Electoral Reform - Constitutional Amendments and Bills

[Patroklus Murakami]

In the last general election the CSDF proposed that we reform the electoral system. We said "We want to reform the electoral system so that all citizens can rank candidates for office, as is the privilege now of those citizens in a faction. We propose the Single Transferable Vote system as yet another way to enhance the citizens' representation, by allowing them to choose directly their representantives.

We also want to solve the problem of local v. national representation by making all RA representatives local representatives in one, national legislature."

A fuller description of the rationale for this proposal is [url=http://forums.neufreistadt.info/viewtop ... 7:quzdlcoa]here[/url:quzdlcoa].

I'm putting forward the following Constitutional Amendments and two Bills for consideration by the RA and debate by the community.
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[b:quzdlcoa]Proposed Constitutional Amendment - Electoral Reform[/b:quzdlcoa]
The following sections of the Constitution are amended to read as follows:

[b:quzdlcoa]Article I, Section 1 - The Representative Assembly[/b:quzdlcoa]
The Representative Assembly (RA) is a body of democratically elected citizens which represent different ideological views. Its governmental role is to pass laws and its service role is to promote the city and perform long-term planning.

[b:quzdlcoa]Section 2 - The Representative Assembly Body[/b:quzdlcoa]
Representatives are elected by means of the Single Transferable Vote in Multi-Member Constituencies. The minimum number of votes needed to elect a representative is calculated using the 'Droop Quota'.

Each sim or franchulate is a constituency of the CDS. The number of representatives for each constituency is proportional to the number of citizens registered there. The total number of seats in the RA is determined by law with a minimum of five seats and a maximum of forty seats.

Each faction controls their seats and may replace members or fill seats due to vacancies as they see fit. Each seat receives a single vote.

The Representative Assembly shall serve for a term of six months. New RAs shall take office on 1 February and 1 August. Elections shall be held over a 168 hour period beginning at noon SLT on the Saturday before the 16th of the month prior to the new RAs taking office. In the event of a server outage which prevents citizens from casting ballots and which lasts more than 12 hours, the Dean of the SC has the authority to adjust or extend the election schedule.

[b:quzdlcoa]Section 3 - The Representative Assembly Leader[/b:quzdlcoa]
The Leader of the RA is the member of the faction which has the most seats who was elected earliest during the count. In the event of a tie between two or more factions (or between two or more candidates of the same faction), the tie will be broken by one (in the event of a two way tie) or more (in the case of a three or more way tie) best of three games of Rock,Paper, Scissors among the faction heads/founders. The games shall be overseen by the dean of the SC, who shall be the custodian of the official city RPS device.

[b:quzdlcoa]Article IV, Section 2 - The Faction Body[/b:quzdlcoa]
All faction members must be citizens of the Confederation of the Democratic Simulators and must join a special SL group created for the sole purpose of running for seats in the RA. No citizen is required to be part of a faction and cannot be a member of more than one faction at the same time.

The minimum faction size is equal to three. No later than 15 days prior to the opening of the polls, faction members will report to the SC Dean their willingness or unwillingness to serve in the RA. Members rank individuals in their own faction through their vote in the election. Individuals will learn their ranks and those winning seats will have their ranks revealed, otherwise all ranks will remain secret. The faction vote will be taken at the same time as the election. If a member retires from the RA, the faction member with the next highest ranking takes the seat on the RA.

In the event that a faction, via resignation or impeachment, exhausts its list of eligible RA members drawn up at the previous general election during the course of an RA term:

1) If the faction no longer meets the constitutional requirements or if no members of the faction are willing to serve, there shall be a special election to fill, for the remainder of the term, the seats left vacant.

2) If the faction the list of which is exhausted still meets constitutional requirements as spelled out in Article V, and there are members of that faction who did not stand in that constituency in the previous general election willing to fill the vacated seats, members of the affected faction shall rank those candidates to fill the vacated seats as they do in the general election.

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[b:quzdlcoa]Citizen Registration Bill[/b:quzdlcoa]

Citizens are registered to vote in the sim or franchulate where they hold title to land. Where citizens hold land in more than one sim or franchulate they must declare which sim they wish to be registered to vote in to the Estate Owner at least 28 days before the election is due to be held. Where citizens fail to notify the Estate Owner of their intentions they will be deemed to be registered to vote in the first sim or franchulate they held title to land in.

