LGC 2.10 Universal Legislature Amendment

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Universal Legislature Amendment

Article I

1. All legislative powers granted herein shall be vested in a General Court.

2. The General Court shall consist of a number of deputies chosen at-large every second month by the eligible voters of Lincoln according to a method of proportional representation prescribed by law. When the number of candidates is five or fewer, that number shall be chosen; when it is greater than five but less than nine, five deputies shall be chosen; when it is nine or greater, seven shall be chosen. Write-in candidates shall not be considered in determining the number to be chosen. all citizens of the region of Lincoln.

3. No person shall be a deputy of the General Court who is not a citizen of this region

4. The General Court shall elect its speaker and other officers and shall have sole authority to determine its own methods of proceedings.

5. Every bill passed by the General Court shall, before it becomes law, be submitted to the judgment of the governor. If they approve of it, they should sign it and it will become law; but if they disapprove they may veto it, and it shall be returned to the General Court. If, after considering the objections of the governor, the General Court should by a two-thirds vote agree to pass the same bill, it shall become law regardless of the governor's objections. If the governor shall not act to sign or veto a bill, it shall become law seven (7) days after its adoption by the General Court. The Governor shall have the authority to submit revisions to passed legislation, if they deem fit, and return it to the electorate for reconsideration. If the redrafted bill is rejected by the General Court, and the original bill passed the General Court by a two-thirds margin, the original bill shall be sent to referendum. If the redrafted bill is rejected by the General Court, and the original bill passed by less than two-thirds, the Governor shall be compelled to sign or veto the original bill.

Whenever a vacancy should occur in the composition of the General Court, the governor shall appoint a replacement. Should the vacancy have occurred fewer than 336 hours before the next general election, the deputy thus nominated shall serve the remainder of the existing term; otherwise, they shall serve only until a new deputy may be elected. If required, A special election for the General Court shall begin on the Friday following the creation of the vacancy; but if the vacancy shall occur on a Wednesday or Thursday, the special election shall begin on the second Friday following the creation of the vacancy.

The General Court may, by a two-thirds vote, impeach and remove the governor for gross negligence or criminal acts; but the governor shall not be convicted without the concurrence of four-fifths of all sitting deputies, and the penalty for his conviction shall not exceed removal from office and disbarment from holding any office under this region for eighteen months.
6. In the event of a tied vote of the General Court, the governor shall have the power to break the tie.
Where the text above or below references a two-thirds margin, it shall be construed to refer to the support of two-thirds of all voting deputies

Article IV

3. Candidates for governor, General Court, and federal Senate must declare their candidacy in the appropriate thread by 2:00:00 PM, Eastern Time, on the Thursday preceding the election in order to appear on the ballot.
Except in the month of December, elections for governor, General Court, and federal Senate shall begin on the penultimate Friday of the given month. In December, all elections shall begin on the second Friday of the month. Special Elections are scheduled by the Governor at any date that they deem fit. In all cases, voting shall begin at 12:00:00 AM, Eastern Time, on the appointed day and continue for 72 hours hence.
Following the expiration of the voting period, the election administrator shall have 24 hours to produce a tally of the votes cast and to announce the persons elected.
4. All elections shall be by single transferable vote, unless otherwise specified by law.
5. The terms of the Governor and General Court shall begin at 12:00:00 Eastern Time on the first Wednesday following their election. Prior to assuming office, the governor shall swear the following oath or equivalent: “I, [A.B.], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of [state office name] and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitutions of Lincoln and the Republic of Atlasia.” Any person elected to office under this constitution who shall fail to swear or affirm the aforesaid within 72 hours of the constitutional commencement of their term, shall forfeit their office.
6. All referendums on proposed amendments to this constitution and to the constitution of the Republic of Atlasia shall begin on the first Friday following their passage by the appropriate body; but if the passage shall occur on a Thursday, the referendum shall begin on the second Friday following passage. The appropriate election administrator shall open the voting booth at 12:00:00 AM, Eastern Time. Voting shall continue for 72 hours, and no vote cast more than 72 hours after the voting booth was opened shall be considered valid.
In all referendums, a “YES” vote shall be considered a vote in favor of passing the referendum and a “NO” vote shall be considered a vote against passing the referendum. Abstentions shall not affect the results of the referendum. In all cases, a simple majority of those voting “YES” or “NO” shall be required to pass the referendum.
7. If a Special Election for any office is scheduled to occur 168 hours or fewer before a Regular Election for any office, it shall be:
- Held Concurrently with said regular election if for a different office than the regular election - Cancelled if said regular election is for the same office, with the acting official serving the rest of the term.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Dwarven Dragon is sponsoring.

