Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2018 20:56:32 GMT
Electoral Procedures Act 2018
(Incorporating the Primary Voting Act)
Category: Procedures
Author: Gribelt
The Congress of the Democratic Socialist Assembly,
Affirming that democracy is a core value of the DSA,
Recognizing that the Electoral Procedures Act of 2014 contains problems regarding the scheduling and timing of elections rendering compliance impossible,
Noting that the end of Zetaboards means that the Act must be updated to reflect the future of voting in the DSA,
Hereby enacts the following legislation:
Chapter 1: Repeal
This act repeals in full the Electoral Procedures Act of 2014.
Chapter 2: Legislative Voting Procedures
1. All non-electoral votes shall be conducted by the Returning Officer, who shall be:
a) the Secretary General, or
b) if the Secretary General so determines, a Member of Congress appointed by the Secretary General, or
c) in the absence of the Secretary General, a Returning Officer appointed by the President.
2. On all non-electoral votes, voters shall have the right to cast a vote as FOR, AGAINST, or ABSTAIN.
3. Congressional votes must reach the majority of non-abstention votes to be “FOR” as required for the type of motion or legislation, as outlined in Subsection 2.1.1 of the Charter, to pass.
4. Procedures and timelines for the proposal and voting of legislation is to be followed as per Section 3.2 of the Charter.
Chapter 3: Cabinet Election Timing
1. Subject to this Chapter, the Returning Officer shall determine the timing of Cabinet elections.
2. Cabinet elections shall occur during the last month of the Cabinet in office, consisting of a nomination period of no less than 7 days, and a voting period of no less than 7 days.
3. The voting period shall end no more than 2 days before the start of the Cabinet it is electing.
4. The nomination period shall end no more than 7 days before the start of the voting period.
5. The time between the opening of the nomination period and the entry of the new Cabinet into office shall not exceed 23 days.
6. At the start of the nomination period, the Returning Officer shall list the dates of the end of the nomination period, and the start and end of the voting period.
7. For a special election, the nomination period shall be 4 days, and a voting period of 7 days shall be started immediately on closing of the nomination period for expediency.
8. Timings given by the Returning Officer are subject to the possibility of a primary vote being necessitated.
Chapter 4: Cabinet Elections
1. Cabinet elections are to use instant-runoff voting as outlined in Chapter 5 of this act.
2. If a Charter Member is elected to more than one office, they will be required to declare which office they wish to take up at the start of the new term. The votes cast for that member in other elections will be eliminated from the vote counts for those positions and the results re-calculated accordingly.
3. If a Cabinet position is vacated for any reason, the President shall either take up the role or hold a special election for the position. While the special election is taking place, the President must either take up the role until the election is complete or appoint an interim minister within 2 days of the position being vacated.
Chapter 5: Instant Runoff Voting
1. For each position in an instant-runoff election, each voter may choose which candidate they would like to vote for as their first choice, second choice, and so on up to the total number of candidates for a given position.
2. At the end of the voting period, the first preference votes are tallied. If one candidate has received a majority of first-choice votes, they are elected.
3. If no candidate holds a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate holding the fewest votes in that round is eliminated. If there is a tie for the candidate with the fewest votes in that round, the candidate to be eliminated is the candidate with less votes than any of the other tied candidates in the last round at which one of those candidates had less votes than any of the others, but, if there has been no such round, all tied candidates are to be eliminated.
4. Ballots whose first choice was the eliminated candidate or candidates are reassigned to their second-choice vote and added to that candidate’s total number of votes. If this results in a candidate having a majority of votes, the candidate is elected.
5. This procedure is repeated until one candidate holds a majority of votes.
6. Ballots which have exhausted all of their candidates are discarded in future rounds.
Chapter 6: Offsite Elections
1. Should the decision be made by the Returning Officer that a poll is to be conducted outside of the DSA website or forum, they must link to the site of the poll and ensure all members are able to submit their votes properly.
2. The system used for the poll must meet the following criteria:
Chapter 7: Primary Voting
1. If more than three (3) nominations are made for a given election, a primary vote shall be held.
2. Voters shall be able to vote for any nominated candidates that they believe should be on the final ballot for that election.
3. The three candidates with the most votes shall be included in the final ballot for that election and shall be voted upon in accordance with the procedures outlined in Chapter 5 of this legislation.
4. Primary votes, if necessitated, shall begin immediately after the nomination period ends and be open for seven (7) days.
