[SOM] Amendment to Provost Election Procedures

[Ladona]

Hi all,

Me again.

After organising the most recent round of Provost Elections, I found that some of the information surrounding the election procedures were a little confusing and that this whole section of the SOM was still pretty difficult to read. An example of something that I found confusing was: The Magisterium is required to vote on a candidate but the rule was that the candidate with the most votes would be elected Provost. That allows for an interesting loophole where if there was only one candidate as long as one person voted AYE, they should win by default – even though that contradicts other sections of the SOM.

So, below are some proposed changes to try and tidy this section of the SOM up some more.

As always, feedback is appreciated. Please note, anything that’s just a numbering change hasn’t been marked down.

@Magisterium

Section VI. OFFICE OF THE PROVOST

1. The Magisterium shall appoint a Provost from amongst its members.

2. The Provost shall serve for 3 months, with new terms starting on the first of January, April, July and October.

3. An election shall be held when the position is vacant or before the end of the Provost’s term.
   3.1. This election shall be organised by the incumbent Provost, a Deputy Provost, or by any representative appointed by the Provost.3.1.1. An individual may not organise the election if they are also running in it.

4. A 4-day nomination period will be held for each election.
   4.1. Any Magister may be nominated by another Magister.An election candidate may be nominated by another Magister or they may self-nominate as a candidate.
   …4.1.1. TheA Magister who has been nominated by another Magister must accept their nomination for the nomination to be official.
   …4.1.2. Self-nominations must be seconded by another Magister for the nomination to be officialA Magister who has self-nominated must have that self-nomination seconded by another Magister for the nomination to be official.
   4.2 Officially nominated candidates may create a campaign topic in the appropriate category on the forums. This campaign topic must contain all campaigning for that candidate and can be used by any Resident to ask the candidate a question.
   4.3 If no valid candidates are nominated, another 4-day nomination period will be held, and the incumbent Provost will remain in office until a new Provost is elected.
   …4.3.1. If no valid candidates are nominated after a second nomination period, the incumbent Provost will remain in office for another term.

5. After nominations, the Magisterium shall vote for a period of 3 days.
   5.1. If there is only one candidate, they must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Magisterium.
   5.2. If there are two or more candidates, the candidate who receives the most votes shall be elected as Provost. The Instant Runoff Voting methodology will be used to determine who received the most votes.
   5.3. Should the election result in a tie and no candidate concedes, a new 3-day vote shall be held. If, after this second vote, the tie persists then If a tie persists, the vote shall be opened to all Citizens for a period of 3 days.
   5.4. Upon election of a Provost, all campaign and nomination threadstopics relating to the election must be locked.

Additional Removals:

3.4. Any Magister may self-nominate. (Added to 4.1)

…3.5.1. This topic must contain all campaigning for that Magister. (Added to 4.2.3)

…3.5.2. Any Resident may ask a candidate questions within the candidate’s campaign topic. (Added to 4.2.3)

4.2. If there are more than two officially nominated candidates,the Provost elections shall be held using Instant Runoff Voting. (Added to 5.2.)

[Lucklife]

which must contain all campaigning for that candidate.

A bit confused what this line means, dould you explain?

[Ladona]

It’s shifting what was 3.5.1. “This topic must contain all campaigning for that Magister”. The candidate can create a campaign topic, and the campaign topic must contain all their campaigning. For example, the candidate wouldn’t be allowed to go into #magisterium and start campaigning in there.

Looking back it does seem like a bit of a run on sentence. What about:

4.2 Officially nominated candidates may create a campaign topic in the appropriate category on the forums. This campaign topic must contain all campaigning for that candidate and can be used by any Resident to ask the candidate a question.

[Lucklife]

Ah yeah that makes better sense, thanks ladona

[Ladona]

I motion this to a vote.

[ernestdrake]

Seconded.