Department of Justice – Attorney General Truman

[OBD]

If this is the place to ask the Attorney General a question about election law. Is it legal to contact a voter after they posted a ballot to ask them to edit a ballot, to change the preferences or to add office they didn't fill on the ballot.

Not the attorney general but here is my guess.

Currently, the Federal Electoral Act and the constitution specify the reasons why a ballot can be invalidated (among those, editing after 20 minutes or posting twice are included). However they say nothing about asking people to edit; so I don't think there is a good argument for a civil case.

As for a criminal case, back in the pre-reset days the law was a bit stricter on this regard and there was sort of a precedent involving LeBron Fitzgerald. However our current laws are a bit more relaxed. The relevant crime in Atlasia for something like this would be Electoral Intimidation:

(f) Electoral Intimidation. This offence shall be defined as the placing of undue pressure on a citizen of the Republic to cast a ballot in a particular way, to not cast a ballot at all, or to invalidate a ballot already cast via direct threats of revenge, blackmail, or retribution. In those cases in which undue pressure has been applied in the form of credible threats to disclose personal information, the offence shall be known as Grievous Electoral Intimidation.

So in other words, unless you can prove that a certain voter was blackmailed or intimidated, it seems to be legal.

There is however another crime that could be argued to have happened, that being Election Fraud:

(d) Electoral Fraud. This offence shall be defined as the manipulation of of the republic's electoral procedures and practices with the aim of fraudulently altering the results of a specific electoral contest.

You can argue that PMing someone to invalidate their vote is a manipulation of electoral practices; but that is not the greatest of interpretations. In fact under a very loose interpretation you could even argue that PMing people about the election at all should be illegal!

So I wonder what that crime is meant to prevent but whatever.

TL;DR: I am like 95% sure that PMing someone like that is legal

Well, in the real world sending people flyers for the election, probably the closest thing to PMing, is most definitely not fraud, but telling somebody to go back into the booth and vote for the "correct candidate" certainly would be illegal. I don't see why people consider it acceptable regardless of legality anyway, if people vote a way that you don't like you should honestly just deal with it and this whole PMing people afterwards thing is a total abuse of the grace period which was only intended for mistakes, not post-vote campaigning. I'd like to see a system where people's posts in the booth are anonymous until after the election ends but I have no idea if the forum is even capable of that.

The bolded idea would be a nightmare for everyone - first off, Virginia would have to put in a ton of work to make it happen, and as literally no one would know the results until later the entire election night vibe will be ruined. It's fair that you hold these opinions, but Atlasia is district from real life - the letter of the law is clear in this case, and at least in my purview it is not unacceptable to operate for your party and ideals within the boundaries of the legal system.

People in Atlasia have a right to vote for any candidate that they want, regardless of party. If someone in my party doesn't vote for my party's candidate I don't try to change it because I respect their right to vote for any candidate they want to. It would seem that Labor does not respect this and tries desperately to change people's votes if they don't vote the way that they wanted them. There is a campaigning time and then there is election time. If you've failed to get somebody's vote before the vote then you've failed to truly win their vote. Maybe if you have a defection problem you should try to address the reason why you got defections and try harder next time instead of having a fit every single time on of your members votes for someone else.

I would reveal our PMs if it wasn't a despicable violation of privacy, but Labor respects our voters - we never coerce or threaten voters in PMs - otherwise, why would they switch their votes to us? And frankly, you're only complaining about this since, apparently, you've insufficiently won over your voters to a level where a short PM with voting instructions can flip them in less than 20 minutes. Sorry not sorry.

If PMs are all sent beforehand then logically the voters wouldn't switch, as they've seen all the PMs and would have made up their minds when they voted. A small handful might make mistakes, but other than that there would be no reason to change. That obviously isn't what happens, especially considering the long time frames resulting in invalidation that have occurred several times.

We both know this isn't the case. Voter education among 'zombies' is incredibly low, and one or two honeyed PMs can easily flip a voter where such deception could never pass among more active players. Neither side can know when this is happening (because of privacy), so it's only natural that we set the record straight when we learn this is happening. Again, this would not occur IRL, but Atlasia is distinct from IRL and I see no nonpartisan reason to ban this perfectly legal tactic - pioneered by your Vice President, too!

[OBD]

NP

NICE JOB OBD.

Kindly refrain from revealing my PMs to the public. I did not give permission, and I expect an immediate retraction and apology for this blatant privacy violation.

You and your party don't care about privacy. Your party tried to get spies in the DA to leak our strategy.

I frankly don't care what Labor thinks of privacy. I do know that you did not get my permission to reveal the PM to the public, and pathetic whataboutism does not erase your offense.

[Continential]

NP

NICE JOB OBD.

Kindly refrain from revealing my PMs to the public. I did not give permission, and I expect an immediate retraction and apology for this blatant privacy violation.