5. The final vote shall begin immediately after the primary vote ends.
(Incorporating the Primary Voting Act)
Category: Procedures
Author: Gribelt
The Congress of the Democratic Socialist Assembly,
Affirming that democracy is a core value of the DSA,
Recognizing that the Electoral Procedures Act of 2014 contains problems regarding the scheduling and timing of elections rendering compliance impossible,
Noting that the end of Zetaboards means that the Act must be updated to reflect the future of voting in the DSA,
Hereby enacts the following legislation:
Chapter 1: Repeal
This act repeals in full the Electoral Procedures Act of 2014.
Chapter 2: Legislative Voting Procedures
1. All non-electoral votes shall be conducted by the Returning Officer, who shall be:
a) the Secretary General, or
b) if the Secretary General so determines, a Member of Congress appointed by the Secretary General, or
c) in the absence of the Secretary General, a Returning Officer appointed by the President.
2. On all non-electoral votes, voters shall have the right to cast a vote as FOR, AGAINST, or ABSTAIN.
3. Congressional votes must reach the majority of non-abstention votes to be “FOR” as required for the type of motion or legislation, as outlined in Subsection 2.1.1 of the Charter, to pass.
4. Procedures and timelines for the proposal and voting of legislation is to be followed as per Section 3.2 of the Charter.
Chapter 3: Cabinet Election Timing
1. Subject to this Chapter, the Returning Officer shall determine the timing of Cabinet elections.
2. Cabinet elections shall occur during the last month of the Cabinet in office, consisting of a nomination period of no less than 7 days, and a voting period of no less than 7 days.
3. The voting period shall end no more than 2 days before the start of the Cabinet it is electing.
4. The nomination period shall end no more than 7 days before the start of the voting period.
5. The time between the opening of the nomination period and the entry of the new Cabinet into office shall not exceed 23 days.
6. At the start of the nomination period, the Returning Officer shall list the dates of the end of the nomination period, and the start and end of the voting period.
7. For a special election, the nomination period shall be 4 days, and a voting period of 7 days shall be started immediately on closing of the nomination period for expediency.
8. Timings given by the Returning Officer are subject to the possibility of a primary vote being necessitated.
Chapter 4: Cabinet Elections
1. Cabinet elections are to use instant-runoff voting as outlined in Chapter 5 of this act.
2. If a Charter Member is elected to more than one office, they will be required to declare which office they wish to take up at the start of the new term. The votes cast for that member in other elections will be eliminated from the vote counts for those positions and the results re-calculated accordingly.
3. If a Cabinet position is vacated for any reason, the President shall either take up the role or hold a special election for the position. While the special election is taking place, the President must either take up the role until the election is complete or appoint an interim minister within 2 days of the position being vacated.
Chapter 5: Instant Runoff Voting
1. For each position in an instant-runoff election, each voter may choose which candidate they would like to vote for as their first choice, second choice, and so on up to the total number of candidates for a given position.
2. At the end of the voting period, the first preference votes are tallied. If one candidate has received a majority of first-choice votes, they are elected.
3. If no candidate holds a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate holding the fewest votes in that round is eliminated. If there is a tie for the candidate with the fewest votes in that round, the candidate to be eliminated is the candidate with less votes than any of the other tied candidates in the last round at which one of those candidates had less votes than any of the others, but, if there has been no such round, all tied candidates are to be eliminated.
4. Ballots whose first choice was the eliminated candidate or candidates are reassigned to their second-choice vote and added to that candidate’s total number of votes. If this results in a candidate having a majority of votes, the candidate is elected.
5. This procedure is repeated until one candidate holds a majority of votes.
6. Ballots which have exhausted all of their candidates are discarded in future rounds.
Chapter 6: Offsite Elections
1. Should the decision be made by the Returning Officer that a poll is to be conducted outside of the DSA website or forum, they must link to the site of the poll and ensure all members are able to submit their votes properly.
2. The system used for the poll must meet the following criteria:
- The system must only allow Members of Congress to vote
- The system must not allow duplicate votes from the same Member
- The system must not breach the principles of secret ballot voting
Chapter 7: Primary Voting
1. If more than three (3) nominations are made for a given election, a primary vote shall be held.
2. Voters shall be able to vote for any nominated candidates that they believe should be on the final ballot for that election.
3. The three candidates with the most votes shall be included in the final ballot for that election and shall be voted upon in accordance with the procedures outlined in Chapter 5 of this legislation.
4. Primary votes, if necessitated, shall begin immediately after the nomination period ends and be open for seven (7) days.
5. The final vote shall begin immediately after the primary vote ends.