Greetings, Honorable Justice Bacon King.
Tonight, I am filing a petition for emergency injunctive relief on behalf of my client, S019. I will argue that S019's right to vote under the Lincoln Constitution and the Atlasian Constitution has been violated by Governor R2D2 and Speaker Wulfric's failure to conduct the Lincoln Regional elections scheduled for this weekend.
Article V, Sections 3-5 of the Lincoln Constitution clearly prescribe the time and manner in which Lincoln's gubernatorial elections must be conducted.
3. All elections and referendums of this Region shall be administered by the Minister of Regional Elections. ... Whenever the Minister of Regional Elections is unable to execute this duty, the Governor shall administer the election. Whenever the Minister of Regional Elections and Governor are both unable to execute this duty, the Speaker of the Council shall administer the election.
4. Regular elections for governor shall be held in the months of March, July, and November. Elections for Council shall be held in the months of January, April, July, and October.
5. The manner for electing the governor shall be as follows, using a two-round voting system: a general ballot of all declared candidates shall begin at 12:00:00 am on the penultimate Friday of the given month and conclude seventy-two hours thereafter.
The office of Minister of Regional Elections is currently vacant. Consequently, under §3, Governor R2D2 is responsible for administering Lincoln's regional elections. Wulfric, as Speaker of the Lincoln Council, is responsible for administering elections in his absence.
Under §4 and §5, Lincoln was scheduled to hold a gubernatorial election beginning at 12:00 am on Friday, November 20th; the penultimate Friday of the month. As of 11:22 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, November 22nd, neither Governor R2D2 nor Speaker Wulfric has posted a voting booth for the election on the Voting Booth board of the forum.
Article V, Section 1 of the Lincoln Constitution states that the right to vote in Lincoln is granted to federally eligible voters within the Region, who have been registered there for more than seven days.
The right to vote in all elections and referendums called according to the provisions of this Constitution shall be exclusive to those persons being eligible to vote in elections for President of the Republic of Atlasia who have been registered to vote in one of the states of this Region for a period of at least seven (7) days prior to the commencement of the election.
S019, who has been continuously registered in Lincoln since 2019, clearly meets these criteria. Furthermore, the Atlasian Constitution on which this Section relies places further restrictions on who may be denied eligibility to vote, and why.
The right of citizens of the Republic of Atlasia to vote shall not be denied, except in regards to persons whose account is fewer than 168 hours old, as punishment for crimes of which the accused has been duly convicted, or in consequence of failing to meet such requirements for frequent posting or term of residency as may be established by law; but no ballot shall be counted as valid that should list the candidates for office in a script other than the Latin alphabet, or that has been edited more than twenty minutes after its posting in the voting booth.
S019, despite meeting all criteria to be a valid voter in Atlasian and Lincolnian elections, has been denied his right to vote under the Lincoln Constitution and the Atlasian Constitution by Governor R2D2 and Speaker Wulfric's failure to post the gubernatorial voting booth.
As a remedy, we request that the Court enjoin Governor R2D2 and Speaker Wulfric to hold the gubernatorial election beginning at 12:00:00 am Eastern Time on Friday, November 27th; and concluding 72 hours later, in accordance with their respective roles in election administration under Lincoln's Constitution.
We further request that, to avoid confusion and ensure that the election is conducted in accordance with Lincoln's Constitution, all dates and deadlines Article V of the Lincoln Constitution sets in relation to the election be accordingly moved one week later. These deadlines are as follows:
- The deadline to for newly registered voters to be eligible to vote, set by Section 1 at "seven (7) days prior to the commencement of the election." (Lincoln Const. Art. V §1)
- The date at which a hypothetical gubernatorial runoff must be conducted, set by Section 5 at "12:00:00 am on the final Friday of the given month and to conclude seventy-hours thereafter." (Lincoln Const. Art. V §5)
- The deadline to declare candidacy, set by Section 6 at "12:00:00 AM, Eastern Standard Time, on the Wednesday preceding the election." (Lincoln Const. Art. V §6)
- The date on which the elected Governor is scheduled to begin his term, set by Section 10 at "12:00:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time, on the Tuesday following their election." (Lincoln Const. Art. V §10)
I am happy to elaborate on these points if the Court has any questions.
x Ted Bessell, Attorney for Petitioner S019
