High Authority for Ethics in Voting Bill [Debating]

[Fritz]

I agree with Marokai's assessment.  And to answer your question, Hashemite, no- I do not believe anything can or should be done.  As I've said numerous times, legislation of this ilk creates more problems than it attempts to solve.  "Zombies" are an unfortunate fact of life here.

There are widely varying definitions of what constitutes a "zombie" in Atlasia.  Personally, I define it as a voter who registers specifically for voting in one election, then disappears.  Or perhaps comes to vote in the next election, barely meeting the post requirements to be eligible to do so.  (I forget what the posting requirement between elections is, someone remind me.)  I do not accept that an active poster in the forum who rarely if ever posts in Atlasia is a "zombie", and I have repeatedly opposed legislation that would eliminate such voters.

By my definition of the term, zombies are by definition newbies.  We have no way of knowing whether a newbie who registers to vote with the minimum post requirement will turn out to be a "zombie", or whether  they will become active participants.  Such registrants are therefore worthy of being given the benefit of the doubt.

[Fritz]

Nay

[Fritz]

Yes.  It was a bad bill before it was amended, and it still is.

DWTL makes a good point about the latest new register.  He registered after 50 posts, then asked what to do, and was told by his party leader that he would be told when to vote.  This is classic and wholly obvious zombie-ism.

In spite of that, we still have no way of knowing whether this newbie will become an active participant in the forum.  And if the ARC has representation on the HAEV panel, that member would object to him being declared inactive.

This bill makes the requirements for voting in an election subjective rather than objective.  Since we can't legally define what exactly a zombie is, we'll have a panel decide who the zombies are.  I preferred the bill in its original form, with the appeal leading to the court.  That, I think, is where all of these cases will eventually land, in any event.

[Fritz]

I will continue to oppose this legislation, no matter how it is amended.

The legality of voter registration must be clearly defined in the law.  This bill allows an appointed body to subjectively make a determination that a particular voter is ineligible.  While the bill has improved somewhat, putting in additional checks and balances, it still allows for a voter who has met every legal requirement to vote to be disqualified based on popular opinion of that voter.  I will not vote in favor of any bill that makes that allowance.

[Fritz]

Nay

[Fritz]

I hope Lief vetoes this.