You and your party don't care about privacy. Your party tried to get spies in the DA to leak our strategy.

I frankly don't care what Labor thinks of privacy. I do know that you did not get my permission to reveal the PM to the public, and pathetic whataboutism does not erase your offense.

I got the permission of the person you sent it to.

[OBD]

NP

NICE JOB OBD.

Kindly refrain from revealing my PMs to the public. I did not give permission, and I expect an immediate retraction and apology for this blatant privacy violation.

You and your party don't care about privacy. Your party tried to get spies in the DA to leak our strategy.

I frankly don't care what Labor thinks of privacy. I do know that you did not get my permission to reveal the PM to the public, and pathetic whataboutism does not erase your offense.

I got the permission of the person you sent it to.

But you didn't get mine. That's a violation of the Terms of Service.

And while people can see it in the interim between it gets deleted for ToS violation, it's absolutely clear that literally no coercion took place.

[S019]

PM posting is against the ToS, this has been established by the moderators many times, so not sure why it still happens.

[Continential]

NP

NICE JOB OBD.

Kindly refrain from revealing my PMs to the public. I did not give permission, and I expect an immediate retraction and apology for this blatant privacy violation.

You and your party don't care about privacy. Your party tried to get spies in the DA to leak our strategy.

I frankly don't care what Labor thinks of privacy. I do know that you did not get my permission to reveal the PM to the public, and pathetic whataboutism does not erase your offense.

I got the permission of the person you sent it to.

But you didn't get mine. That's a violation of the Terms of Service.

And while people can see it in the interim between it gets deleted for ToS violation, it's absolutely clear that literally no coercion took place.

When I can I'm going to post it on discord if it hasn't been posted already.

[S019]

NP

NICE JOB OBD.

Kindly refrain from revealing my PMs to the public. I did not give permission, and I expect an immediate retraction and apology for this blatant privacy violation.

You and your party don't care about privacy. Your party tried to get spies in the DA to leak our strategy.

There is no evidence that this happened, and this is quite frankly, a baseless accusation. Also you aren't even a DA member right now, you're a Liberal member.

[Left Wing]

Guys can we do this elsewhere? We don't have to clutter up the Attorney General's office thread.

[Continential]

NP

NICE JOB OBD.

Kindly refrain from revealing my PMs to the public. I did not give permission, and I expect an immediate retraction and apology for this blatant privacy violation.

You and your party don't care about privacy. Your party tried to get spies in the DA to leak our strategy.

There is no evidence that this happened, and this is quite frankly, a baseless accusation. Also you aren't even a DA member right now, you're a Liberal member.

You were the spy, MB admitted it on lokcord I'll show you the picture tomorrow.

Some of our strategy is pretty interconnected on discord and I helped do a lot in the campaign.

[OBD]

Guys can we do this elsewhere? We don't have to clutter up the Attorney General's office thread.

I agree. S019, Ishan, if you have more to say take it to Discord.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

If someone in my party doesn't vote for my party's candidate I don't try to change it because I respect their right to vote for any candidate they want to. It would seem that Labor does not respect this and tries desperately to change people's votes if they don't vote the way that they wanted them. There is a campaigning time and then there is election time. If you've failed to get somebody's vote before the vote then you've failed to truly win their vote. Maybe if you have a defection problem you should try to address the reason why you got defections and try harder next time instead of having a fit every single time on of your members votes for someone else.

Bro your running mate is literally the originator of this technique. Glass houses etc.

You're a liar.

[Sestak]

If someone in my party doesn't vote for my party's candidate I don't try to change it because I respect their right to vote for any candidate they want to. It would seem that Labor does not respect this and tries desperately to change people's votes if they don't vote the way that they wanted them. There is a campaigning time and then there is election time. If you've failed to get somebody's vote before the vote then you've failed to truly win their vote. Maybe if you have a defection problem you should try to address the reason why you got defections and try harder next time instead of having a fit every single time on of your members votes for someone else.

Bro your running mate is literally the originator of this technique. Glass houses etc.

You're a liar.

Dude, you've done the "PM people to change their vote" thing for YEARS now. Whether you left fine print or not is irrelevant.

[Continential]

Poirot lost 2 voters because of this, and he was the reason why this conversation started.

[Former President tack50]

PM posting is against the ToS, this has been established by the moderators many times, so not sure why it still happens.

I think there is an "unofficial" exception of sorts in Atlasia, where the moderators simply pretend they didn't see anything. At least for PMs relating to the game.

Posting PMs has been a big tradition in Atlasia; with the exception of a small period between 2009 and 2010 where it was a crime.

[windjammer]

No need to remind you all you can sue and a trial can happen.

[windjammer]

PM posting is against the ToS, this has been established by the moderators many times, so not sure why it still happens.

