HB 30-04: Fusion Voting Amendment to FEA (Tabled)

[Dr. MB]

A BILL
To amend the Federal Electoral Act of 2019.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Atlasia in Congress assembled,

Section I. Title

1. This bill may be known as the The Fusion Voting Amendment to the Federal Electoral Act of 2019.

Section II. Content

1. Section 5, subsection 3, part c shall be amended to read

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 a candidate 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 Candidate's Party ([endorsing party name])
iiia. Should a candidate be endorsed by two or more parties, and given approval by the chairs of the endorsing parties to appear on the ballot with the endorsing party's name, the names of the endorsing parties shall be listed alphabetically.  

2. Upon passage of this amendment, a new page entitled "Federal Electoral Act" shall be created on the wiki. It shall contain the most up to date text, with amendments, of the Federal Electoral Act as active in law. The page for "Federal Electoral Act of 2019" shall continue to contain the original text. Both pages shall contain disclaimers at the top of the page explaining this and linking to the other page.

Section III. Action

1. This bill shall take effect immediately after the President signs this.

Sponsor: Ishan

Sponsor please advocate.

[Continential]

This bill amends the FEA to have a form of fusion voting. Fusion voting for those who don't know what it is about, is an arrangement where two or more parties endorse the same candidate, and in the ballot, the candidate endorsed by two or more parties will be listed on the ballot with the member or lack of membership in a party, and then the endorsing parties by alphabetical order.

Let's say that a Laborite be endorsed by the Democratic Alliance and the Federalist Party, and Yankee and Ninja approve of showing the endorsement of the candidate, then they will be listed as “Labor (Democratic Alliance, Federalist)".

[Joseph Cao]

So what this bill proposes is more work for Peebs hunting down party endorsements for each candidate, which does not exactly add or remove any information that voters or leaders don’t already know? People already vote like Yankee gets tacit endorsements from all parties (which he does). People already vote the way you would expect if liberal Liberals like Ishan and Crane get support from Labor (which they do). What is this supposed to do here except put more of Peebs’ time into composing a ballot?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I remember this working for a short time pre-reset and then it just became a burden that was eventually killed possibly through a bore omnibus bill repeal or something.

[Dr. MB]

Yeah I'm not so sure I'm supporting this. Cao's point was pretty good and it's really not too hard to figure out which party is supporting which candidate. It's just added bureaucracy in the electoral process.

[Continential]

Sorry for not responding to the concerns of Representatives Cao and MB, but in the text, the chair of the party who the candidate would have to approve the candidates being listed with the names of the party on the ballot, and a candidate endorsed by the party would have to ask the chair of the endorsing party to allow the SOFE to list them on the ballot.

[Continential]

Also, should Peebs have a problem with this, I'll withdraw this.

[Harvey Updyke Jr🌹]

I'm not going to support this.  If the situation arises, any additional party can support them unofficially.

[Joseph Cao]

Sorry for not responding to the concerns of Representatives Cao and MB, but in the text, the chair of the party who the candidate would have to approve the candidates being listed with the names of the party on the ballot, and a candidate endorsed by the party would have to ask the chair of the endorsing party to allow the SOFE to list them on the ballot.

…in other words, we have at least three people to loop in, possibly more, for each such decision made?

I will note that my concern really hasn't been assuaged here, and while I am not a fan of killing bills that could still be worked on, this entire idea seems impractical and – as Yankee mentioned – has been tried before without much success.

[Continential]

I'll withdraw this due to a lack of support in this House. 

[Joseph Cao]

Am I correct in thinking that the bill will be automatically tabled this afternoon?

[Dr. MB]

Am I correct in thinking that the bill will be automatically tabled this afternoon?

This bill has been tabled.