Azul,

I haven't had any confirmation as to whether Benito wants the Chancery to conduct its Senate election.

Will such a request be forthcoming?

Also, does Benito want the Chancery to conduct the Chancellery election again? Do you wish to keep the accompanying ballot text (last year it read "For the Benito Legislative Assembly, please vote for a party, or PRESENT if you wish to cast a null ballot.") or should it be removed/amended?

Tagging who I think is the current Maestro @Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu

PS also a reminder that if the Chancery is to conduct the election, Senate candidates have until the 14th of July to register to get on the ballot.

Attention Citizens of Talossa!

His Majesty, King John I has dissolved the Cosa. That means a General Election will be held starting the 15th of July and ending the 1st of August.

The rules have not been changed since last time and have been attached to this post.
These rules are an addition to Talossan law regarding elections, specifically OrgLaw Sections III,IV and V and Lexhatx title B. Be aware that not every detail of the law has been explicitly included in the rules so knowledge of the relevant laws might be useful.

The rules can also be found on the rules page of the database.

This thread serves to announce the rules, to inform Parties, Senatorial Candidates, King and Provinces about what needs to happen before the election and as a way for parties and candidates to register.



Glüc da Dhi,
Secretary of State

Timetable
13 July 23:59 TST (-5 UTC) - Registration deadline Political Parties.
14 July 23:59 TST - Registration deadline Senatorial Candidates.
15 July, morning - Balloting Day, all citizens receive their ballots.
1 August 19:30 TST - Election deadline, results are announced.
14 August - Certification deadline
30 August - Party fee deadline to sit in the Cosa during the first clark

Information for Parties
In the upcoming election the 200 seats of the 55th Cosa will be elected.

For a party to be able to obtain seats in the 55th Cosa two things need to happen.
1. You need to register with the chancery. This needs to happen at least 24 hours before balloting day!

Registration should include:
* Full Party name
* Party Initials
* 50 word statement
* Party Leader(s)
* Candidate list (this is optional, but if no list is supplied only the party leader is allowed to receive seats (see Lex.b.2.3 for the full rules regarding party lists).
* Party platform URL (optional)

All of the above can be done by posting in this thread, sending me a pm or sending an email to talossachancery@gmail.com. (Information can be updated at any time before the deadline, but the initial registration needs to include at least all the mandatory parts).
Candidate lists and Platform URLs can still be provided/updated the day before balloting day.

2. You need to pay a fee. This needs to happen before assigning cosa seats.
The fee is 6¤40 ($10 USD) and needs to be paid to the Bürgermeister of Inland Revenue, Istefan Perþonest. Contact him to find out more about the best way to pay the fee. Parties can appear on the ballot before the fee has been paid.

Information regarding referenda statements (King + existing parties)
In addition, parties that currently hold cosa seats may provide a statement of up to 50 words for each referendum either in favour or against the bill.
In addition, the King may provide a 150 word statement for each amendment that was passed after the Ziu overruled an earlier objection.

This can be done by posting in this thread, sending me a pm or sending an email to talossachancery@gmail.com. Please do not wait until the last minute for this as they may have to be manually added to the ballot by the database admin


Information for Senatorial Candidates
Four Senate seats will be contested during the upcoming elections: Benito (3 cosa terms), Vuode (3 cosa terms), Maritiimi-Maxhestic (2 cosa terms), and Cézembre (special, 1 cosa term).
Some of these will be conducted by the provinces themselves. Others will be conducted by the chancery. A list will be included in this post with the most up to date information about which elections are conducted by the chancery.

If elections are conducted by the chancery, the election will use IRV and allow write-in candidates, but candidates do get the opportunity to be listed on the ballot. All you have to do to appear on the ballot is register with the chancery. This can be done by posting in this thread, sending me a pm or sending an email to talossachancery@gmail.com.

In order to appear on the ballot you have to register before the start of the elections.

Information for Provinces
The chancery provides the option for provinces to have their Senate and Assembly elections conducted by the chancery. Additionally in the case of assembly elections, provinces may provide supplementary instructions to the voters (this could be a description of the relevant provincial law, whether to vote for a party or person, a list of provincially registered parties, etc). The chancery requests that provincial representatives supply this information (what elections should be conducted, voting instructions) to the chancery. I will also look at relevant provincial law and post a thread in each province asking for details. If no information is provided by the province (in whatever form) the default option will be to include an option for a provincial assembly vote, but NOT to conduct the senatorial election, as this requires an explicit request from the province.

Assembly elections (Could be subject to change until balloting day.) -Pending confirmation by the provinces
Atatürk - Election conducted by the chancery.
Benito - Election conducted by the chancery. Instructions: "For the Benito Legislative Assembly, please vote for a party, or PRESENT if you wish to cast a null ballot."
Cézembre - Election conducted by the chancery. (no confirmation)
Fîovâ - No election, the General Assembly consists of all citizens.
Florencia - Election conducted by the chancery. Instructions: "Vote for a party or vote "present""
Maricopa - No election, all citizen can claim a seat in the Cabana.
Maritiimi Maxhestic - No election, all citizens can claim a seat in the Provincial assembly during the election.
Vuode - No election, all citizens can claim a seat in the Estats Xhenerais during the election..

