SENATE BILL: Non-partisan elections Act (Failed)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

SENATE BILL

To make elections non-partisan in an attempt to revive competitive elections

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

1. This bill may be referred to as the "George Washington was Right/Non-Partisan elections Act". It may also be referred to by the shorter title of "Non-partisan elections Act"

2. After this bill is passed, the Registrar General shall manually change the federal and regional party registration of all registered voters to Independent and stop tracking party registrations

3. Section 5.3 of the Federal Electoral Act is amended as follows:

3. The federal election authority shall be free to design the ballot as they see fit, provided that they adhere to the requirements set out in Section 3 of this Act as well as the following:

a. All candidates must be listed by their permanent Atlas Forum username, unless they have requested otherwise. Such a request shall be granted, unless it would confuse them with another user.

b. All candidates must be listed with their state of registration.

c. No party registrations of any kind may be listed in federal election ballots

c. All candidates must be listed with their registered political party, with the following exceptions:

  i. A party may, at its discretion as determined by individual bylaws, prohibit any candidate from appearing on the ballot with it's official party name. This decision must be made and reported to the relevant election administrators at least 48 hours in advance of the start of the election. (Continuation of F.L. 15-05§2.3)
  ii. If a candidate who is a member of a political party has been barred from appearing on the ballot with that party’s name in accordance with the above clause, but has been endorsed by another party in accordance with their bylaws, then the candidate may choose, with the assent of the chair of the endorsing party, to appear on the ballot under that party’s name with “(endorsed)” appended to the end of the name. Otherwise, their party shall be listed as “Unaffiliated”
  iii. If an independent has been endorsed by a political party in accordance with their bylaws, then the candidate may choose, with the assent of the chair of the endorsing party, to appear on the ballot with their party listed as “Independent ([endorsing party name])

d. During Presidential elections, the candidate listing for Presidential tickets and House of Representatives should be clearly separated, with a clear indication of which is which.

e. The ballot must contain a link to the most recent version of this act.

f. All elements of the ballot must be clearly visible and accessible.

4. The following sections of the Census Act of 2019 are hereby amended as follows

a) Section 2.1:

1. The Cabinet member assigned the portfolio of Census Administrator shall maintain a census document listing all registered voters in Atlasia. For each voter, the census shall list:

a. Their permanent Atlas Forum username
b. The federal and regional political parties they are registered with
c. The state they are registered in
d. The region they reside in
e. Whether or not the voter voted or attempted to vote in each of the last three federal elections.
f. If, according to the provisions of this act, a voter is presently ineligible to move regions, the date by which they shall become eligible to move regions

b) Section 3.2:

2. To register, a poster must post in this thread indicating the state in which they wish to register and their party affiliation of choice.

c) Section 6: Party organization is struck down in its entirety

Sponsor: Tack50
Senate Designation: SB25:02

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Initial Debate Period - Sponsor Advocacy - 24 hours.

[Former President tack50]

Well, this bill is fairly straight forward, and seeks to fix the stagnation and boringness of current federal elections through the avenue of game reform as opposed to more conventional avenues.

In terms of the bill itself, the bill:

1) Bans the SoFE from listing any party affiliations on the ballots
2) Bans the Registrar General from keeping track of party affiliations
3) Forces Peebs to register everyone as independent before implementing point 2 (not like it matters, she really would just delete the "party" column I assume)

If this was real life I would also add that non-partisan elections foster dialogue between people from different ideologies and ""bipartisanship"" (despite parties not existing) and what not, but that does not really apply in Atlasia, at least not as of late.

The way this would fix the current problem of non-competitiveness however is remarkably similar to that of real life. In theory, a bill like this would force candidates to stand as their own men and women, with their own ideas to fix the issues, and for voters to decide based exclusively on that instead of blindly voting for the candidates they are told by the party.

Since it is the 4th of July, I will even quote the founder of the real life US, George Washington

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. [...]

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. [...]

... the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

... in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

Anyways you may now tear this idea to shreds before inevitably tabling it 5-1 or 6-0

[Pericles]

This is a terrible idea that will suck the fun out of the game and make zombies even less informed. It seems bound to make the game some vague meme centrist circlejerk dominated by personality cults.  That is far more of a turnoff than a game with clear ideological boundaries and debate, which for all its flaws has produced record population numbers for Atlasia and generally Atlasia is in better shape than it was in past years. I am sick of people trying to artificially make the game more competitive-that should be done as it has always been done, by parties themselves making the effort to improve and adapt so they can be competitive. It is not my job or that of Congress to make the Federalist Party competitive-that is up to them.

[Devout Centrist]

Frankly, I don't see any reason why the Senate should seriously consider this bill. The Right and Left will inevitably form opposing faction even if formal political parties are illegal.

While there were no formal parties in the early years of the Republic, the Congress divided itself into Pro-Administration and Anti-Administration representatives during Washington's Presidency. This bill will not prevent partisanship in Atlasia politics.

