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Proposal [Proposal] Assembly Procedure Act Polls Amendment

New Rogernomics

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Assembly Procedure Act Polls Amendment

Proposed by:
@New Rogernomics

Additional Credit to: @McChimp

Preamble

This amendment shall set a requirement for votes of the Assembly to be enacted within a reasonable time.

Section 1. Amendment of Section 2. Legislative Procedures in the Assembly Procedure Act


(1) The sub-section to be amended currently reads:

(8) All votes will take place for five days. Citizens eligible to vote may vote "Aye" or "For," "Nay" or "Against," or "Abstain" or "Present." Voters may not post any other content in a voting thread or embellish the format of their vote in any way, and votes that include additional content or embellishment will be discarded and split from the voting thread. Voters may cast their votes by posting in each voting thread.

(2) Section 2. Legislative Procedures shall be amended to include:

(8) All votes will take place for five days. Citizens eligible to vote may vote "Aye" or "For," "Nay" or "Against," or "Abstain" or "Present." Voters may cast their votes by voting in self-closing polls in each voting thread. The names of the players who voted for each option must be visible to the Assembly. Voters' posts that include additional content or embellishment will be discarded and split from the voting thread.

Assembly Procedure Act Procedures Enactment Amendment

Proposed by:
@New Rogernomics

Preamble

This amendment shall set a requirement for votes of the Assembly to be enacted within a reasonable time.

Section 1. Amendment of Section 2. Legislative Procedures in the Assembly Procedure Act

(1) Section 2. Legislative Procedures shall be amended to include:

(10) Votes may also be tallied and declared to have passed or failed by a Court Justice or by forum administration, after the allotted time to vote has passed by over three days. Any citizen may also petition a member of the Court of Lazarus or forum administration to tally the votes and make a declaration over whether a vote has passed or failed, after the allotted time to vote has passed by over three days.

It is a point of concern that legislative procedures do not require a vote to be closed and enacted within a set time frame, and also that a vote being the will of the Assembly is reliant solely on the Assembly Speaker, as they are not required to appoint Deputy Speakers.

It is also a point of concern that if an Assembly Speaker and/or their Deputies were absent, the same issue of concern would result, that being the constitutional right of citizens to have their will enacted being in violation, even if the mandate doesn't imply so specifically - which is a legal question for the court, not here.

So then it comes down to who could be legally relied upon to follow the law, and has been empowered by the Assembly to represent the region in interpreting those laws, which is a Court Justice. It seems reasonable that they should be empowered to force the will of the Assembly to be enacted. Masking could be provided to allow them to do so.

While it might not commonly fall under forum administration, in this situation a decision has already been made by the Assembly. It only requires talling the votes, and stating the obvious conclusion that a vote has passed or failed. Technically, only a forum administrator currently has the masked ability outside of the Assembly Speaker or their Deputies to do so, and to be trusted to do so without ill-intent or bias. Though this amendment would regardless place a Court Justice as a check on their actions.

If you think something needs to be edited or altered in this proposal let me know.

Edit: Changed it to over three days, and combined the passage.

This would amend the Assembly Procedures Act so that auto-closing polls take the place of the current manual votes, which would resolve the issue of not only counting the votes but closing them in a prompt manner.
 
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This all assumes that a law isn't law as soon as the time has pasted. This assumes that a law only becomes the law when the Assembly Speaker closes the vote, and I've never looked at it that way. A poll, for example, would close the vote without the Assembly Speaker actually closing the vote.
 
This all assumes that a law isn't law as soon as the time has pasted. This assumes that a law only becomes the law when the Assembly Speaker closes the vote, and I've never looked at it that way. A poll, for example, would close the vote without the Assembly Speaker actually closing the vote.
This is required as not just one, but many Assembly Speakers have taken days if not weeks to close votes. This is a consistently reoccurring issue, as a result of absence or real-life events that take their attention. It is not unreasonable to provide basis to close and ensure votes are enacted within the period of the vote ending.

If Assembly Speakers actually were required to make polls or did so on a regular basis that point might hold merit, but Assembly Speakers are not required to and holding polls would be purely up to the opinion of the Assembly Speaker over whether a poll should be used. Even if you were to hold polls for example, there is no guarantee or requirement for any Assembly Speaker after you to do so.

It isn't a thing against any one Assembly Speaker, but rather a necessary amendment to ensure that if a vote has effectively been passed, there is a way to help the Assembly Speaker out and close a vote and enact it, within a reasonable time frame. Many of these times couldn't be considered reasonable time passed between a vote ending, and it being tallied and certified.

Why this is needed can be seen in the following threads, it is a reoccurring issue:

Examples of Nomination threads:
Examples of Judicial threads:
Examples of treaties:
Examples of General laws:
And far more can be found in the votes.

There has become a need for this because it isn't just a one-off thing, but a recurring and consistent issue with Assembly procedures, as if the Assembly Speaker does not appoint a Deputy Speaker, or both the Assembly Speaker and Deputy Speaker are not available, the Assembly could have to wait from three days to almost half a month for something to be certified or enacted.
 
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As for answering these aspects:
This all assumes that a law isn't law as soon as the time has pasted.
Votes need to be certified by the Assembly Speaker. I am not allowed to tally the votes unless authorized to unless you were to for instance make me a Deputy Speaker or specify that I am allowed to close it, tally it, and declare the outcome of the vote.
This assumes that a law only becomes the law when the Assembly Speaker closes the vote, and I've never looked at it that way.
As above, when the Assembly Speaker tallies the vote and posts that it has passed or failed, or otherwise changes the thread title to say it has passed, then certification has been issued.
A poll, for example, would close the vote without the Assembly Speaker actually closing the vote.
A poll could close the vote, but that would only apply to when there is a poll, and a poll is not a consistent requirement of all or any vote. The Assembly Speaker could still be required to declare that the vote has passed, however. As I said however, the Court could only answer the question whether a vote has passed without the Assembly Speaker making a statement towards the outcome of its passage.

I am open to changing the time frame in the act, however. It doesn't have to be 24 hours as it could be over 3 days. The issue is making sure that whatever the circumstances or the situation, we can be sure that within a reasonable time frame all votes are certified, and whatever decision of the Assembly is enacted where it passes.

Edit: Combined the passage.
 
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I'll motion this sometime next week, so everyone has time to look it over since there is no rush on this as such.
 
Unless this needs further discussion, this should be ready to motion to vote.

The revision is shown above, and the past version has a spoiler.
 
I motion this to vote.
 
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