Federal Activity Requirements Revision Bill

[Democratic Hawk]

Now that the Military Modernization and Readiness Bill is in the debate slot exclusively for veto overrides, this has created a vacant slot on the Senate floor. In my capacity as PPT, I have deemed the following Bill to be forum affairs legislation, and have concurred with the Vice President to move it to the floor

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Sponsor: Sen. Ernest

'Hawk'

[Dr. Cynic]

X VP Cynic

[Democratic Hawk]

Any senator may challenge our decision pursuant to Article 7, Clause 2, of the OSPR within the next 72 hours

Should 2/3 of the Senate (i.e. 3) concur then our decision is overruled

'Hawk'

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As promised, I wish to offer the following amendment to the bill:

Replace section 1 with:
§1. Repeal of Section 14
Section 14 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 14-2) shall be repealed.

As written, the bill lowers the activity requirements, the amendment scraps them entirely.  I favor retaining a minimal activity requirement, but I would like to see the issue of doing away with them to be properly debated as well.

[Јas]

At this juncture, I intend to oppose the amendment and the bill. I support the idea activity requirements because I feel that an informed electorate is preferable, and likely to make better decisions, than an uninformed one.

From my understanding, the reasons voting requirements were first brought in was to inhibit blind-avatar voting and to discourage candidates from effectively ballot stuffing by getting non-forumites to appear to cast ballots and disappear until the next election. To my mind, these reasons were valid then and remain valid now.

I don't feel that a requirement of 25 posts, on the forum as a whole, within 8 weeks of an election is an onorous burden on any active Atlasian or member of this forum. I feel that our electoral register should reflect those who genuinely contribute to Atlasia and the forum - and not simply represent a record of who could convince the most friends to turn up on any particular election.

I understand that there are vocal opponents of these requirements. I understand that their concern is the increasingly shallow voter lists. However I feel that artificially inflating the voter list will not provide a solution to the problem of participation in Atlasia. Having a voter list a mile long won't solve any of the underlying problems Atlasia faces, especially if the names on that list don't care about Atlasia. I would rather have a few committed Atlasians than a hundred passers-by.

That is why I shall oppose this bill, and I sincerely hope that the Senate rejects it.

[Bdub]

I offer the following amendment to the bill.  I propose changing  the wording from 10 posts to 15. 

§1. Amendment of section 14
The number "25" in section 14 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 14-2) shall read "15".

[Democratic Hawk]

I certainly agree with much of your rationale against either a) reducing or b) abolishing federal activity requirements altogether Senator; however, you do raise my priori concern:

I understand that their concern is the increasingly shallow voter lists.

Indeed, there you have it, shallow voting lists

When I was first elected, or rather more correctly jointly-elected, to the Senate last December there were 23 registered voters in the then District 4 and ever since it has has steadily eroded with each and every passing election cycle until now when it seems that the new districts shall average 11 registered voters

I think the decline to some extent can be blamed due to an increasing lack of competitive elections. My first election campaign was probably one of the most hard fought and tenacious Senate campaigns in the history of Atlasia. And, as election results go, it couldn't have been any closer, 10 votes each for myself and Bono, in both the first ballot and the run-off; hence, that history making split-term agreement. In fact, part of my decision not to seek re-election this month, stems from the fact that I had become an all-too intrenched incumbent and I wanting to make way for new blood and, ideally, a competitive race to succeed me

That said, I don't think the 25 post federal activity requirement in 8 weeks prior to the election is the real issue. I think its reasonable enough while, simultaneously, voicing opposition to such requirements; however, your arguments has swayed me more towards your position

The crux of the problem lies within the Second Constitution. Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 reads:

Any registered voter who fails to vote in elections for four months, and any first-time registrant who fails to vote in the first scheduled Senate elections for which he is qualified to vote shall have his registration no longer considered valid. This clause shall not be construed to deny a forum user the right to register anew.

