[Sanctaria]

Yes.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Let's let the World Cup finish up as well. We Arn't in any hurry, we have literally 6 months before the bill would take effect any ways. Therefor, we have until Laeral's term expires to write it up. That seems like plenty of time to me.

[Grosseschnauzer]

I think the comments since my last post strongly indicate a consensus. I have no issue with addressing the post-VD line of succession separately. I would suggest a transition clause to this new legislation to address the current delegate term, if we’re to allow the completion of that term. My suggestion would be that the first election extend from the expiration of the end of that term until the January or July, whichever makes it about 7 months, and that the incumbent delegate be term limited for that election. I think that would be the fairest way. Otherwise we speaking of an very short caretaker term excluded from term limits, which makes little sense.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

How about an election every 6 months and then a one month transition period, since that is what happened anyway from what I have seen?

[Bears Armed]

Could we get this sorted out in time for the next election? I'm almost certainly going to be a bit short of time myself, so won't volunteer to produce the final draft for voting. Anybody?

[Sanctaria]

The election is in June/July. 2019.

I think we're fine.

[Sanctaria]

Also this is my draft. If anyone else wants to draft one, use a different thread.

[Sanctaria]

Taking into consideration comments made here, I present a new draft:

The Delegacy Elections Act
A bylaw to regulate the frequency and administration of elections in the IDU

The International Democratic Union States Assembly,

THANKFUL for the democratic reality that we utilise elections to choose our leader,

COGNISANT that, in a healthy democracy, elections are held at reasonable lengths,

BELIEVING that the maximum of 1 year between elections, as permitted by the Regional Charter, is overly generous,

Hereby Resolves the Following

§1 Frequency and Process of the Delegate Scheduled Elections

1. There shall be Scheduled Elections for Delegate every six (6) months;

2. Voting for the office of Delegate in these Scheduled Elections will begin on January 1st (hereafter referred to as Schedule I Elections), and July 1st (hereafter referred to as Schedule II Elections);

3. The Election Commissioner shall oversee candidacy declarations, the voting process, and the declaration of the winner. The Election Commissioner shall be the Speaker of IDUSA. If the Speaker is themselves a candidate, or if they will be unavailable or indisposed, they must appoint a proxy to fulfil these duties and obligations;

4. Nominations for candidates for the Schedule I Elections shall open on December 18th. Nominations for candidates for the Schedule II Elections shall open on June 17th. The time period for declaration of candidacy shall last no less than five (5) days, and no more than ten (10) days. The Election Commissioner shall have the discretion to set the time period within those boundaries;

5. Voting shall last for seven (7) days. The Election Commissioner shall have the discretion to extend voting up to a maximum of five (5) further days;

6. Voting shall take place in the voting chamber of the IDU States Assembly. Votes shall be cast by voice/text vote. No poll to count, tally, or otherwise collate the votes cast shall be valid.

§2 Candidate and Voter Eligibility

1. Only member nations of IDUSA who are also members of the World Assembly shall be eligible to be a candidate for, and hold the office of, Delegate;

2. No member nation who has served two (2) consecutive terms as Delegate shall be eligible to seek any further term(s) unless, and until, another member nation has succeeded them and served at least one (1) full term as Delegate;

3. Each member nation of IDUSA is allocated one (1) vote, and the usage of puppet states in the voting process is forbidden. The Election Commissioner will ensure that all votes be cast in public to verify that (a) fraud has not occurred, and (b) that puppet states have not been utilised;

4. These Candidate and Voter Eligibility Regulations shall apply for all Scheduled and Special Elections for the Delegacy.

§3 Special Elections

1. IDUSA shall call Special Elections for the office of Delegate if the office is vacated, either through resignation, inactivity, or impeachment;

2. Should the office of Delegate be vacated within one (1) month of the next Scheduled Elections, no Special Elections shall occur. The office shall remain vacant and the duties of the office fulfilled by the next active member in the Line of Succession who meets the eligibility criteria in §§2.1—2.2;

3. Provision may be made by law to regulate and determine a Line of Succession;

4. The Election Commissioner shall oversee candidacy declarations, the voting process, and the declaration of the winner. The Election Commissioner shall be the Speaker of IDUSA. If the Speaker is themselves a candidate, or if they will be unavailable or indisposed, they must appoint a proxy to fulfil these duties and obligations;

