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Senate Voting Guidelines 2010 - Amendment; again
Topic Started: 11 Apr 2010, 13:51 (32 Views)
Wibblefeet
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Since the last thread/set of amendments died/was voted down with NEW amendments just brought up but undicussed an unvoted upon, I'm taking it on myslef to bring them back up here, since there's been no comments in that thread in 9 days.

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Here's the bill's text. the proposed amended sections are struck out, the amendments themselves are in bold.

Note: These amendments include Neanbear's suggested timeline amendments, A rewrite of Turl's amendment for changing votes, a rewrite of Turl's "Founder's debate Extension" suggestion; and a total rewrite of clause 3, which didn't parse well at all. Note that while I still think clause 7 is stilted, I left it alone, since it was intelligible.
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The Act of Senate Voting Guidelines – 2010

AWP will refer to 00000 A World Power

This bill will set proper guidelines on the procedures of voting and improve on the Senate Bill Acceptance 2009 improving the guidelines and putting in a set rule on how to vote, keeping it in effect however amending some of the original bill.

Introduction

Noticing that some bills are often left in a queue and never remarked upon and that some immediately go to voting and don’t get past, and understanding that the debating and alteration of these bills could result in it being passed and a useful piece of legislation not being implemented.

This bill is amending points in the Senate Bill Acceptance 2009 and will null the old bill out of effect.

Body

1. The first stage of a bill is the first posting, this will be the original copy of a bill given to the senate to be discussed and voted on, unless a member has changed it since the time of posting a copy to be placed into the senate to the time it is, if so he must post the new copy in the same thread stating it is the version he wants in the senate.

2. The bill is opened up to debating. The debating will end when any elected official believes that it has had substantial time since the last post was made. The minimum a bill must be kept up since the last debated post is 6 24 hours. If a bill is not debated on after 24 48 hours of last significant post, i.e not a short approval, it is put into a voting procedure automatically. During this time anyone who has Perennial Interest in the voting of the bill must state it and thus abstain from the vote, excluding it being their own bill.

3. If there has been amendments to the bill a new bill will be posted up since the debating began the new bill is posted in the second posting. 24 hours is given for the author to be able to reject this new bill if he wishes to or any further debate to happen.

3. If amendments have been made to a bill under debate, the original author is given 48 hours to reject the amendments, after which they shall be considered accepted. After 48 hours, or if the author accepts amendments earlier, a complete new version of the bill shall be posted in the original thread (with the first post linging to the current verion of the bill) or a new thread.

4. As long as there is no objection to the bill posted in the second posting then it will be put up to vote.

5: Voting will last a maximum of 72 hours from the opening of the vote on any bill. Voting may ber terminated earlier if a majority (50.1%+) of all voters have agreed to pass or fail the bill.

6. If a senate member wishes to change his vote then he must follow clause 6 of the Senate Bill Acceptance Act of 2009, however they cannot if they wish to change their vote to the side that has won the vote already and may not have the vote recalled then keep their first submitted vote and submit it again, i.e a member may not vote AYE on something, wish to change their vote and, in the second vote, vote AYE again.
6. If a member has changed their opinion in regards to a action before the Senate before the voting is finished, they may change their vote ONCE per piece of legislation, in the relevant voting thread. If voting has terminated on a action before the Senate, successfully or unsuccessfully, they must represent the article for a second vote or repeal to the Senate.

7. A bill may be re-voted on twice however can only be voted on a third time if there is substantial evidence that it deserves to that will be decided by the elected senators between them by voting whether to bring the vote up again.

8. After this point a bill may not be voted on again unless substantial parts of it has been changed, at a minimum an entire clause being rephrased or changed or removed.

This will be added or amended with the following clauses of the Senate Bill Acceptance Act of 2009 added to it amended from their original form, removing all other clauses from AWP Law.

9. This bill hereby states that from the date of ratification on into the future, all bills, laws, and legislation or any other form of policy changing directive that is debated and/or voted on by the senate body of AWP shall require a quorum before being passed, and brought into production or activity.

10. The senate body is defined as the: Elected World Assembly Delegate, Regional Founder, Elected Senators, and Appointed Ministers.

11. A quorum, for the purposes of this bill, shall be defined as 66.6% or greater of all senate members registering a vote. A member actively refusing to vote shall have his vote considered as an abstained position, and shall register as a vote.

12. All bills, laws, legislation, and policy changing directive must have a majority vote, meaning 50.1% or greater of all percentages of votes.

13. If any member of the Senate during the voting period wishes to continue debating, they may invoke a continuance clause. Voting becomes nullified, votes are discarded, and debate continues for another 12 24 hours.

14. If no one continues the debate, after 24 48 hours, an automatic vote gets triggered.

15. If a Senate member does continue the debate, the 12 24 hour expiration deadline gets reset, and voting will continue 12 24 hours after the last point made in the debate or if a motion to end debate and start voting from Senate member who triggered the continuance is seconded by another member of the senate, rendering the continuance expired.

16. The Delegate is the active senator who will check that bills go through this timetable of events before they are voted on, if he feels that the bill has not gone through the proper procedure he can veto it, if he feels there is a reason to repeat a stage, i.e a flaw appearing at after the bill has been passed and feels the senate didn't spennd enough time debating to account acknowledge this flaw.

17. The Founder may, at their absoulte discretion, choose to extend the time requirements for discussion and debate of any bill, delaying a vote to no more than 168 hours (one week) from the last debate or legislative action, if they have reason to believe that action may be forthcoming from idle/vacationing senate members.

Original Authored by Liberty987.
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Numero Capitan
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apart from spelling absolute right in clause 17 i think this can go to a vote...
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Turlmanistan
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I don't like the provision 6 re-write at all. I don't think we should be able to change our votes at all, HOWEVER, if a bill get's brought up for a second vote, you can vote whichever way you like. Everyone was in favor of the language I brought up last time, why can't we just use it as I wrote it? The new language lets people change their vote MID vote, and that just makes thing SUPER confusing.

I would like to see the language changed back to as I suggested:

6. If a member has changed position in regards to their support of a bill, law, or piece of legislation, they must represent the article for a second vote to the Senate.
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P.S. - This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated!
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Wibblefeet
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Spelling: sorry, most of the computers here are work are using an ancient IE with no spellcheck in the browser, so some things slip by.

Clause 6: Okay, I'm confused here. If you can't change a vote in mid-vote, there is no CHANGE. The vote would pass or fail, and the next time that bill, a similar bill, or a repeal comes up to vote, it's a totally new vote, and you can do what you please. Turl's version of Clause 6 is unnecessary to my mind, but confused me enough as to what he wanted which is why I wrote the Clause 6 I proposed (which i wasn't fully behind). I know of no provision in any law that requires me to vote the same way on a repeat submission of a bill as I did the first time it was presented.

I'll leave this for discussion for a few days, but my current inclination (as the current author of these amendments) is to delete clause 6 entirely now, and renumber all successive clauses. Unless someone can tell me clearly and simply what I've missed. It's 430am after a long night of work, it's QUITE possible I've missed something.
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