Quote: Quote: Applauding the efforts of both the World Assembly and individual nations to bring the benefits of democracy to everyone;
Understanding that for some nations it is impossible to set up an adequate number of polling locations to serve all enfranchised citizens due to many varying factors;
Believing democracy can only succeed when all citizens have equal opportunities to vote;
Seeking a solution that will prevent voting from being difficult to any citizen;[/quote]
I know it's only pre-ambulatory, but I'd be very careful about going overboard because of non-democratic nations who are still in the WA - particularly the last line.
Also I personally use commas to end sentences in the pre-amble, and then semi-colons in the operative clauses[/quote]
Noted, I'll see what I can do to tone it down just a tad.
Quote: Quote: 1. Defines, for the purpose of this resolution, "Absentee ballot" as a vote cast a reasonable amount of time before a public election by a registered voter who is either unable or
unwilling to vote in their designated voting precinct;[/quote]
I don't quite understand unwilling. Why might someone be unwilling to vote in their designated precinct? Unwilling sounds like they're being made do something under duress. I'm sure you're probably referencing those situations where, perhaps, the polling station may be in a white racist area and the voter could be black, but voter intimidation would certainly fall under "unable" to vote, I would personally posit.[/quote]Well, voter intimidation was one consideration. Another was of people who wouldn't be in the area of their precinct during polling time, like if they're on a vacation or business trip or something else. What would be a better word than unwilling?
Quote: Quote: 2. Requires that, upon request, any citizen be given access to an absentee ballot, whether physically, electronically, or otherwise, that can be filled out and sent to the nation's Electoral Commission or equivalent body to be counted;[/quote]
So already we're touching on making democracy and elections compulsory - here you are saying any citizen, in any WA country, can demand a ballot. You're also legalising, perhaps inadvertently, prisoners being able to vote if they have hither-fore been unable to. I would revisit this.[/quote]
Hmm, I totally see where you're coming from with this. How would this work as a beginning of a solution?
"2. Requires that, upon request, any citizen who would otherwise be allowed to vote in an existing election but is unable to visit a polling location without undue stress, cost, or other concerns be given access to an absentee ballot, whether pysical, electronic, or otherwise, that can be filled out and sent to the nation's Electoral Commission or equivalent body to be counted;"
It's awfully verbose and not at all elegant - and potentially filled with loopholes - but I feel like it covers it a bit better. Would it be possible for nations to use this requirement and just ban/disallow demographics (disabled, remote, etc.) from voting through passing laws as to not have to comply with this?
Quote: Quote: 3. Specifies that all mail-in ballots shall be treated equally to ballots cast at official polling locations as equals and that preference shall not be given to either set;[/quote]
This is the first mention of mail-in ballot - do you mean absentee ballot? You should stick to the same language throughout the proposal.[/quote]
Yup, you're right. That was a slip-up of mine. It needs to be changed to absentee ballot.
Quote: Quote: 4. Clarifies that,
a. Absentee ballots shall only be required for public elections;
b. Nothing in this resolution shall prevent nations from instituting reasonable measures to counteract electoral fraud so long as these measures are not used to disenfranchise sections of the electorate;[/quote]
So I understand where you're going with this, but some more clarifications may be needed. By public elections, do you mean state-ran elections? Or any election that is open to the public - local neighbourhood dogwalker, perhaps.[/quote]
Yeah, I meant any government office that is filled through elections, so state-run.
Quote: With this proposal there's also the problem where it can be considered optional by those without democracies, which could render it illegal. I would suggest putting in another operative clause that can be binding on any nation, regardless of whether or not elections are legal. Nothing comes to mind immediately to me, but have a think on it. Perhaps something like "MANDATES that no member state shall compel their citizens to pay for postage if it is mail being sent to an organ of the State" or something like that.[/quote]
My understanding, especially after chatting with some of the folks on the WA Discord server, is that it's perfectly fine to have a proposal that doesn't really apply to some nations. If we passed something that only required that all cars in member nations need to have seatbelts, we aren't going to be forcing every member nation to allow cars in their nation in order to comply. That's stupid.
Likewise, taking the current proposal at vote - Auralia's "Convention on Net Neutrality" - everything in that resolution pertains to nations in the Internet Era or later. Fantasy/Past Tech nations have nothing to do if that passes. There's no mention in it of anything other than Internet and Network communication. FT/PT nations aren't going to be forced to have computers and the internet in order to comply with it.
I'm sure Bears would be happy to weigh in on it too
Thanks for the critique, btw. It's really helpful.
