LAWA01: On Ministerial Elections and Resignations

[ZOM]

nish and i spent a couple of hours brainstorming, and we've decided that some protocol for ministerial elections and resignations need to be better defined!

firstly, we've decided that ministerial terms should last 3 months, beginning when they are elected up until the next election. there is no limit to the number of terms a minister can have their position, and they will still be ministers up until the end of an election in which they are voted out or decline to run, but we needed to have a set time at which we hold elections. that means there will be 4 elections per year, one in each of the following months: march, june, september, december.

next, we have decided that elections should double as consensuses -- ergo, if you don't vote in the poll, your account gets deleted. we will put a "none of the above" option in the poll for those who wish to exercise their right not to vote. if we use this method, we won't have to worry about, say, only 45% of the population voting and thus all of those votes are invalidated; instead, we will know exactly how many members are active, and we will know for sure that the votes are an accurate representation of that.

finally, and perhaps most importantly, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the protocol should be if a minister resigns prematurely. the minister is meant to be an elected representative of the solastellan member base, and so we had to make sure that at least to some degree replacing that minister was a democratic decision. we came to the decision that protocol will be different depending on which part of the minister's term we are in, and also that a minister must give a week's notice on their resignation so that these protocol can go into effect:

• if it is the first month of their term, then whoever came in second place in the most recent election will be the new minister. since the vote was relatively recent, we feel that this is fair and representative.
  
• if the resignation is announced in the second month of their term, then during the week after the announcement, any staff member may nominate themselves (by PMing the first minister) for a snap staff-only election for interim minister. at the end of that week, a poll in the legislative assembly will be opened and will remain open for 3 days or until all staff members have voted. the winner of the poll will then act as minister until the site-wide election. since we really shouldn't be without a minister for long stretches of time, we felt that this is the best method of doing things quickly while still putting it to a vote.
  
• if resignation is announced in the third month of the minister's term, then the usual, proper site-wide consensus/vote will be held early.

after going over our options we decided that this was the fairest solution we could reach. if you have any critiques or suggestions for improvement, please post to say so! and whether you do or not, please vote in the poll. if you wish to change your vote, you are allowed to retract it and re-vote. once we're all agreed on this, we'll make it official. :]

[Seas]

Just want to ask: This will be put into the rules so that all members can read it after we're done, yes? And we'll announce it?

[ZOM]

welp, there's five of us, and that's five "agreed" votes. unless anyone has anything to add, i'm gonna lock the poll tomorrow.

yep, seas, that's right :3 we're going to need to make an announcement about the upcoming election since crim is resigning, anyhow, so we can just let them know about the changes in that same mass message.

nish, would you like me to try and condense all of this so it can be added to the upper staff guide, or would you rather do it? either way is fine by me! although i'm pretty busy tomorrow so it might be a little late when i get it done hehe.

[➤ GRAZ !]

Can you condense it down into rules please? I’ll also put this full version in the legislative archive as a Law so people can see all of this in one place alongside our thought processes etc.

[ZOM]

sooooOOOO i don't know how to lock the poll oops

but yep i'll condense it! how 'bout this? i modified the last paragraph of the upper staff guide and built on it:

"Elections for Ministers work as follows. Under normal circumstances, an election will be declared every three months (in March, June, September, and December), and each candidate wishing to run has one week in order to declare their candidacy by way of PM to the First Minister. When this has occurred, a poll will be set up listing all of the candidates, and voting is required by all members, for the election poll will also double as a consensus; there will be a neutral "None of the above" option for those who wish to exercise their right not to vote, but participation in the poll is mandatory to save one's account from deletion. Depending on how many positions are open, the top one, two or three candidates will be given the position. Each time there is a ministerial election, existing Ministers will be automatically entered in the running unless they declare their non-candidacy to the First Minister. If they do not achieve a place in the top three (or fewer, as appropriate), then they will be removed from their post.

"In the event that a Minister resigns before the end of their three-month term, protocol will differ depending on whether they have resigned within the first, second, or third month of that term. If they resign in their first month, the ministerial candidate who came in second place in the most recent election will be appointed as Minister unless they decline the position, in which case the third place will be promoted, and so on. If they announce resignation in their second month, staff members will have a week to nominate themselves for a quick staff-only vote for a new Minister, and the winner of the poll will become Minister until the next official election after the third month. If they announce resignation in their third month, a normal site-wide election will be held early. In all cases, the resigning Minister must give a week's notice before officially being demoted from their position, allowing the proper protocol to be put into action."

if that looks good i'll add it to the upper staff guide :]

[➤ GRAZ !]

Yup, excellent <3