I think there is an "unofficial" exception of sorts in Atlasia, where the moderators simply pretend they didn't see anything. At least for PMs relating to the game.

Posting PMs has been a big tradition in Atlasia; with the exception of a small period between 2009 and 2010 where it was a crime.

Posting PM is illegal under the forum's rules.

[Former President tack50]

PM posting is against the ToS, this has been established by the moderators many times, so not sure why it still happens.

I think there is an "unofficial" exception of sorts in Atlasia, where the moderators simply pretend they didn't see anything. At least for PMs relating to the game.

Posting PMs has been a big tradition in Atlasia; with the exception of a small period between 2009 and 2010 where it was a crime.

Posting PM is illegal under the forum's rules.

Yeah, my point was more that the moderators haven't really enforced that part of the ToS in Atlasia. PM leaks have been a thing since like forever; yet no moderator has ever deleted a PM leak?

Posting PMs is a ToS breach, just one which goes unpunished generally. Of course if Yankee wants to start to enforce it that's something he can totally start doing. The ToS are still above this game after all.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

PM posting is against the ToS, this has been established by the moderators many times, so not sure why it still happens.

I think there is an "unofficial" exception of sorts in Atlasia, where the moderators simply pretend they didn't see anything. At least for PMs relating to the game.

Posting PMs has been a big tradition in Atlasia; with the exception of a small period between 2009 and 2010 where it was a crime.

Posting PM is illegal under the forum's rules.

Yeah, my point was more that the moderators haven't really enforced that part of the ToS in Atlasia. PM leaks have been a thing since like forever; yet no moderator has ever deleted a PM leak?

Posting PMs is a ToS breach, just one which goes unpunished generally. Of course if Yankee wants to start to enforce it that's something he can totally start doing. The ToS are still above this game after all.

When I released an ASV pm a while back I got infracted for it.

However on the other hand Griffin posted one of my PMs back in 2017, and to this day the post and pm is still there.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

(rolls eyes) I did not intimidate anyone, I asked Jimmie why he voted for Blair when he had voted for Yankee in the first round, he said it was because *someone* told him that Blair was a moderate and would make the game funner, I gave my counterpoint and he decided to change his vote, so idiotic. I'm sure you're aware idiotic charges like these can get people BANNED from the game, so go ahead Griffin, push on, keep using your f****** disgusting tactics on me.

Except we have direct testimony from Jimmie that proves the contrary. You ganged up on him minutes after his vote was cast and bullied him into editing his ballot. Frankly, you deserve to be banned for pulling a stunt like this and then trying to excuse your actions with lies.

What you did is a felony, plain and simple. The rest of us do not have a responsibility to disguise that fact to spare your feelings.

I wonder if our Attorney General will apply the law equally and follow the precedent he set here.

[windjammer]

I will be frank, if you believe that asking people to invalidate their ballots is breaking the law, please simply sue. That will be the matter of a grand jury to decide and that will solve this debate.

[Poirot]

I don't know if the AG has another office for us to ask questions.
Capital punishment is not legal in Atlasia. I would like to know what is the maximum sentence in Atlasia. Is it life sentence, 25 years without or with parole ?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

1. lol

I don't know if the AG has another office for us to ask questions.
Capital punishment is not legal in Atlasia. I would like to know what is the maximum sentence in Atlasia. Is it life sentence, 25 years without or with parole ?

2. It depends on whether we are talking about federal or regional, and what region. In Frémont the maximum sentence is 25 years, with periodic reviews after that. Federally, the maximum sentence is handled on a case-by-case basis depending on the crime.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Department of Justice
Re: COVID-19 vaccination rollout

As of January 14, this administration has undertaken the following actions regarding supply and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine(s). These orders, republished here for reference by regional legislatures undertaking their own measures to facilitate the vaccination of their citizens, have already been relayed to the relevant federal departments on the aforementioned date.

The Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines are approved for use in Atlasia.

Vaccination will be mandatory without a doctor's exemption for a valid medical reason.

For rollout, from highest to lowest priority:

1. Healthcare, education, and service workers
2. School-age minors aged twelve (12) years and older and senior citizens
3. Everyone else

DoJ and its associated agencies will move forward with tests for children 12 and under with all due haste.

edit: modified with permission of the game moderator, 26 Jan 2021 - HST

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Department of Justice
Re: Constitutional dispute in Lincoln

The Attorney General's office reminds all interested parties with respect to Article II of the Fifth Constitution, the secession of a region from the Union requires a 3/4 vote of the people, without which all claims to independence are considered inoperative. The Department of Justice does not consider it in the interests of the government or the people to litigate every threat which has not been carried out, and until informed otherwise, will proceed as if the general court were still the lawful legislative authority in Lincoln. We advise all to keep calm and carry on.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Mr. Truman has issued his opinion. Now let him enforce it.