SECTION I. CITATION
…1.1. This Act shall be known and cited as the “Delegate Elections Act”.
SECTION II. DEFINITIONS
…2.1. For the purposes of this Act, the following are defined as:
…2.1.1. “Write-In” - A vote cast for anyone who does not qualify for candidacy as defined by 2.1.32.…2.1.2. “Nominee” - A Citizen who has been nominated, either by themselves, or by another Resident, as defined by the procedures of this Act and is yet to confirm their candidacy, or receive a necessary second.
…2.1.32. “Candidate” - A Citizen who has accepted a nomination or has had a seconded self-nomination the procedures of this Act declared their candidacy through the legal procedures and is therefore running for the position of Delegate in the present Delegate election.
…2.1.43. “Regular Election” - An election taking place to elect a Delegate following the four-month term.
…2.1.54. “Electioneering” - The act of campaigning outside of the platforms and events approved by the Magisterium.
…2.1.65. “Election Impropriety” - Any inappropriate behavior performed during elections, which can include but is not limited to flaming, slandering, or liking posts containing votes.
…2.1.76. “Voter Fraud” - Any action attempting to gain a candidate more votes in an unlawful manner by holding unlawful Citizenships.
…2.1.87. “Vote Stacking” - The deliberate coordination of multiple Residents to obtain Citizenship for the sole purpose of voting for a particular candidate in an election.SECTION III. GENERAL PROCEDURES
…3.1. The East Pacific Election Commission (“The Commission”) shall be the body responsible for conducting all Delegate elections. Any aspects of its organization and procedure not explicitly prescribed by regional law or not pertaining to the process of Delegate elections are to be determined by the Viceroy.
…3.2. A Delegate election shall consist of two periods: a) a nominationcandidate declaration period and b) a voting period.
…3.3. Nominations of candidatesCandidate declaration for a Regular Election shall begin two weeks before the end of a Delegate’s four-month term, and shall last for a period of one week.
…3.3.1. NominationsCandidate declaration for Delegate elections must be held in a designated forum thread created by the Viceroy.
…3.4. Any Resident may nominate a Citizen to run as a candidate for the following elections for that nomination period. Any Citizen may nominate themselves, as wellCitizen may declare their candidacy or nominate another Citizen to run as a candidate during the Candidate Declaration Period. A Citizen may accept or decline their nomination.…3.4.1. Self-nominations require a second nomination by another Resident for the self-nominee to be considered a candidate.
…3.5. Voting shall begin the moment nominations areCandidate Declaration is closed and last for a period of one week.
…3.5.1. Voting shall be conducted in a designated forum thread created by the Viceroy (that is separate from the nomination forum thread).…3.6. Only Residents who have verified Citizenship following relevant law may vote during the voting period.
…3.7. Results of a voting period shall be released within three days after the closure of the vote.
…3.7.1. Write-ins will not be counted. Any votes containing a write-in will be considered an abstention unless said votes contain a vote for an approved candidate in which case only the vote for any approved candidates will be counted.…3.8. The first post within the nominationCandidate Declaration and voting forum threads shall host nominationCandidate Declaration and voting instructions, respectively. Other information deemed relevant by the Commission may be added to the threads as necessary.
…3.9. Within 24 hours of the start of the nominationCandidate Declaration period and the voting period, the Commission shall send out a regional telegram detailing instructions for nominating candidatesCandidate Declaration and voting, respectively. Other information deemed relevant by the Commission may be added as necessary.
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Essentially, what this amendment does is it turns the nominations period into a Candidate Declaration Period. Any Citizen may throw their hat into the ring. I kept in the ability to nominate candidates in case people are shy, but I’d be willing to lean entirely into the full CDP method, where the only way to be a candidate is to personally step up.
I will not motion this to a vote for at least a week, and because of this, if it passes, it will only apply to the NEXT elections, in June.
My reasoning is that I don’t see the necessity of requiring nominations (or self-nominations requiring seconds) where people go ahead and nominate a huge list of people anyway, seconds are trivial to get, and there have been at least three people, to my knowledge, who have seriously considered nominating every citizen. In fact, I think it may have happened some time in 2020. If it’s so easy to be nominated or get a second, why is the structure there in the first place? What is it keeping in check? It seems only to serve as an unnecessary bureaucratic formality which, in the end, accomplishes the same thing as would happen here.
I’d argue this change makes complete sense. It puts us more in line with other functioning democracies, and probably makes EPEC’s lives easier.
I think we should do away with the nomination process entirely. Doing so would take some pressure off of any unsuspecting figures, and also would further make EPEC’s lives easier.
In tandem, on your point of seconding: I think there should be at least some amount of security measures involved. In theory, I don’t think it would be hard to implement some sort of “petitioning” process where, say, a given candidate would have to have at least 5 citizens sign off in a manner similar to the current seconding process in order to be recognized as a valid candidate by EPEC. That plan, however, likely has its shortfalls, but I thought I’d throw the idea out there.
Those are my thoughts on the matter.
I like the sentiment (and I’m a big fan of petitions, just, in general), but I think it complicates the matter the same way as nominations and seconding do, creates the appearance of a high barrier of entry for newcomers who might want to run (think YSG, for example), creates the appearance of some degree of oligarchy to the outside, and in reality will not change much. I think if we have a petitioning/support system, unless we limit people to supporting only one candidate, we’d see the same situation where the barrier to entry is just automatically fulfilled by the veterans who just wanna see some more candidates and some new ideas. I think it’s better to do the system I have for ease of encouraging participation from newcomers and lowering the complications of the system – I think the Commission would have a worse time with a petitioning system, to be honest. I also don’t think it’s really a bad thing to let security threats run for Delegate, because our real check and balance system is the voters. We voted down Davelands, and I’d say we’re fairly careful. Not to throw shade on Jo, but even though I nominated him, I don’t think I or really any other longstanding citizen would vote him highly. Candidacy is important to open to everyone because it spreads ideas. We can still count on the people to consider security threats (Most Viziers have a vote as well, for example) and to vote in the right candidate. All that said, I think a security minded focus in elections is important. To this end, I think we’re on the right track with only letting Citizens nominate or declare candidacy. Citizenship can be denied or removed for security reasons according to law, I believe, so I think we can rest easy on that front, with regards to legislation.
Motion to vote
Seconded