Senate elections (Could be subject to change until balloting day.)
Benito (3 cosa terms) - Election conducted by the chancery.
Cézembre (1 cosa terms, special) - Election conducted by the chancery. (unconfirmed)
Maritiimi-Maxhestic (2 cosa terms) - Election conducted by the province.
Vuode (3 cosa terms) - Election conducted by the province.

Registered Senate Candidates

Benito:
* Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu

Cézembre (if conducted by the Chancery):
* Xhorxh Pol Briga
* Ian Tamoran

Registered parties
* FREEDEMS - Free Democrats of Talossa - leader: Miestră Schivă - Platform link
* NPW - New Peculiar Way - leader: Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu
* LCC - League of Centre Conservatives - leader: Ian Platschisch - Platform link

50 word statements
* FREEDEMS:
Re-elect Miestră Schivă as Seneschál for a third term! Free Democrats in government get things done and have more fun. We want a referendum on Royal powers; better outreach to the world via social media, our website and diplomacy; and more use of the Talossan language. Don't mess with success!

* NPW:
The NPW looks to add levity, peculiarity, and fun to the Talossan scene.  Let's help people find those reasons to check in on a regular basis, as well grow Talossa in new and interesting ways.  "Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world." -Terry Pratchett

* LCC:
Do you believe the Talossan Monarch should be more than a powerless figurehead? Do you believe in the cultural and political significance of the provinces? This broad coalition of centrists and conservatives (hence our name) is ready to deliver the active, principled opposition which has recently been sorely lacking


Candidate Lists
* FREEDEMS:
1. Miestră Schivă
2. Munditenens Tresplet
3. Martì-Páir Furxhéir
4. Txec dal Nordselvâ
5. Txoteu Davinescù
6. Cresti da Ion Nouacastră-Läxhirescu (also Senäts candidate)
7. Antalgha Xhenerös Somelieir
8. Eðo Grischün (also Senäts candidate)

* NPW:
1. Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu (also Senat candidate)
2. Ian SG Txalgh
3. Iason Taiwos

* LCC:
1. Brenier Itravilatx
2. Sir Cresti Siervicul
3. Jordan Placie

Referenda
* 54RZ16 - The There's No Such Thing As A Free Senäts Seat Amendment
* 54RZ22 - The Amada Mertgedes Martyrdom Memorial Act
* 54RZ23 - The Uniform Seneschál Election Act
* 54RZ25 - Judiciary Amendment of 2020
* 54RZ28 - The Non-Hereditary Monarchy Amendment

Party/King Referenda Statements
* FREEDEMS:
54RZ16 (PER):
VOTE PËR. Talossa needs all the sources of income it can get. Political parties have contributed $10 per election for a long time, but Senators have not had to contribute. This amendment will allow us to set a fee for successful Senäts candidates; we envisage $5 would be fair.
54RZ22 (PER):
VOTE PËR. Amada Mer‏‏‏tgedes was elected to the Senate, but was not allowed to vote because she hadn't been a citizen for a year. But then she was kicked out of the Senäts for not voting! That was not supposed to happen, and this amendment fixes those contradictory OrgLaw provisions.
54RZ23 (PER):
VOTE PËR. Instead of the King choosing a Seneschál, this Amendment gives the Cosa the right to elect the Seneschál on the first Clark. This makes Talossa much more democratic and transparent.
54RZ25 (PER):
VOTE PËR. The Uppermost Cort has been in a muddle for ages, with inactive Justices and no clear procedure. This amendment was drafted by UC Justice and actual legal expert, Viteu Marcianüs, to make Talossa's court system work on sound principles.
54RZ28 (PER):
VOTE PËR. Talossa has always elected its Kings. The one time we tried a hereditary succession, the crown went to a 7 year old boy whose family didn't want him involved in Talossa at all. This amendment will ensure that Talossa's next King is capable of doing the job.

*AMP:
54RZ28 (PER):
King of Talossa is too important a role to give to just anybody who happens to be the King's son. (Note that AMP is no longer a political party, is not contesting this election, and now exists as a think tank).

The EC discussed whether the elections should continue starting the 15th of July, because the writ of dissolution was posted a bit late. As it stands, we will continue as normal and balloting day will be the 15th of July. That means only a week left for preparations and registrations.
Because I was way too late in getting the EC to validate new rules, the rules will be the same as last year. One chance I hoped to make was to explicitly include the option for the King to submit a 150 word statement on amendments he objected to. Of course, even though it is now not explictly mentioned in the rules, it is still the case, because it is organically mandated.
I won't be able to finish the registrations thread today, but of course people should feel free to already submit information to the chancery (see the rules for details).
That means
for provinces - whether they would like the chancery to conduct Senate/provincial assembly elections, and potential ballot instructions to the voters for provincial assembly elections
for parties that want to participate in the election - party name, intials, leader(s), 50 word statement, candidate lists, party platform url
for parties that currently have cosa seats - 50 word statements on any of the referenda to be held (I havent checked exactly which those are yet, will post soon)
for senate candidates in provinces whose elections will be conducted by the chancery - their name for on the ballot (dont know which provinces exactly yet, but if you think your provinces elections might be conducted by the chancery, feel free to submit anyway, better safe than sorry)
for the King - 150 word statements on any of the referenda he objected to
Exact deadlines and procedures will be posted soon, but feel free to submit before then if you can.
The rules should be attached to this post and of course the database version can be found here: http://www.talossa.ca/files/electionrules.php

