MA: 2nd Amendment to the Constitution (Sponsor Needed)

[NeverAgain]

For those who still contend that this amendment is unnecessary, I present Exhibit A:

Mideast Assembly Election-September 2015

This is the election to fill the assembly of the Mideast Region. Voting shall begin immediately and end in 72 hours. Editing your vote after 20 minutes, voting twice, or campaigning in this thread will make your vote invalid. Any votes cast before the voting opens will not be counted, nor will those votes cast after it closes. Please rank the candidates for assembly. You'll need to write in some as we need 5 in the assembly.

Assembly:
[  ] NeverAgain
[  ] Write-In: ____________
[  ] Write-In: ____________
[  ] Write-In: ____________
[  ] Write-In: ____________


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That's right, folks: exactly one citizen filed to run for Assembly this month and met the legal requirements to appear on the ballot. If that isn't evidence that we can't sustain a 5 person Assembly, I don't know what is.

The NeverAgain assembly will pass some pretty hot new legislation though.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Once again, I urge the Assembly to pass this bill at the nearest opportunity. Since January, it has become increasingly difficult to find enough candidates to fill all five seats in the Assembly, let alone to make elections competitive. Not only has the number of candidates failed to exceed the number of open seats, in every election since May there have been more seats available than candidates contesting them (in the last election, exactly one candidate qualified to appear on the ballot). Not only is this bad for activity, it is problematic for our democracy as well, as this means that in most cases the people have almost no say in who represents them in the Assembly. Literally all I had to do to get elected to the Assembly was post my name in the Candidate Declaration Thread, and while I flatter myself to think that I did a fair job serving in this chamber, the voters of the Mideast should have been able to kick me out if they had wanted to. The fact is, however, that interest in the Assembly is so minimal at this point that anyone whose name appears on the ballot is virtually guaranteed a seat under the 5-member system.

Even if you accept non-competitve, predetermined elections as a desirable state of affairs, the fact remains that it has become nearly impossible to fill all five seats simultaneously. Consider the present Assembly, for example: of the five people (one declared candidate and four write-ins) elected last month, only four swore in - the fifth, Representative-elect Higgs, has not been seen since casting his ballot some weeks ago. This is not the first time that an elected representative has failed to take office: in the last Assembly, Progressive Realist was elected to office but failed to to swear in; in the January-March session, Assemblyman CrabCake took the oath of office but never participated in debates or voted on any bills. This has the effect both of increasing inactivity at the Regional level and depriving the people of full representation - in this case, Higgs was the only right-of-center candidate elected to office.

Whether this bill advances or not will depend on the will of the Assembly; however, I urge Speaker Never Again to bring this to a vote at the soonest possible convenience. The fact that no action has been taken on this proposal despite debate having stalled for nearly a month is a sad reflection on the state of affairs in this Region, and I hope my former colleagues will take action at once to remedy this situation.

[NeverAgain]

Once again, I urge the Assembly to pass this bill at the nearest opportunity. Since January, it has become increasingly difficult to find enough candidates to fill all five seats in the Assembly, let alone to make elections competitive. Not only has the number of candidates failed to exceed the number of open seats, in every election since May there have been more seats available than candidates contesting them (in the last election, exactly one candidate qualified to appear on the ballot). Not only is this bad for activity, it is problematic for our democracy as well, as this means that in most cases the people have almost no say in who represents them in the Assembly. Literally all I had to do to get elected to the Assembly was post my name in the Candidate Declaration Thread, and while I flatter myself to think that I did a fair job serving in this chamber, the voters of the Mideast should have been able to kick me out if they had wanted to. The fact is, however, that interest in the Assembly is so minimal at this point that anyone whose name appears on the ballot is virtually guaranteed a seat under the 5-member system.

Even if you accept non-competitve, predetermined elections as a desirable state of affairs, the fact remains that it has become nearly impossible to fill all five seats simultaneously. Consider the present Assembly, for example: of the five people (one declared candidate and four write-ins) elected last month, only four swore in - the fifth, Representative-elect Higgs, has not been seen since casting his ballot some weeks ago. This is not the first time that an elected representative has failed to take office: in the last Assembly, Progressive Realist was elected to office but failed to to swear in; in the January-March session, Assemblyman CrabCake took the oath of office but never participated in debates or voted on any bills. This has the effect both of increasing inactivity at the Regional level and depriving the people of full representation - in this case, Higgs was the only right-of-center candidate elected to office.

Whether this bill advances or not will depend on the will of the Assembly; however, I urge Speaker Never Again to bring this to a vote at the soonest possible convenience. The fact that no action has been taken on this proposal despite debate having stalled for nearly a month is a sad reflection on the state of affairs in this Region, and I hope my former colleagues will take action at once to remedy this situation.

This is of importance to me and the assembly, but I will follow this after my "Industry to Innovation Act" is seen through.

About a week ago, Higgs informed me that he was stepping down. The Governor says he will probably appoint JCL so that this assembly passes fair legislation on all sides.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

This is of importance to me and the assembly, but I will follow this after my "Industry to Innovation Act" is seen through.

The rules allow you to debate/vote on multiple bills at once, but obviously it's your call.