5. Nominations for candidates for Special Elections shall open not more than thirty-six (36) hours after the office of Delegate is vacated. Nominations shall last for five (5) days;

6. Voting shall last for seven (7) days. The Election Commissioner shall have the discretion to extend voting up to a maximum of three (3) further days;

7. Delegates elected via Special Elections shall only serve until the next Scheduled Elections.

§4 Results and Run-offs

1. The Election Commissioner shall announce the results of the election promptly after the voting period has ended;

2. The candidate with the most votes shall be declared the winner and Delegate;

3. Should there be an equal numbers of votes (i.e. a tie) between the candidates polling the highest number of votes, a run-off election shall be held. The run-off election shall no more than thirty-six (36) hours after the results have been announced and shall last seven (7) days only;

4. Should the run-off election result in yet another tie between the two highest polling candidates, length of continuous and non-broken membership of IDUSA shall be considered the tie-breaker. Should the two highest polling candidates also tie in terms of length of continuous and non-broken members of IDUSA, the candidate who has resided the longest in the IDU, without a break, shall be declared the winner;

5. The candidate who receives the second highest number of votes, immediately behind the Delegate, shall be declared the Vice Delegate. Should no candidate exist, or should there be a tie between candidates holding the second highest number of votes, the Delegate shall have discretion in choosing the Vice Delegate.

§6 Regulations

1. The first Scheduled Elections this Act shall apply to will be the July 2019 Schedule II Elections;

2. Any allegations of impropriety, fraud, or malfeasance, shall be referred to the IDU Judiciary Committee;

3. Any serving member of the IDU Judiciary Committee who is a candidate, the Election Commissioner, or the outgoing Delegate, shall not be permitted to hear the case, and shall recuse themselves from it.

[Gardavasque]

Great work! This looks clear to me. The only feedback I can think of would be to maybe specify a time zone to avoid those situations when someone in Last Minute, Hawai'i believing they still have 90 seconds before midnight to cast their vote, but it doesn't count because, for the Election Commissioner who maybe lives in - I don't know Dublin Ireland - it's already well into the day and the results are in. Far fetched, maybe, but in the country I live in, we fret about razor thin elections a whole-freaking-lot since 2016. Anyway, Happy New Year to all!

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Just say UTC midnight and that solves the problem. Otherwise, looks good to me. Great job!

[Sanctaria]

Honestly, it's not a problem.

I'm not going to specify a certain timezone in a bill because (a) it's unnecessary and (b) an Election Commissioner might be from a different timezone and if I specify, say, Noon GMT, that's, what, 4am Pacific time? So the Election Commissioner would have to get up at 4am his/her time? That's not fair and not workable.

It's enough for the bill to set out minimum and maximum days. The Election Commissioner can then use whatever timezone is most useful to them.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

That works too.

The election commissioner wouldn’t need to get up at five am though. He/she could just wake up at his/her usual time and count any vote cast passed 12:00 UTC time as invalid. Your way still is probably better.

As far as Article 1 goes: I think that the bare minimum length for declaring candidacy should be 7 days not 5. I imagine some people are only available on maybe one or two days out of the week. In fairness to them, a full week period should be given. I am not to worried about that because I figure most people who are going to be active only 2-3 days a week will not be running for delegate. It is just a thought.

[Sanctaria]

That works too.

The election commissioner wouldn’t need to get up at five am though. He/she could just wake up at his/her usual time and count any vote cast passed 12:00 UTC time as invalid. Your way still is probably better.

As far as Article 1 goes: I think that the bare minimum length for declaring candidacy should be 7 days not 5. I imagine some people are only available on maybe one or two days out of the week. In fairness to them, a full week period should be given. I am not to worried about that because I figure most people who are going to be active only 2-3 days a week will not be running for delegate. It is just a thought.

The bolded above is exactly why I have it as 5 days. If someone can't commit to being on once every 5 days, then clearly that inactivity is a bar to them being an effective Delegate. And the region shouldn't encourage that.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Fair enough. I have no further suggestions.

[Sanctaria]

I'd like to motion this to vote.

[United New England]

Seconded

[Sanctaria]

Happy to see this pass.