TNF v. Windjammer

[Dr. Cynic]

Here's my take on it. In previous Senates, the ballot of the PPT election has included the option for write-ins as we've previously seen.

The Vice President's decision implies to the Senate that if they so choose to write a name in and that name garners enough support to win, that their wishes will still be ignored because that individual may not have been a declared candidate.

Also, since write-ins are also accepted on ballots for general and special elections, why would they not be acceptable in a Senate-only election? Again, it doesn't make much sense to me.

The Vice President has also made much of the idea that procedure doesn't allow for write-ins. However, in the law, there is nothing forbidding them either. Because there is nothing in the law that strictly forbids write-in voting when electing the PPT and because there is precedence of it being allowed by previous Senates, we should be afforded the right to write-in a name that we so choose for the PPT election.

Atlasian elections have always allowed for write-ins, there is a clear precedence that elections in the Senate should allow them as well. To not do so completely undermines the Senate's democratic traditions. Should not Senators have the same voting rights as ordinary Atlasian's by choosing to vote how they please as a body? It should not be in the Vice President's power to simply pick and choose what rights and privileges belong to the body. Since all Atlasian voters have the option of write-ins, I don't see why Senators should not be afforded such a right, especially when it is not expressly forbidden anywhere in the law.

[Dr. Cynic]

When I was VP, I didn't create an "official ballot" for the election of the PPT, but I was perfectly willing to allow write-ins (which no one did). There was in fact a question when it happened as to whether or not a member of the body could be elected PPT (I put him on the ballot anyway as I recall). However, that was many years ago and things have changed since then. As we've seen at least twice before recently (I'm not going through every one of those threads. I haven't got the time), Write-in votes have been accepted, which creates precedence.

Yes, the Senate may establish rules and proceedings and since write-ins have been accepted before, that creates precedence.

Nothing expressly forbids write ins. The Senate is a democratic body that should have the right to vote how it chooses in its own elections. I don't understand how receiving the highest number of preferences disallows write-in voting. A write-in vote, is in fact, expressing preference for that candidate.

[Dr. Cynic]

I just told you that I would have accepted write-ins I accepted a candidate that wasn't even a Senator on the ballot! You consider incorrectly, but I'm not going to argue over that. It was nearly a decade ago.

You've failed to provide any reasonable argument in my opinion as to why the Senate can't elect a PPT in it's own way.

The candidate who receives the highest number of votes does not say "the declared candidate". It just says "the candidate". This comes down to a matter of Senate independence. Do we not have the right to elect candidates in our own way, especially when, and I can't stress this enough, there is nothing in the law that forbids write-in voting. You keep saying the "candidate", but as I understand the law, the "candidate" could be either a declared candidate or a write-in candidate.

[Dr. Cynic]

Since TNF accepted write-ins, that does in fact make him a candidate under federal law.