New Unicameral-Subregional Plan Proposal

[Sestak]

Hello Atlasia,

I come to you tonight after some weeks' worth of discussion with Speaker MB, PPT Yankee, Governor LouisvilleThunder and others on a plan to make Atlasia more active, more engaging, and more colorful than it currently is on both the legislative and electoral level. After discussion, I am very pleased to, along with the three of them, present this plan to you today.


Main points of the plan

- Congress shall be consolidated into a single, unicameral Senate consisting of 18 members.
- 9 of the 18 senators shall serve at-large, elected for a term of 2 months, as the current House does.
- 9 of the 18 senators shall serve at regional levels, elected for a term of 4 months

• 3 regional senators, elected at the presidential cycle
• The other 6 senators, elected at the midterms, will be elected from subregions; with 2 subregions being contained in each region.

- Any regional or subregional election will require a voter have not been registered in any other (sub)region for 6/8 weeks.
- Other than this above restriction, regions must allow all federally eligible voters to vote in their regional elections.
- Subregional elections, in turn, must operate on regional election law (with the additional subregion-move requirement, as above).
- The subregions will be drawn in the following configuration:



We firmly believe this plan can help ameliorate some of the main problems plaguing Atlasia today: The unicameralism of the Senate will allow every member of it to participate on an equal footing, which in turn allows members to more easily introduce bills knowing they should have a chance at passage. The introduction of subregional seats, on the other hand, will allow more small-electorate races in which more players have opportunities to run for congress and makes competitive races more likely to occur.

We are eager to hear all of your thoughts; please share your support or any questions or concerns in this thread.

Sincerely,
President Sestak
Speaker MB
President Pro Tempore NC Yankee
Southern Governor LouisvilleThunder

[Dr. MB]

Excited to see this finally being released. It's been in the works for a long time and I'm looking forward to what will be done in the next few weeks.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

I was glad to work on crafting this proposal to actually fix the problems plaguing Atlasian politics and government. I hope this gets somewhere and passes.

[S019]

I endorse this plan, the subregion boundaries don't perfectly form COIs, for instance I always thought PA had more in common with the Northeast than the Midwest, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee always seemed more Deep South than Upper South to me, etc., but this isn't DRA and I assume these decisions were made for population equivalency purposes, so this is simply a minor concern, and one that while it'd be great if it could be fixed, I won't really care, if it isn't.


X S019, Dean of Lincoln Council, Chancellor and Speaker Emeritus of Lincoln, former Lincoln Council Minority Leader, writer of many Lincoln bills

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I have a couple ideas to ease the inordinate task of administering an 18 member body that will rely heavily on the deputy system as well as the VP to spread the load similar to what we are doing now, but structured to work with this system.

Of course these would necessarily have to come afterwards when it comes time to deal with chamber rules. Fortunately, the House and Senate rules have converged to become similar recently, with the house dumping assigned slots and us reworking our Articles to contain a section on Final Votes like the house does.

[Continential]

I support this proposal but I have a few questions.

• As a resident of the Virgin Islands, what subregion will I be in?
• Also, how will regional senate elections be administered?; Will it be administered by the RG like it was administered pre-reset or will it be administered by the regions?
• How will subregion vacancies be handled?; Will the regions decide how the vacancies will be handled or will the federal government handle it?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I support this proposal but I have a few questions.

• As a resident of the Virgin Islands, what subregion will I be in?
• Also, how will regional senate elections be administered?; Will it be administered by the RG like it was administered pre-reset or will it be administered by the regions?
• How will subregion vacancies be handled?; Will the regions decide how the vacancies will be handled or will the federal government

There is little desire to go back to the SoFE handling these matters at least on my end. There was some disagreements over the extent to which regions can have authority over the sub regions. Certainly the sub regions need to pick the replacements and elect their Senators, but I think there is no problem with the regions administering the regular elections here.

[Dr. MB]

I support this proposal but I have a few questions.

• As a resident of the Virgin Islands, what subregion will I be in?
• Also, how will regional senate elections be administered?; Will it be administered by the RG like it was administered pre-reset or will it be administered by the regions?
• How will subregion vacancies be handled?; Will the regions decide how the vacancies will be handled or will the federal government handle it?

