N307: (Constitutional Amendment) Voter Integrity Act (Passed)

[Lambsbread]

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Sponsor: R2D2, on behalf of Governor Mike Wells

Debate will last 72 hours, voting will last 48 hours.


Pretty straightforward piece of legislation, imo. Should pass without any objection.

[JGibson]

I am sold on this legislation.

[Drew]

I could support this, but I do have a question.  Would this law essentially be an extension of Article V, Sec. 1, which calls for 7 days?  And would it therefore require an amendment rather than a statute?  Correct me if I'm wrong.

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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Just a suggestion: I would change "10 days" to read "240 hours," for the sake of clarity.

[Wells]

Okay I'll officially propose this edit:

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Would this law essentially be an extension of Article V, Sec. 1, which calls for 7 days?  And would it therefore require an amendment rather than a statute? 

The South has passed a similar bill. It basically stops people moving en masse to vote in elections.

If this is a Constitutional amendment then it would need a unanimous vote to pass instead of a simple majority.

[Lambsbread]

I'm going to interpret that this is an amendment, and because I have an amendment in the queue for legislative debate, I will suggest that we table this for now so we can pass both amendments at once, so that they'll both be ready to vote on in February when the elections roll around. We can also vote on the new region name in February.

[Lambsbread]

I'm reopening debate on this amendment for 72 hours, and we'll vote for 48. Should this pass unopposed, we will then vote on the next amendment in the queue and by then, the regional name suggestions will be able to be debated, all in time for next month's elections. Here is the current state of the bill:

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[JGibson]

I approve of this revision.

[Poirot]

Sorry to interrupt but I question if it is legal to require more than 7 days to have the right to vote in the region. In the federal bill of rights it is stated in section 4:
 

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Denying a new citizen the right to vote because he's not being in the region 10 days would go against that.

Regions should have the same standard (7 days) for interregional move so the mover has always a right to votein one region. Maybe that would be covered in the constitution by this:

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[Lambsbread]

Sorry to interrupt but I question if it is legal to require more than 7 days to have the right to vote in the region. In the federal bill of rights it is stated in section 4:
 

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Denying a new citizen the right to vote because he's not being in the region 10 days would go against that.

Regions should have the same standard (7 days) for interregional move so the mover has always a right to votein one region. Maybe that would be covered in the constitution by this:

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Technically, that statue says that only people whose account is fewer than 7 days old cannot vote. It does not establish how long one must be registered after that in order to vote. This leaves open interpretation to say that someone whose account is between 7 and 10 days old can still be denied the right to vote in a region should a region make a law declaring such (which is sort of what we're debating)

Besides, this is a good measure against carpetbagging, and while I'm not in favor of placing more restrictions on voting, I believe it does place some greater barriers to people flocking here en masse to influence the swing of power in one direction or another.

[Drew]

10 is a nice round number.  So is 240.  Cutting back on carpetbagging is also nice.  New residents would have 3 extra days to get to know their region and their elected officials, incumbents and challengers.  I could support this.

[Lambsbread]

The debate period has ended, and we will now vote. Because this is a Constitutional amendment, it requires all three Assembly members to vote in the affirmative to pass. Please record your vote below.


Aye

[Drew]

Aye

[JGibson]

AYE.

[Lambsbread]

The voting period has ended, and the amendment passes. It will appear on next month's ballot.