FT 19.03 Amendment to the Electoral Procedures 2.0 Act (Statute)

[Anna Komnene]

AN ACT
To prohibit candidates from running in more than one election on a given weekend

Section 1: Title

This legislation may be cited as the Amendment to the Electoral Procedures 2.0 Act.

Section 2: Text

Section 2 of the Election Procedures Codification Act of 2017 is hereby amended:

vii. All such House of Commons candidates as shall have met the requirements imposed by Article V of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Fremont, and being eligible to hold the office for which they are a candidate, shall be included on the sample ballot, provided that they are not candidates for more than one (1) election, Regional or Federal, that occurs on the same weekend.

Sponsor: YE

The floor is open.

[Anna Komnene]

Edit: I was a bit confused at first but I figured it out.

Just to clarify, is the main change here that Senate/FM candidates should be allowed to run for multiple offices but Parliament candidates should not?

[Anna Komnene]

Yeah when you put it that way, I think it makes a lot of sense to make that distinction. I'm not a big fan of people holding multiple elected offices, but running for multiple offices is a different story. I do think we should be more permissive there.

The presidential exception is a tricky one. I'm sympathetic to the idea that presidential campaigns are unique in Atlasia where more people run to have fun. Since this is a game at heart, I think we should always be looking for more ways for people to have fun. (altho some of the smaller parties might dispute the idea that they aren't trying to win the race!)

OTOH there's other tickets that would feel very sketchy if they did this. Unfortunately, I don't think there's really any way to make a legal distinction between a fun ticket and a ticket with major electoral chances.

[Anna Komnene]

Got distracted by the debate and forgot Truman's amendment. Whoops. Anyway, just to be clear, the First Minister's amendment is adopted.

I'm going to go ahead and recognize Ses's amendment on the floor based on Article 1, Section 5 of the Frémont constitution: "no rule shall be made denying the right of any citizen to introduce legislation in Parliament." If a citizen of the commonwealth can introduce legislation, I don't see why a citizen can't also introduce an amendment to legislation. (edit: never mind on this part)

24 hours for objections.

[Anna Komnene]

Not technically no. I'm saying that the constitution requires me to recognize it so long as I don't deem it frivolous (which I don't).

Edit: never mind on this.

[Anna Komnene]

Well, the constitution says "no rule shall be made denying the right of any citizen to introduce legislation in Parliament." It does not say "the right of any member of Parliament or the First Minister." If a citizen were to introduce a bill in the parliament thread, and I didn't bring it to the floor because no member sponsored it, that would seem to deny the citizen's right to introduce legislation.

With that said, thinking about this situation more, I agree with your idea about a procedural difference between introducing legislation and introducing an amendment on the floor. While this bill is actually an amendment to previous legislation, that doesn't necessarily mean that an amendment to a bill on the floor is also legislation.

Really simple thing to do is to just have a member sponsor it. I was reluctant to sponsor it myself because I'm sort of ambivalent about the change, but I guess I will sponsor it just to move things along.

[Anna Komnene]

The amendment is adopted.

[Anna Komnene]

Yeah, I agree. That's a better way of phrasing it.

[Anna Komnene]

I motion for a final vote on this bill. 24 hours for objections.

[Anna Komnene]

Seeing no objections, we'll now have a final vote on this bill. Members please vote AYE, NAY, or ABSTAIN.

AN ACT
To prohibit candidates from running in more than one election on a given weekend

Section 1: Title

This legislation may be cited as the Amendment to the Electoral Procedures 2.0 Act.

Section 2: Text

Section 2 of the Election Procedures Codification Act of 2017 is hereby amended:

vii. All such candidates as shall have met the requirements imposed by Article V of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Frémont, and being eligible to hold the office for which they are a candidate, shall be included on the sample ballot, provided that they are not candidates for more than one (1) election, Regional or Federal, that occurs on the same weekend except if a candidate for the House of Commons should also be a candidate (excluding write-in candidacies) for another office under this commonwealth or the Republic of Atlasia (other than the presidency or vice presidency) in an election which occurs the same weekend, in which case they should not be included.

[Anna Komnene]

Abstain

[Anna Komnene]

With 5 votes in favor, 1 abstention, and 1 not voting, this bill passes the Frémont Parliament.

AN ACT
To prohibit candidates from running in more than one election on a given weekend

Section 1: Title

This legislation may be cited as the Amendment to the Electoral Procedures 2.0 Act.

Section 2: Text

Section 2 of the Election Procedures Codification Act of 2017 is hereby amended:

vii. All such candidates as shall have met the requirements imposed by Article V of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Frémont, and being eligible to hold the office for which they are a candidate, shall be included on the sample ballot, provided that they are not candidates for more than one (1) election, Regional or Federal, that occurs on the same weekend except if a candidate for the House of Commons should also be a candidate (excluding write-in candidacies) for another office under this commonwealth or the Republic of Atlasia (other than the presidency or vice presidency) in an election which occurs the same weekend, in which case they should not be included.

Frémont House of Commons
Passed 5-0-2 in the Frémont Parliament Assembled,