Legislation:SBR/R000-001/Current text

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Enacting clause, long and short titles

Be it enacted by the Grand Forum of All Citizens, as follows—

Minor Council Referral 000-001, Ballot Act 2018

An Act to make provision for the Business, Procedures, and Ballot distribution methods of the Grand Forum.

Chapter I: On the Business of the Grand Forum

Section A: General citations and categorisation

  1. The Business that the Grand Forum considers is to be divided into six categories, each denoted with a single initial letter:
    1. Propositions, denoted P, which take the form of a written bill of legislation, which are to be known as Acts upon their enactment;
    2. Elections, denoted E, which take the form of the election to an Office established by the Constitution or by law, or a question of whether to call an election for a particular Office if such a proposal is permitted;
    3. Treaties, denoted T, which take the form of a binding agreement with another sovereign entity;
    4. Charters, denoted C, which take the form of formal documents granting rights or powers to particular persons or groups;
    5. Local Ordinances, denoted O, which take the form of a written bill of legislation;
    6. Würtige legislation, denoted W, motion to grant or revoke consent from a Compact, Treaty, or Recommendation, in accordance with T004-005;
    7. Motions, denoted M, which are any Business that cannot be categorised as one of the above, including non-binding items;
    8. Minor Council Referrals, denoted R, which are be any action taken by the Minor Council that the Grand Forum must then consider at its next Ballot. Though Minor Council Referrals will additionally fit into one of the previous categories, they are categorised only as Minor Council Referrals.
  2. Each item of Business is to be assigned a Citation Code for future reference.
  3. The Citation Code is to be of the form “[X][MCN]-[BIN]”, where—
    1. X is the category letter as defined above;
    2. MCN is the number of the Minor Council, beginning at 001 and increasing sequentially with each newly elected Minor Council, though any Business proposed before the first Minor Council election is to have an MCN of 000;
    3. BIN is the number of the item of Business, beginning from 001 for each newly elected Minor Council and increasing sequentially.
  4. The MCN and BIN are to be written with at least three digits.

Section B: Citations and formatting of Propositions

  1. A Proposition must have a Short Title and a Long Title. The Short Title must take the form “[Name] Act [Year of Enactment] ([Additional Descriptors])”, where the Name and Additional Descriptors are chosen by the Electors proposing it, and the Additional Descriptors are optional. The Long Title must begin with “An Act to…” and then describe the purpose of the Proposition. All provisions of the Proposition must be described by the Long Title.
  2. Each Proposition must have its articles formatted in the following hierarchy:
    1. Chapters, numbered sequentially with Roman numerals;
    2. Sections, denoted sequentially by uppercase letters of the Roman alphabet;
    3. Articles, numbered sequentially by Arabic numerals;
    4. List items, denoted sequentially by lowercase letters of the Roman alphabet.
  3. Chapters and Sections represent divisions of the Proposition and may have titles. Articles contain actual legal provisions, and any lists required in an Article will be written in List item form. If a Proposition is short enough to not require Chapters or Sections, they may be omitted.
  4. Each Proposition must begin with an Enactment Clause of the following form: “Be it enacted by the Grand Forum of All Citizens, as follows—”
    If the Proposition amends the Constitution, the Enactment Clause is of the following form: “Be it enacted by a Consensus of the Grand Forum of All Citizens and also the Minor Council and the Rector, as follows—”

Section C: Citations of Elections

  1. An Election is to be named on the Ballot in the form “[Ordinal] Election to the Office(s) of [Office(s)]”, where Ordinal is replaced with the ordinal number of the election to that Office, and Office is replaced with the title of the Office, with pluralisation as needed.
  2. If the item is a question of whether to call an election for a particular Office, the item is to be named on the Ballot in the form “[Ordinal] Recall Motion for the Office(s) of [Office(s)]”.

Section D: Citations and formatting of Local Ordinances

  1. A Local Ordinance must have a Short Title and a Long Title. The Short Title must take the form “[Name] Local Ordinance [Year of Enactment] ([Additional Descriptors])”, where the name and Additional Descriptors are chosen by the Electors proposing it, and the Additional Descriptors are optional. The Long Title must begin with “A Local Ordinance to...” and then describe the purpose of the Local Ordinance. All provisions of the Local Ordinance must be described by the Long Title.
  1. Each Local Ordinance must have its articles formatted in the following hierarchy:
    1. Chapters, numbered sequentially with Roman numerals;
    2. Sections, denoted sequentially by uppercase letters of the Roman alphabet;
    3. Articles, numbered sequentially by Arabic numerals;
    4. List items, denoted sequentially by lowercase letters of the Roman alphabet;
    Chapters and Sections represent divisions of the Local Ordinance and may have titles. Articles contain actual legal provisions, and any lists required in an Article will be written in List item form. If a Local Ordinance is short enough to not require Chapters or Sections, they may be omitted.
  1. Each Local Ordinance must begin with an Enactment Clause of the following form:
    “Be it permitted by the Grand Forum of All Citizens, for Local Authorities to bring into effect as follows—”

Section E: Citations of other items of Business

  1. A Treaty must have a formal title for the sake of citation.
  2. A Charter must have a title of the form “Charter of Incorporation for…”.
  3. Würtige legislation is to be known as “Consent motion for [X]”, where [X] is the formal name given to the legislation by the Imperial Council.
  4. A Motion must take the form “This Forum moves that…” followed by the text to be approved or rejected by the Grand Forum.
  5. A Minor Council Referral must take the same formatting of the other Category the item fits into.