So there you have it, the twin evils of a lack of competitive elections and the effects of above clause only confound the problems we face. As elections become uncompetitive and the voter rolls are depleted as a result of people not voting, this in itself only serves to deteriorate the situation, like a two-edged sword, given that the fewer voters we have, then the less likely we are to have competitive elections

So, there you have it Senators , it's not so much federal activity requirements I oppose but Article V, Section 2, Clause 6 of the Second Constitution and its effects

In a nutshell, I believe we've lost more voters as a result of this clause then we ever have from voters not fulfilling federal activity requirements

Therefore, later this evening, I'll be introducing a Constitutional Amendment to remove said clause from the Second Constitution. Rest assured, on that, my convictions have seldom been stronger. I should have considered it months ago, and my apologies for not doing so sooner

'Hawk'

[Јas]

Indeed, that particular clause of the Constitution is not perfect.

The point of the provision, as I understand it, is that the voter roll should try to reasonably reflect the voting public and that those who patently aren't participating in the elections may be removed from the register - making it easier to handle and manage and to bettre reflect the active make up of Atlasia.

Believing that this aim is valid and still worth pursuing and also that the requirements are too strict, I would suggest that instead of outrightly abolishing the pertinant provision it may be preferable to amend it by increasing the time limits applicable before removal and applying this to all voters (first time registered or otherwise).

However, this is somewhat of a digression from the bill at hand so I shall hold any further thoughts on this until your amendment is on the floor.

[Peter]

I'd like to give a bit of background to the clause if I may, and importantly, why it was necessary in the older Republic.

When Atlasia was first founded, the federal census (and thus the districts) were based off the map of registered voters (this is how the districts were originally drawn before we even had a Constitution). When the first Constitution was drafted this scheme was maintained - it was soon realised that allowing voters to remain on the rolls indefinitely could chaos what were effectively rotten boroughs.

Imagine if a particular state or two were inundated with registrations and then most of those registrees went dead - this would leave an area with such a large population that it would cause a very small district centred around it. However, there would be so few active voters that it would either cause unchallenged elections, the movement of only a few people radically changing the actual political shape of a district, or worse still, somebody to get elected by stuffing the ballot box. Those of us who were around in those days remember only too well the December 2004 problems in New York and Pennsylvania that caused those elections to be utterly mired in controversy, and know only too well that it can happen here.

Faced with this problem, the founding fathers of the first Constitution decided in their wisdom to force all long term inactive voters (i.e. those not voting in 4 months) to be automatically purged from the rolls, thus allowing balanced, active districts to come out of redistricting.

When it came to the drafting of the second constitution, it was decided that the census should operate on the basis of those who voted at the last election. With hindsight, this would have been a much better solution to the original problem, but alas that is hindsight.

The provisions of Article V under discussion here were however not removed. The justifications for keeping it came down to a few arguments in my opinion:
*Retaining deadwood on the electoral roll is not healthy - it encourages candidates to bring everybody on the roll out to vote (legally active or not), who then don't hang around to suffer the consequences.
*It doesn't give a true picture of Atlasia - to date we have probably had several hundred, if not bordering on a thousand, registered voters. If these were all still on the rolls it might lead some to claim that Atlasia is fine when of course it isn't.
*If applied rectroactively, removing the provisions has many problems - records are far from complete and the original registration thread was deleted.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I support Brandon's version.

[Democratic Hawk]

I hereby open the vote on the following amendment. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain

Replace section 1 with:
§1. Repeal of Section 14
Section 14 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 14-2) shall be repealed.

'Hawk'

[Colin]

Aye

[Bdub]

Nay

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Abstain

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nay

[DWPerry]

NAY

[Јas]

Nay

[Everett]

Abstain.

[Democratic Hawk]

Abstain

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

With 1 'Aye', 4 'Nays' and 3 Abstentions, this amendment has failed

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

I hereby open the vote on the following amendment. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain

§1. Amendment of section 14
The number "25" in section 14 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act (F.L. 14-2) shall read "15".

'Hawk'

[Democratic Hawk]

Aye

'Hawk'

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Aye

[Everett]

Aye.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Abstain