the special election shall begin on the second Friday following the creation of the vacancy.

The requisite special election should have occurred on the following Friday, on March 4th. However, this election did not occur, nor did it occur the subsequent Friday the 11th. A special election thread was finally created on Saturday the 12th; the election commenced at midnight Sunday the 13th and is scheduled to last the requisite 72 hours.

The unorthodox timing of the special election is explained by the election officiant, Lincoln Speaker ReaganClinton, within the thread itself:

Allow me to clarify, according to information given to me last night, if the elections sectetary isn't available to initiate the election, the responsibility falls to the Governor. If the Governor is unavailable to initiate it, then the Speaker can. Both S019 and Dave had more than 2 weeks to initiate it and didn't so I took the responsiblity into my own hands.

Speaker ReaganClinton began the election on Sunday (rather than on Friday as required by the regional constitution) because they were not previously aware that they had the authority to hold this election, and therefore posted the booth only when they learned they could in fact legally do so.

The Speaker's understanding is fundamentally correct: Lincoln Constitution Article IV, Section III declares the Speaker shall administer an election "whenever the governor and their designee if applicable should be unable to perform this duty". The Court agrees that the governor was unable to hold this election, as he twice failed to do so when legally required.

The only remaining questions concern the proper timing of this special election: did the Speaker err in starting the election on Sunday instead of waiting for the following Friday? If so: what remedy, if any, can this Court provide?


The Court is sympathetic to the concerns expressed by the Southern Attorney General in his amicus brief. An election can only be free and fair when it occurs within a consistent and predictable legal framework that citizens can learn and expect, so that voters can know when an election will be held. It is both irregular and unusual for an election to occur in some manner other than that which is prescribed by law.

On the other hand, however, it is also irregular and unusual to deprive citizens of fair and equal legislative representation for a needlessly lengthy period of time. Constitutionally, Utah Neolib's replacement should have been elected and sworn in a full week ago, but that did not occur. Any decision that invalidates the currently ongoing election will invariably cause a significantly longer delay.

It is the duty of this court to balance the two aforementioned concerns. How does one compare the expectation of fair representation with the expectation of predictable elections -- especially in this situation, where neither expectation has been met, and finding a balance between them must necessarily prioritize one over the other?

We can infer the proper course of actions by examining the region's constitutional provisions for special elections, quoted below. How does this framework prioritize "notifying voters about elections" compared to "swiftly filling vacancies?"

"Whenever a vacancy should occur in the composition of the General Court, the governor shall appoint a replacement. Should the vacancy have occurred fewer than 336 hours before the next general election, the deputy thus nominated shall serve the remainder of the existing term; otherwise, they shall serve only until a new deputy may be elected. If required, A special election for the General Court shall begin on the Friday following the creation of the vacancy; but if the vacancy shall occur on a Wednesday or Thursday, the special election shall begin on the second Friday following the creation of the vacancy."

Lincoln's constitution heavily prioritizes the latter, with elections to be set as soon as two days after a vacancy occurs. This process is an intrinsic component of the region's elections and therefore something its citizens know and expect. In fact, notification of the public is not mentioned at all, there is not even a designated campaign period. Lincoln voters therefore understand and expect irregular special elections will occur with little to no warning, making this election no different in that regard. In fact, the electorate was given much more advanced notice of this election than is usually otherwise possible with regional special elections, thanks to this thread a helpful citizen posted on March 4th, alerting us that an election must be held the following weekend - and they were correct, although the voting booth thread was created a day late.

This failure to start the voting booth on the legally required day has been ReaganClinton's only error as voting booth officiant (he cannot be blamed for failure to start one the previous week, as the governor had not yet demonstrated himself unable to carry out the election). However, the court can reasonably provide no remedy for this error. While perhaps the Speaker should have sought a court order to preemptively authorize the belated election, ultimately Atlasia's judiciary routinely authorizes elections whose threads created late, so long as they also remain open late for an equivalent amount of time. This election is no exception.

Ultimately the vacancy has already lasted an unreasonably long time (especially for the standards of Lincoln), and forcing Lincoln's citizens to go yet another week without the representation to which they are legally entitled would only worsen the situation.

Petitioner's request is therefore denied. The Lincoln Court deems the currently ongoing election officiated by Speaker ReaganClinton to be lawful.

[Bacon King]

Apologies to everyone for this rushed ruling - I was thinking about this case while working last night and kept going back and forth on it so I wasn't ready to write anything when I got home. The briefs from Mr. Reactionary and Sestak were both quite persuasive, I could have easily spent another week probing you both with questions.

Ultimately though I recognize the pressing nature of an ongoing election case here. I went with my gut and reasoned to the best of my ability given the time restraints, and typed it up as fast as I possible this morning in order to ensure, at the very least, I'd walk out the door with a finished opinion so appeals can be made if necessary (and as it is I'm running 25 minutes late to work lol)

Thank you to the petitioner, respondent, and all friends of the court

[Continential]

 While I didn't finish my response in time, thank you for the informative ruling!