Chapter II: On the Procedure of Election

Section A: Nomination for Election

  1. Nomination for an Office requires the support of the Nominee and at least two other Electors as prescribed by Article III.6 of the Constitution.

Section B: Elections to the Minor Council

  1. The election of the members of the Minor Council must occur every six Calendar Months as prescribed by Article IV.3 of the Constitution.
  2. All three members are to be elected together by the Single Transferable Vote, in accordance with Article III.5 of the Constitution.
  3. Given that the Constitution requires that the Minor Council have members, should there be less than three nominees, the required number of nominees will be chosen from the pool of those Electors who are not Justices by lot.

Section C: Elections for Magistrates

  1. The election of a Magistrate or an Undermagistrate elected by the Grand Forum is to occur following the vacation of the relevant Office, or if the Office is vacant, following the proposal for an election.
  2. If there are no candidates for the election, the election does not occur and the Office remains vacant until candidates are nominated.
  3. The election of Magistrates and other elected Offices within Magistracies is to be done by the Instant Runoff Vote, in accordance with Article III.5 of the Constitution.

Section D: Elections to the Senior Justicial Council

  1. The election of Justices in the Senior Justicial Council must occur every twelve Calendar Months as prescribed by Article VI.3 of the Constitution.
  2. Justices are to be elected by the Single Transferable Vote, in accordance with Article III.5 of the Constitution.
  3. Given that the Constitution requires that the Senior Justicial Council have Justices, should there less nominees than seats on the Senior Justicial Council, the required number of nominees will be chosen from the pool of those Electors who are not Magistrates or members of the Minor Council by lot.

Section E: Elections to the Rectorate

  1. The election of a Rector is to be done by the Instant Runoff Vote, in accordance with Article III.5 of the Constitution.
  2. Given that the Constitution requires that there be a Rector, should there be no nominee, a nominee will be chosen from the pool of Electors by lot.

Section F: Elections for other Offices to be established

  1. When an election is held for a single Office, it is to be done by the Instant Runoff Vote, in accordance with Article III.5 of the Constitution.
  2. When an election is held for a set of equivalent offices, such as a Council, it is to be done by the Single Transferable Vote, in accordance with Article III.5 of the Constitution.

Section G: Implementation of the Instant Runoff and Single Transferable Vote

  1. When voting in an election held by the Instant Runoff or Single Transferable Votes, the Elector must assign a rank to every nominee.

Chapter III: On the Ballots themselves

Section A: Initial provisions

  1. The Rector is to request the following details from Electors for the purposes of identification:
    1. Full name;
    2. Age;
    3. Residency status;
    4. Any contact details necessary for the delivery of Ballots.
  2. The Rector is to ensure that Electors consent to the use and storage of their personal information and that they receive the data rights given by P001-004 Section B. An Elector will lose their membership of the Grand Forum if they fail to provide this data.
  3. To all Electors the Rector must assign a unique Electoral Identification Number (‘EIN’), created by such algorithm as they may choose but made to minimise the likelihood of any person fraudulently calculating another Elector’s EIN.
  4. When an Elector returns a Ballot to the Rector, they must include their EIN so that the Rector may confirm that the vote is from an Elector. If the Rector receives a Ballot with an invalid EIN, or indeed no EIN at all, then the Ballot must be discounted.
  5. If the Rector receives two or more Ballots with the same EIN, then both Ballots must be discounted.
  6. In accordance with Article III.13 of the Constitution, the Rector may never associate an Elector’s Ballot with their details of identification.

Section B: Delivery and return of Ballots

  1. The Rector may deliver and receive Ballots by the following methods:
    1. Postal delivery
    2. Balloting stations
    3. Online balloting
  2. Should the Rector choose to use postal delivery for any Ballots, they must ensure that all Ballots are delivered to those Electors that receive their Ballots by this method by the first day of voting, and that any Ballots posted for return on the final day of voting are returned to the Rector with adequate time for the counting of the votes and the announcement of the results. Additionally, the Rector must ensure that the Elector pays for neither the delivery nor the return of the Ballot.
  3. Should the Rector choose to use Balloting stations for any Ballots, they must ensure that, of those Electors that receive their Ballots by this method, all have an accessible Balloting station within walking distance.
  4. Should the Rector choose to use online Balloting for any Ballots, they must ensure that the web address for the online Balloting portal is posted on a platform where all Electors will be able to access it, or that the web address is sent via e-mail or social media to the Elector. This method may not be used for Electors lacking either an e-mail address or consistent internet access.
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