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[b:quzdlcoa]RA Size Bill[/b:quzdlcoa]

[i:quzdlcoa]Rationale[/i:quzdlcoa]
The Representative Assembly must be large enough to adequately represent the diversity of political views held within the CDS yet small enough to make meetings productive.

[i:quzdlcoa]Preamble[/i:quzdlcoa]
This Act determines the number of representatives with respect to population size. As the CDS grows the number of representatives per head of population will reduce so that the RA does not become too large and unwieldy.

1. When the CDS has a population less than or equal to 400 citizens in total, the number of representatives for each constituency is equal to the whole number nearest to 10% of the citizens registered there rounded down.

2. When the CDS has a population between 401 and 800 citizens in total, the number of representatives for each constituency is equal to the whole number nearest to 5% of the citizens registered there rounded down.

3. When the CDS has a population between 801 and 2000 citizens in total, the number of representatives for each constituency is equal to the whole number nearest to 2% of the citizens registered there rounded down.

4. When the CDS has a population between 2001 and 4000 citizens in total, the number of representatives for each constituency is equal to the whole number nearest to 1% of the citizens registered there rounded down.

5. When the CDS population grows to 4000 citizens (or falls below 50 citizens) the RA must develop a new RA Size Act to replace this one.

[Claude Desmoulins]

I'm going to outline here rather than do full bill text. A few things came out in today's meeting:

1. Pat's proposed RA size bill would mean that as we crossed each threshold, the RA would shrink back (for example 10% of 390 is 39, but 5% of 405 is 20)

2. If a constituency didn't meet the threshold for a seat, some citizens would be unrepresented.

So here's my try:

1.The size of the RA will be determined by legislation with a minimum of five seats and a maximum of 40 seats. In the event of a tie vote in the RA, the head of the executive branch breaks the tie except if the tie is in the case of a vote to elect the head of the executive branch and the current/outgoing head is standing for re-election.

2.Of the RA seats, 1/3 rounded up to the next whole number will be "national" or "at large" seats. They would be elected much as RA seats are now. Citizens would rank factions and faction members would rank candidates within the faction. However, an STV system would be used to allow voters to not rank all factions or candidates if only some were acceptable.

3. The remaining seats would be apportioned to "geographic constituencies" by population subject to the following restrictions.

a. Each citizen would choose a sim or franchulate of primary residence (essentially Pat's citizen registration bill)

b. Each sim or franchulate with a minimum registered population (I'd say 10 or 15) would have at least one constituency seat. If necessary, constituency seats and at large seats would be added to the RA to ensure this and maintain the 1/3 -2/3 balance.

c. Sims and franchulates not meeting the minimum population requirement would be grouped together as a single constituency.

4. Constituency seats would be stood for by individuals with no requirement to belong to a faction. An STV system would be used. A candidate could declare themselves as being attached to a faction , or could be independent.

5. The LRA would be the first at large elected member of the faction with the most seats in the RA. If the faction with the most seats has no at large members, members of the faction in question will rank all its RA members via STV to determine the LRA.

[Rose Springvale]

I don't get it.

Are you saying that because there are more "citizens" in NFS, they are entitled to more say in the CDS government? That each sim gets an assigned number based on population, and then within that assigned number, factions must be chosen to rank candidates?

If yes,I'd like to register dissent. I don't think it serves us well to have one persons vote count more than another, whether it be in a lower populated sim or a higher density one. I'm still in favor of all citizens votes counting equally, one CDS.. no delineation between sims, and the ability to assign my vote to the candidates i choose without regard to factions.

But that's a decidedly U.S. philosophy, and maybe too easy....

I'd frankly love to see the issue of increased size tabled until it is truly an issue. I think we have something like 80 citizens today. Barring something monumental coming from the citizens discussion, it will be quite some time before we cross those thresholds of concern. I'm all for planning for the future, but would much rather see focus on the near term accessibility and functions of the CDS.

And no, i'm neither willing to join a faction nor serve as a representative. And i'm supposed to be on vacation so please forgive me for hit and run posting.

