Election Commission — 5th Meeting: Sunday, 29, 11 AM SLT

Proposals for legislation and discussions of these

Moderator: SC Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Gwyneth Llewelyn
Forum Wizard
Forum Wizard
Posts: 1183
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:00 am
Contact:

Election Commission — 5th Meeting: Sunday, 29, 11 AM SLT

Post by Gwyneth Llewelyn »

There are still some issues pending regarding the campaigning, which the Election Commission will try to figure out and make a revised proposal.

Come and meet with us on the Colonia Nova Thermae, on Sunday, August 29, 2010, at 11 AM SLT.

"I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country."
  -- Philip "Linden" Rosedale, interview to Wired, 2004-05-08

PGP Fingerprint: CE8A 6006 B611 850F 1275 72BA D93E AA3D C4B3 E1CB

User avatar
Gwyneth Llewelyn
Forum Wizard
Forum Wizard
Posts: 1183
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:00 am
Contact:

Re: Election Commission — 5th Meeting: Sunday, 29, 11 AM SLT

Post by Gwyneth Llewelyn »

To be discussed today....

Hello all,

The topic for today, pending from the RA meeting of August 21, is to rethink the proposals made for campaigning, since the RA felt that some issues were not properly discussed.

To recap, here is the proposed text so far, created during the first meetings of the Election Commission:

Campaigning Act

1. Campaigning starts officially two weeks before the last election day.
2. Campaigning ought to be supervised by the SC as they see fit, trying to keep a balance between limiting spam and allowing free access of candidates to do their campaigning. The RA might pass further legislation regarding campaigning, to be enforced by the SC.
3. Candidates would be allowed ONE group notice, with an attached notecard, announcing their candidacy and stating their platform; no further campaigning/political group notices are allowed. However, if candidates wish to "sponsor" a general event and use it to raise awareness as candidates, that's fine — as an event, it will be announced as usually on any official CDS channels for communication.
4. Each candidate should be allowed to post their own notice.
5. The Executive should collect notecards/pictures from candidates and set up a board (possibly at several locations) where citizens can learn about what the candidates stand for and organize events where citizens can fairly meet all candidates.

---

The issues raised were the following (see relevant transcript starting here: http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php? ... 040#p16235):

Patroklus Murakami: what does "no further campaigning/political group notices are allowed." mean?

Are faction notices (even though factions are not "official" any more) part of the limit?

Rose Springvale asked the same questions regarding other "non-government" groups which nevertheless are semi-officially used for some official work, e.g. Land Verwaltung, Colonia Nova, New Guild, MoCA... Does this bill extend to them as well?

Lilith Ivory notices that she wouldn't be happy with spam from private groups either (e.g. non-official, non-governmental groups... like the Historical Society, regional groups, and so forth). Does this legislation cover them? Has the RA any jurisdiction over those anyway?

Tor Karlsvalt suggests only one notice on the CDS groups and one on the other groups. "CDS groups" are to be defined by the Communications Commission and need not be addressed.

But some questions were raised about the "official CDS channels". Are candidates allowed to use the forums? If so, if they publish a notice on the forums, does that count to the total or not? Cindy Ecksol also asked about IMs in the CDS group chat — would they count or not?

Then comes the new possibility, suggested by this commission, that candidates are allowed to throw parties and sponsor events, so long as those are not announced as "political campaigns" but just community events where people can meet the candidates.

A further complexity is added on this case. Cindy Ecksol asks what happens if friends announce events on behalf of a candidate, and make it clear it's a campaigning event? Are those counted towards the total? Since this legislation only covers what candidates can do or not, what about a candidate that has several friends, each posting a campaigning notice?

A suggestion was made that the rule specifies the limit of announcements that goes "through the official channels", e.g. all that require government intervention to post. However, this would mean that all group notices would have to go through the Executive. The question was then raised about the Executive being not unbiased nor neutral during an election. And what happens during the *Chancellor* elections?

Tor Karlsvalt also asks if candidates are allowed to post a sign about the event. Also, this proposed legislation doesn't mention rezzed signs, boards, and other visual campaigning/promotional ads that can be displayed in a virtual world like Second Life. Should those be restricted?

Cindy Ecksol notes that there might simply be too many options and that the best choice might simply be not to restrict anything during the campaigning weeks. To be discussed.

Final note: volunteers to write a short FAQ on STV are welcome.

"I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country."
  -- Philip "Linden" Rosedale, interview to Wired, 2004-05-08

PGP Fingerprint: CE8A 6006 B611 850F 1275 72BA D93E AA3D C4B3 E1CB

User avatar
Gwyneth Llewelyn
Forum Wizard
Forum Wizard
Posts: 1183
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:00 am
Contact:

Re: Election Commission — 5th Meeting: Sunday, 29, 11 AM SLT

Post by Gwyneth Llewelyn »

Nobody actually appeared, so I'm rescheduling the meeting for Tuesday, 31, at 2 PM SLT.

The announcement will follow shortly, as well as the calendar change.

"I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country."
  -- Philip "Linden" Rosedale, interview to Wired, 2004-05-08

PGP Fingerprint: CE8A 6006 B611 850F 1275 72BA D93E AA3D C4B3 E1CB

Post Reply

Return to “Legislative Discussion”