[S019]

This is very obviously a bad idea, 3 member legislatures exist for exactly this reason of no one wanting to run. If this actually passes, you should just abolish the legislature and have everything done by direct democracy referendums, at least that makes logistic sense, even if it's not ideal.

[Former President tack50]

S019 for once actually has the right idea here. I'd rather abolish the legislature than do this

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

I'm open to hearing Ishan's testimony here. We need to rejuvenate the region somehow.

If we actually do go forward with this seriously there may be other clauses we have to modify, such as the clause relating to impeachment of deputies.

[KaiserDave]

Or you could just make me King

[Continential]

You do realize that having direct democracy would be the same thing as this. So basically everyone can vote and introduce bills except for the Governor and it basically abolishes the legislature, there is a legislature but everyone (except for the Governor) is in it.

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

You do realize that having direct democracy would be the same thing as this. So basically everyone can vote and introduce bills except for the Governor and it basically abolishes the legislature, there is a legislature but everyone (except for the Governor) is in it.

Well yes, but this is a vast change from what we have currently. A legislature of over 100 people is different from a legislature that is at most 7 (and usually less), at least from a logistical standpoint of the number of votes the speaker must validate and count.

There would also be questions about how to manage the queue - it's impractical to have 100 slots or something. Even if we have a rule that states only 1 bill per citizen at a time, or 1 bill per citizen per fortnight or something, it could still be gamed (perhaps according to party leadership direction) by a dozen or two citizens to lock anyone else out of it, eventually resulting in a system where there is an effective unelected legislature of those who introduce bills - yes everything would go to "referendum", but a small elite unelected group would decide what the referendums are. One potentially good answer to this concern is establishing committees like they have in RL Congress - everyone can introduce bills, but a select group of members who understand x issue area decide what receives full consideration with respect to that issue. I would carry over the Consensus Calendar portion as well - If you demonstrate broad support somehow, you bypass the committee process. However, this would require having a set of Lincolnities particularly concerned about health care, another particularly concerned about taxes, etc. and I'm not sure if we have that, and having people willing to be committee chairs also seems to be a challenge.


Further, as such a legislature would include zombies, I do have some concerns about party leaders mass pming people on key legislative votes. This could cause an almost endless campaign situation which would only further polarize the game and potentially lead to long term burnout.



I'm not currently ready to vote Yes on this, but I think the debate is worth having and if we can settle some of the logistics ahead of time I could be convinced to pass this.

[KaiserDave]

You could give me emergency powers....

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

You could give me emergency powers....

How are you envisioning this being structured - i.e. what would trigger it, how could it expire or be revoked, what would the powers cover and not cover, etc? I'm not just voting to make you the Irrevocable king for life lol.

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

In my capacity as sponsor I hereby object to this going to a vote during final business this week. Rather than forcing a vote that would fail, perhaps unanimously so, I think we should continue the discussion and perhaps eventually make this work.

[RC (a la Frémont)]

God, we've gone through at least 3 types of legislatures in the last five years and you want to go to a chaotic and unchecked system?

Mark me down as a "hell no" on this one.

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

Pursuant to:

J. Any Deputy may remove their sponsorship of a bill at any time. If no Deputy sponsors the bill within 24 hours, the bill shall be removed from the floor.

I hereby remove my sponsorship of this bill. In addition to it being highly unlikely to have the support to reach a public referendum, I do not believe Atlasia is currently active enough to support such a system. Lincoln population, at 150+ just five short months ago, is now just 108, and has dropped 28 in the last addition of "The Fallen" alone. Activity on the boards seems to be very slow. Not saying this couldn't be an idea worth fleshing out at some later point, but this isn't the right time to attempt it.