[Patroklus Murakami]

[quote="Rose Springvale":4fmsxn1k]Are you saying that because there are more "citizens" in NFS, they are entitled to more say in the CDS government? That each sim gets an assigned number based on population, and then within that assigned number, factions must be chosen to rank candidates?

If yes,I'd like to register dissent. I don't think it serves us well to have one persons vote count more than another, whether it be in a lower populated sim or a higher density one. I'm still in favor of all citizens votes counting equally, one CDS.. no delineation between sims, and the ability to assign my vote to the candidates i choose without regard to factions.[/quote:4fmsxn1k]Surely, if there are more citizens in one constituency than another they deserve to have more representatives? It would be quite wrong if NFS had 60 citizens and CN had 30 if they both had the same number of representatives; a vote in CN would be 'worth' twice as much as a vote in NFS.

One way to make sure that all votes count equally is to treat the whole of the CDS as one constituency as Rose suggests. That's the way we've done it up until now and it may be that we decide to proceed on that basis, the proposal can be adapted in that direction quite easily. The only reason for making the suggestion is that there has been some call for 'local' representation. This proposal would make all representatives 'local' representatives in one 'national' legislature which solves the problem rather elegantly. But if people don't feel it's necessary it's not essential.

[Sleazy_Writer]

[quote="Patroklus Murakami":6dut5i7p]there has been some call for 'local' representation[/quote:6dut5i7p]
For what reason? Can you please list the reasons for this? That would be interesting. I fail to see the need for this until we have 8+ sims or so.

[Beathan]

TOP --

I fail to see why the desirability of local distinction (and local representation) has anything to do with the number of sims we have. If local distinction is a good thing (and I think it is) -- then it is good for two sims, and good for ten. If unity of the CDS is desirable above all local distinction (and many others think it is) -- then local representation is undesirable no matter how many sims we have.

I believe that our current sims differ markedly in theme and feel. I think these differences are to be celebrated and enhanced -- and that they would be celebrated and enhanced by local representation. In my experience, local representatives not only represent and protect the interests of their constituents -- they enhance the lives of those constituents by forming a nucleus around which a geographically defined community can form.

Beathan

[Sleazy_Writer]

[quote:3cm8shtr]Why would local representation have to do with the number of sims?[/quote:3cm8shtr]With more sims, I can imagine voters feeling out of touch with representatives. If that happened for 8+ sims, local representation would help. This reasoning doesn't count for the current situation of two or three sims.

[quote="Beathan":3cm8shtr]* If local distinction is a good thing (and I think it is) [then local representation is desirable]

* local representatives (...) they enhance the lives of those constituents by forming a nucleus (...)[/quote:3cm8shtr]Pat, surely there are [i:3cm8shtr]more[/i:3cm8shtr] reasons for local representation? (not that these are bad reasons, that second observation is a very interesting one )

[quote="Aliasi Stonebender in the Simplicity thread":3cm8shtr]While I'm not opposed to removing the utter necessity of factions (...)[/quote:3cm8shtr]Correct me if I'm wrong or misunderstood you, but the way I read the bill, it doesn't do away with factions but just allows ranking candidates instead of factions.

[Gxeremio Dimsum]

I think I understand the gist of the localization argument, and also the reasons to avoid having one vote count more than another.

This goes back to a proposal I made some time ago, to replace the faction system as it currently stands with a patronage system. The basic idea is that to become an RA member, a person would need to have X number of citizens sign up to be represented by them. A citizen would only be able to have one patron, but a particular representative could represent as many citizens as wanted to have them. So it might look like this:

Arnold Avatar represents 10 people.
Barbara Binary represents 7 people.
Carla Cool represents 15 people.
And so on.

This makes it possible to have a local representative (if you want one) or one that represents specific citizens in multiple sims. It also makes representatives more accountable to specific citizens, as they do not want to drop below the number of supporters needed to keep them in the RA.

If this seems like it would lead to personality cults too much, a similar system could be established for parties, where each party has a slate of candidates that is filled as they get citizens who want to be represented by that party.

This system could either be done via periodic elections, or by the ongoing ability to change patrons at whatever time, meaning elections would in effect be ongoing.