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

Not even sure what this really changes. Even if Labor couldn't call itself Labor anymore, we still have our existing records of zombies to pm, we'd contact newbies to learn their leanings, and send pre filled out ballots to zombies and party loyalists. The Congress doesn't have the power to shut down, mute, or declassify Laborcord. Heck, I imagine we could still elect unofficial chairs and such to coordinate party organization, platform making etc even if we had to do it under some sort of codename terminology.

This WOULD create a lot of special elections for Senate and House seats, as we wouldn't be able to appoint midterm replacements as everyone would be independent. But it wouldn't necessarily make said elections competitive.

So vote for this, or don't. Doesn't really matter.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Not even sure what this really changes. Even if Labor couldn't call itself Labor anymore, we still have our existing records of zombies to pm, we'd contact newbies to learn their leanings, and send pre filled out ballots to zombies and party loyalists. The Congress doesn't have the power to shut down, mute, or declassify Laborcord. Heck, I imagine we could still elect unofficial chairs and such to coordinate party organization, platform making etc even if we had to do it under some sort of codename terminology.

This WOULD create a lot of special elections for Senate and House seats, as we wouldn't be able to appoint midterm replacements as everyone would be independent. But it wouldn't necessarily make said elections competitive.

So vote for this, or don't. Doesn't really matter.

This is hilarious for the simple fact that it also illustrates why dissolving the parties RPP/JCP style would never work in the Discord era.

Not even sure what this really changes. Even if Labor couldn't call itself Labor anymore, we still have our existing records of zombies to pm, we'd contact newbies to learn their leanings, and send pre filled out ballots to zombies and party loyalists.

You know the funny thing is there are still a select few that would cringe at the public revelation of such, even more so that such is par for the course and wide accepted. They are like trace remnants of a by gone era, when the leadership of the RPP and the JCP and even later the Feds, Liberals and Labor had to make believe they weren't but everyone knew they were and there were many others who make believed that we believed that weren't but knew that we were.

And yes, this would have have come out much better if I wasn't typing it at 1 AM.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So final vote then? Going to go ahead and call objections, Senators have 24 hours etc etc.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

I oppose this bill.

[Former President tack50]

Well, time to answer the counterarguments:

Re: Pericles, yes, making zombies less informed is the whole point of the bill. To quote 1984: Ignorance is Strength That way, instead of voting blindly for party candidate, they will vote for whoever they actually desire. I will not lie, this probably makes friendship voting stronger, it is just a consequence of less information meaning that name recognition matters more. The question would be whether it is worth it I suppose.

Re DC; I do not think the left and the right and the center would necesarily be categories. In a non partisan election everyone stands as themselves (or at least that is how they are supposed to be in theory). Since Atlasia is presidential and not parliamentary there wouldn't even need to be a "Government vs opposition" dynamic so officeholders would have even more freedom.

Re Wulfric and Yankee: Yes this would be my biggest worry. Obviously there is no power in Atlasia to declassify off-Atlas organizations (or even to stop PMs and what not). An scenario like that would obviously defeat the whole point of the bill. The hope would be that:
a) Without party affiliations, party machines would be weaker. So you'd see less pasted ballots and less partisan voting. Most zombies do indeed vote as told without thinking about it though there is still a minority that do at least put some thought into it (these are generally the ones that use the official ballots instead of copy-paste ballots in my experience)
b) Eventually, new zombies who join Atlasia with no loyalties would be swing voters and vote normally. So as time marches on, these people with no loyalty just vote freely. Of course you can argue that this either would disincentivize recruitment, or that parties would just recruit to Discord first, then to Atlasia or some variation on that.

The big question on this bill would be whether you think something like this would have a positive, negative or neutral effect. The negative of course is clear, it reinforces friendship voting over ideological voting. The positive is that it gives more flexibility. And the neutrality argument is that things would just keep on with business as usual behind the shadows

Anyways, this is a bill I introduced on the heat of the moment and to open a "serious" debate on it more than to actually pass it. So yeah, a "virtue signaling" bill I suppose lol

Seconding the motion for a final vote.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A Final Vote is now open on this legislation, Senators please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[YE]

Nay.

This will lead to cults formed from the method of communication (Discord sever etc) of such cult. Not sure why the Labor VC is doing this.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Nay

[Former President tack50]

Abstain

[Devout Centrist]

Nay

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

RELUCTANT NAY

Eat your heart out, Tack!

inb4 this joke gets taken literally: This is impossible to do for the reasons already stated.


This ends in about 5 hours.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Abstain

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Vote on Final Passage of the Non-Partisan Elections Act:

Aye (0):
Nay (3): Devout Centrist, Jimmy and YE
Reluctant Nay (1): Reluctant Nay
Abstain (2): LT and Tack50

Didn't Vote (0):

This has failed.