Virgin Islands is with the northeast
Puerto Rico is with the deep south
Pacific islands are with the west coast
England and Wales are with the upper south
Scotland is with the great lakes region
Gibraltar and Northern Ireland are with the interior west

For your second and third points, they'll be administered/decided by the regions.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

I support this proposal but I have a few questions.

• As a resident of the Virgin Islands, what subregion will I be in?
• Also, how will regional senate elections be administered?; Will it be administered by the RG like it was administered pre-reset or will it be administered by the regions?
• How will subregion vacancies be handled?; Will the regions decide how the vacancies will be handled or will the federal government handle it?

Subregional senate vacancies should have special elections that are held under the same laws as the regularly scheduled subregional senate elections and administered by regional election administrators.

[Mike Thick]

Just a phenomenal plan. Really impressive how you guys balanced so many interests to make something that everyone can get behind. Hope you can get this done soon.

Are you planning on introducing an Amendment in Congress or doing this via convention?

[Sestak]

Just a phenomenal plan. Really impressive how you guys balanced so many interests to make something that everyone can get behind. Hope you can get this done soon.

Are you planning on introducing an Amendment in Congress or doing this via convention?

The plan was through Congress, once the public consultation phase is complete.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Are you planning on introducing an Amendment in Congress or doing this via convention?

This would probably be in effect via the Congressional approach, before a convention would get off the ground.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I like this idea. I was going to complain that we'd see some of that same region-moving to try and gain an advantage, something that would be laughably easy in current times with smaller voter bases as it would be in the subregions, but then I saw the point where voters would have to move several weeks in advance, far ahead of the election shaping up.

I personally had thought a unicameral legislature would be better for efficiency purposes, and this is pretty damn near perfect.

I do feel somewhat left out since obviously y'all made this Labor-Federalist bipartisanship, but I support this plan nonetheless

X Weatherboy1102, Chair of the Democratic Alliance, former President

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I like this idea. I was going to complain that we'd see some of that same region-moving to try and gain an advantage, something that would be laughably easy in current times with smaller voter bases as it would be in the subregions, but then I saw the point where voters would have to move several weeks in advance, far ahead of the election shaping up.

I personally had thought a unicameral legislature would be better for efficiency purposes, and this is pretty damn near perfect.

I do feel somewhat left out since obviously y'all made this Labor-Federalist bipartisanship, but I support this plan nonetheless

X Weatherboy1102, Chair of the Democratic Alliance, former President

The only other complaint I might have is that it seems hard enough to keep our current congress active, and adding 3 seats would presumably make that harder.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

I like this idea. I was going to complain that we'd see some of that same region-moving to try and gain an advantage, something that would be laughably easy in current times with smaller voter bases as it would be in the subregions, but then I saw the point where voters would have to move several weeks in advance, far ahead of the election shaping up.

I personally had thought a unicameral legislature would be better for efficiency purposes, and this is pretty damn near perfect.

I do feel somewhat left out since obviously y'all made this Labor-Federalist bipartisanship, but I support this plan nonetheless

X Weatherboy1102, Chair of the Democratic Alliance, former President

Obviously we did think long and hard about the question "How can this arrangement be rigged?" I do believe that us going through and watching several recent elections made us realize that it is time for real no nonsense change in how elections are ran in Atlasia. The whole package is going to be needed for this reform to be successful.

Yes this was crafted in by the four of us in our secret Deep State lair.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

I like this idea. I was going to complain that we'd see some of that same region-moving to try and gain an advantage, something that would be laughably easy in current times with smaller voter bases as it would be in the subregions, but then I saw the point where voters would have to move several weeks in advance, far ahead of the election shaping up.

I personally had thought a unicameral legislature would be better for efficiency purposes, and this is pretty damn near perfect.

I do feel somewhat left out since obviously y'all made this Labor-Federalist bipartisanship, but I support this plan nonetheless

X Weatherboy1102, Chair of the Democratic Alliance, former President

The only other complaint I might have is that it seems hard enough to keep our current congress active, and adding 3 seats would presumably make that harder.

