Congressional Discussion Thread

[Former President tack50]

In speaking with the UK's prime minister today and a mutual understanding of a strong relationship between our nations moving forward, I urge a member of Congress to sponsor a bill that would repeal F.L. 2-8: Atlasian-United Kingdom Common Market Agreement.

So we are going to do Brexit here as well?

[Former President tack50]

I'm in the opinion that the None of the above Act is not very desirable. It would require federal ballots to include a None of the above option offered. At least it doesn't make the whole vote invalid if you use rank the None of the above option. On the federal ballot people for House. There are usually many candidates. Surely voters can find one candidate they dislike the least instead of using None of the above. The risk is some will use the None of the above for House to be hostile. They will use it just to rank candidates from another party after the NOTA.

For the President vote there are few candidates so could be used more . Can NOTA really win more votes? Very unlikely so not very useful. People who don't want to vote can stay home or not fill a section of the ballot. There are weeks before the vote, all people who want to run can do so. Many will make efforts with a campaign. One of the candidates willing to hold the office should win and not try to somehat get None of the above to win to block someone from holding office.         

I am of the same opinion. If you really dislike all options, why not write in yourself? Who knows, maybe you could be elected! It's not uncommon in Atlasia for write-ins to win.

The only use I could see for a NOTA option could be in regional elections with very few candidates, where voting NOTA essencially tries to force a new election to expand the legislature or something, and even there it would need more work.

[Former President tack50]

My citizen's opinion on lowering the requirements in the Coter Eligibility Reform Act now in the Senate.

I think the proposed changes are moving the game in the wrong direction. It makes it easier to be mostly a numbers game. By lowering the eligibility standards you possibly get even more voters who don't follow Atlasian life or are not very interested, or who don't post in Atlasia but only come out to vote for someone / a party because a player tells them to.

Lowering the number of days to be registered from 7 days to 4 gives even more time closer to the election for mass registration operation of parties. We've seen before the June election deadline a flurry of activity in the new registration thread. I'm not sure new voters can really know what is going on in 4 days.

Reducing the time for regional move to 3 months helps strategic regional registration. Citizens will be more mobile so a party who feels threatened or want to take a region in the next election will be able to move some people around more freely. And there is more time to move people since you could do it until 4 days before the election instead of 7.

Cutting in half he post requirements from 10 to 5 in the last 56 days helps people who don't post much. I could have benefited from this in the past since sometimes I read Atlasia but didn't post and thought I have to start posting if I need 10 posts. But it can also help voters who are rarely Atlas visitors.

Requiring 8 months of missing elections instead of 6 to be deregistered will keep inactive people or who are not really interested for a longer time on the voters list. It inflates the total population of the game. It is great for political parties who will get a longer contact list to get some additional votes. It helps for zombie voting operation.

The changes are very good for electoral tactics based on numbers but not for the quality and health of a democratic and civic life in Atlasia. 

While I did an amendment in the House, I believe you are right on this one.

We need to strike a balance between too many zombies and light requirements (which only encourages dirty strategies like strategic registration) and having too strict requirements (which lead to only a very tiny core of people actually being here).

I think the status quo rules are probably fine.

[Former President tack50]

I'm disappointed Congress passed this version of the census bill. For one thing it adds a week period before a federal election when citizens are not able to deregister. I believe it's unnecessary to lock doors to exit a game. People should have the right to control their own lives.

Considering AZ v Peebs (II), that provision might be unconstitutional, though I will personally not sue on the topic of registration again.

Either way in my opinion the votes of people who deregister during an election should still be counted, much like how if you die the day of the election after voting your vote still counts in real life. Of course, an election lasts 72 hours in Atlasia, not 1 week.

[Former President tack50]

What is the current "green" cards(legal citizens) and naturalized citizens per year allowed yearly into our country? I'd like to see massive reduction in these numbers as it is hurting our people and lowering wages for our workers.

Legal immigration reform is a bill I'd like work on, but I just need to know current levels. 

Come out of the Shadows tied some of these levels to a SoIA determined formula for economic need in a given sector or at least something along those lines.

I think Labor since passed subsequent legislation though.

What happened to my immigration reform bill? Seems like it passed but the House never debated it?

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=372051.100