SENATE BILL: 5th Amendment to the Proportional Representation Act (law'd)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

What would you guys think about just letting the parties choose a replacement?

This would be most beneficial to a party that could only win 1/5 seats, but not a 1 seat special election. So this isn't me trying to craft something that would be beneficial to the JCP...

But you see, whatever you do is insidous plot to help JCP.

Not that different from Obama and his proposals all being an insidious plot to install marxism.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

As I said bgwah, I really don't have a preference. If you want to try something different, I'll give it a chance.


I think it would help if this were more then a three person conference.


Are the other seven on Greek Junkets?

[bgwah]

Oh heck, let's just settle it with amendment votes. Here is what I am proposing first. If this fails, I'll just go for special elections for all concessions.

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Please vote aye, nay, or abstain.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Aye.


It's consistent with your previous amendment dealing with vacancies in the final six weeks of a term.

[bgwah]

Aye

[Napoleon]

Nay

[CatoMinor]

Nay

[Ban my account ffs!]

Aye

[Fuzzybigfoot]

Aye, I don't see anything wrong with it.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Aye

[Napoleon]

Aye, I don't see anything wrong with it.

You don't see anything wrong with political parties picking Senators instead of voters?

[Cincinnatus]

This amendment is ridiculous, and I hope the Senate is wise enough to vote down the final bill.  Bgwah, you were better off when you were considering something like this;

What about something like this (not an official amendment yet):

Section 1, Clause 2 shall be amended to read:
2) Clause 7 shall be added to Section 3 and read "Should a candidate or candidates be certified victorious in an at-large STV election and concede the seat prior to the date on which they are to swear-in, a special election will be held as if the seat were already vacant.

That last part might be a little vague. I can't recall which law deals with special elections, since it would be easier to cite that.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Nay

[bgwah]

I like elections too but having them one week after the other is excessive, IMO. And as I said earlier, one thing I like about at-large elections is it gives smaller parties a chance that they may not necessarily have in a one seat election. It would be a bummer for them to lose their seat like that.

[Napoleon]

This can be taken advantage of easily (and if it passes I hope this is attempted). One party could run a very popular candidate who may not want to actually be a Senator and then for four months we can deal with having an inactive extremist who was never elected as a Senator.

If Duke is elected President he could be replaced by JCL!

[bgwah]

This can be taken advantage of easily (and if it passes I hope this is attempted). One party could run a very popular candidate who may not want to actually be a Senator and then for four months we can deal with having an inactive extremist who was never elected as a Senator.

If Duke is elected President he could be replaced by JCL!

That is deliciously evil. Let's do it. Change your vote to aye!

[Cincinnatus]

This can be taken advantage of easily (and if it passes I hope this is attempted). One party could run a very popular candidate who may not want to actually be a Senator and then for four months we can deal with having an inactive extremist who was never elected as a Senator.

If Duke is elected President he could be replaced by JCL!

Or by me..

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nay

[bgwah]

The current tally is 5-4, with Officepark left.

I have to say, we've been having a lot of close votes lately. That's always fun.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

In this world where I am elected President, I assume Cincinnatus would take over if I died.

That is why we have a Vice President, no?

[Napoleon]

In this world where I am elected President, I assume Cincinnatus would take over if I died.

That is why we have a Vice President, no?

I am pretty sure you getting elected would make Cincinnatus VP so how could he replace you in the Senate if he is VP?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

In this world where I am elected President, I assume Cincinnatus would take over if I died.

That is why we have a Vice President, no?

I am pretty sure you getting elected would make Cincinnatus VP so how could he replace you in the Senate if he is VP?

I misread you. For some reason, I was assuming you meant if I was elected President and disappeared, someone would replace me with JCL. I have spent the better part of the past 3 days in the hospital with my grandfather, so bear with me.

[Napoleon]

In this world where I am elected President, I assume Cincinnatus would take over if I died.

That is why we have a Vice President, no?

I am pretty sure you getting elected would make Cincinnatus VP so how could he replace you in the Senate if he is VP?

I misread you. For some reason, I was assuming you meant if I was elected President and disappeared, someone would replace me with JCL. I have spent the better part of the past 3 days in the hospital with my grandfather, so bear with me.

Ok, we are talking about the At Large Senate seats here. We have already witnessed how appointments can be abused.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

There are pros and cons to both sides of this proposal. One the one hand, you're right in that allowing party chairmen to appoint senators can lead to abuse. Someone like me could be elected to office and then could be replaced by someone much more conservative. I understand that. On the other hand, adopting the at-large election proposal would leave the larger parties with an inherent advantage over anyone else. We are already seeing Atlasia moving towards a two party system, and this amendment will just hasten the process.

The Officepark appointment was not a good one, and I have been disappointed with how he has not shown up to participate at all in the senate. I forgot how he even got into the senate, but I wasn't the one who appointed him. Keep in mind that appointment was not made by a party chair. I was never asked about it, nor am I aware that Yankee had a hand at selecting him. That was a mideast issue.

It all comes down to which camp you are in. Homecooking's resignation and the special election that ensued essentially killed the CID. We can only speculate whether they could have survived had they been able to appoint someone. But they knew they had no chance at retaining the seat they had just won in a special election. I am more inclined to allow the chairmen to appoint a member. If it is abused, we can always change course.

[Napoleon]

The CID wasn't really a small party at the time was it? It got 2nd place in August and Senator Jbrase was a member. So i don't think they were a small party or that they died because a Senate seat was lost. They could have held Jbrase's seat, who himself had been elected to the Senate through a special election without being a member of a large party. I'm not buying this at all and even if these were valid arguments to back up that claim there isn't really any reason I've been given why it is a valid claim.

Why should helping a small party that may or may not exist trump Democratic will?
Why should the citizens think this is anything other than a bipartisan back up plan for the October election?