The premise behind expanding it is that in a unicameral system every vote matters equally and that it is harder to get a situation like the current congress where you have a senate majority of 4 hardline Labor hacks potentially overruling any interesting idea proposed by the minority in the House but is able to pass there on the votes of more mavericky members such as MB or Ishan. Oftentimes the situation is reversed with the House being far more partisan than the Senate. It also makes it so that all 3 Southern Senate seats valuable since it's not so unbearably hard to have a tied Senate in this unicameral proposal. Activity is bound to be driven by incentives, and I do think that this proposal gives more incentives and opportunity for anyone who gets elected to make an impact in serving.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Absolutely splendid plan. And a fantastic example of what we can achieve when we put partisan divides behind us.

Leaving the DA out of the bipartisan discussions is also hilarious and mildly deserved

[Former President tack50]

Finally this was released! It's a great plan that I fully endorse.

I have one question though. Will the subregional elections be ran by the regions or by the federal government? I presume it is by the regions?

Also come to think about it this technically mandates to the regions that at least for the 6 subregional seats elections must happen. While no region has ever even attempted to do so, and it would be very dumb given Atlasia is 50% elections game; technically regions could switch to legislative appointments like the US before the 17th Amendment. This "loophole" is now partially closed.

I also wonder how would subregional vacancies get filled if the region decides to just not have special elections (indeed I think the South lacks special elections and just has gubernatorial appointments). I presume the governor of the region would appoint someone just like for the regional seat? Or will the reform mandate special elections?

[windjammer]

Why not making some senators elected by the regional legislature? That would force anyone to focus more on local elections.

(it's great btw)

[YE]

Oh this is still happening.

[_.]

I support this plan! Very well done!

I assume you all have backup plans if all the seats don't get filled, though, correct? I'd imagine every so often we wouldn't have enough people running to fill all the seats, especially at the regional level.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Whilst I am not opposed to the conceptual framework of unicameralism or even subregionalism, I fully reject the creation of parallel classes of members with different term lengths within the same body.
I could see myself supporting this if the tenure of the at-large Senators were raised in length to four months.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Finally this was released! It's a great plan that I fully endorse.

I have one question though. Will the subregional elections be ran by the regions or by the federal government? I presume it is by the regions?

Also come to think about it this technically mandates to the regions that at least for the 6 subregional seats elections must happen. While no region has ever even attempted to do so, and it would be very dumb given Atlasia is 50% elections game; technically regions could switch to legislative appointments like the US before the 17th Amendment. This "loophole" is now partially closed.

I also wonder how would subregional vacancies get filled if the region decides to just not have special elections (indeed I think the South lacks special elections and just has gubernatorial appointments). I presume the governor of the region would appoint someone just like for the regional seat? Or will the reform mandate special elections?

Of course special elections would be mandated. The South currently would have special elections if there's a vacancy over two months before a term expires.

Why not making some senators elected by the regional legislature? That would force anyone to focus more on local elections.

(it's great btw)

Subregional senators would be elected by the method and under the laws outlined here since it defeats the purpose of the reform if they can just be manipulated like senate elections currently are. As for the senate seats representing the whole region, I guess it would be fine to leave as an option as it currently is under the constitution.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

I support this plan! Very well done!

I assume you all have backup plans if all the seats don't get filled, though, correct? I'd imagine every so often we wouldn't have enough people running to fill all the seats, especially at the regional level.

There's going to be someone elected whenever there is an election and a valuable seat is up for it.

Whilst I am not opposed to the conceptual framework of unicameralism or even subregionalism, I fully reject the creation of parallel classes of members with different term lengths within the same body.
I could see myself supporting this if the tenure of the at-large Senators were raised in length to four months.

That is a weird aspect of the plan. I am open to perhaps making it so that the arrangement is subregional senators are elected during presidential elections while at-large and regional senators are elected during midterms. I think that having all 9 at-large senators elected at the same time is beneficial since it allows more people the chance to get elected to the house especially those with a more narrow ideological base. In making this plan we kind of just deferred to tradition as we have had have 2 month elections for House for the past 5 years. That part is negotiable.

[Sirius_]

Yankee, supporting unicameralism? Wow.

Its an interesting plan, though I do fully expect people to vote in the wrong subregional elections. Is there any plan for making this easy to understand to those who don't already know about this change?