Eeh so the database decided to randomly sent out old census emails again. Already got some angry emails about that. To be clear, there is no census currently going on. Apologies.
That said, the database does register who responds, so anyone who does reply is considered as having filled out a census and will not be stricken from the voter list for the next two years, so it's not all pointless.

54RZ27 - The UC Inactivity Definition Bill: Passed (145-0-22, 5-2-1)
54RZ28 - The Non-Hereditary Monarchy Amendment: Passed (150-12-5, 5-3-0) (Amendment requires approval by referendum)
VoC: Passed (159-8)

Votes per MZ can be found here: http://www.talossa.ca/files/cosa_vote_result.php?cosa=54&clark=6

Writ of Reinstatement - #418 Éovart Andrinescu

The chancery hereby reinstates the citizenship of Éovart Andrinescu, a citizen of Talossa and the province of Fiôvâ since 2013, in accordance with Lex. E.14.



Done by my hand in the name of King John and under his Royal Seal on this 24th day of June in the year of the common era 2020, in the 13th year of the reign of our gracious sovereign King John, and of the independence of Talossa the 41st.

Glüc da Dhi
Secretary of State

To all concerned,

neither the Cort pü Inalt, nor the Mençei, nor the King/Seneschal have publicly made their appointments to the Electoral Commission before the deadline.
However, I did contact all parties and they have submitted to me their prefered appointments. Based on these discussions I hereby appoint
@Dr. Txec dal Nordselvă
@Viteu
@Açafat del Val
as the members of the August 2020 (55th Cosa) General Elections Electoral Commission.

I look forward to working with them. The members of the commission will soon be contacted by me. The proposed election rules (which are also late I'm afraid) will also soon be finished and posted so they may be validated in time.


Glüc da Dhi
Secretary of State

Writ of Termination - #328 Lüc da Schir

The chancery hereby acknowledges the declaration of renunciation posted by Lüc da Schir, formerly a citizen of Benito. His status in the database has been changed to inactive.



Done by my hand in the name of King John and under his Royal Seal on this 14th day of June in the year of the common era 2020, in the 13th year of the reign of our gracious sovereign King John, and of the independence of Talossa the 41st.

Glüc da Dhi
Secretary of State

Congratulations @xpb on the appointment and thank you for your willingness to serve. Also thanks to His Majesty for making the appointment.

I have added you to the database but I haven't been able to email you the clark yet, because the database doesn't allow me to send to only one specific MZ. You should still be able to find the information you need here though: https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=298.0

Quote from: Miestrâ Schiva, UrN on June 01, 2020, 05:31:50 PM

Quote from: Glüc da Dhi S.H. on June 01, 2020, 02:42:57 AM
Section 2 The King shall assent to amendments proposed by the Cosa and Senäts unless he returns them with his objections within thirty days of their proposal, or within fifteen days in the case of amendments passed on the last Clark of a Cosa term. The King shall not refuse assent if the identical amendment is approved by three-quarters of the same Cosa with an absolute majority of the Senäts, or by two-thirds of the following Cosa with a simple majority of the Senäts. (53RZ18)"

A question for the SoS, to forestall any problems: do you read "an absolute majority of the Senäts" here to mean an absolute majority of the current Senators (i.e. 4 PËR votes / 7) or an absolute majority of Senäts seats (i.e. 5 PËR votes / 8)?

Kind of a moot point, because a Senator for Cézembre appears to have been appointed today, but intuitively I would say the former. To be honest I think the term absolute majority is rather vague. There is lots of precedent (plus a clause somewhere saying abstain votes arent counted to determine the outcome of a vote except where otherwise provided) for a majority meaning more votes in favour than against. Then again, this appears to be the only mention of the term absolute majority in the OrgLaw, so perhaps that doesn't apply here.

EDIT: Looked up the discussion on the 3/4th Majority and the "absolute" bit was definitely intentional to mean 5 votes in favour rather than more per than con votes. I wish it had been phrased more explicitly though. That still leaves open the question of whether we are talking an absolute majority of seats or senators. Having read the discussion I now think majority of seats was probably intended but it's not at all clear. We don't need to answer it now though, because there are eight Senators...

tldr: amendment needs 5 PER votes to pass.

The June 2020 Clark is now here.

www.talossa.ca/files/clark.php?cosa=54&clark=6

Or here: www.talossa.ca/files/print_clark.php (this is the printer friendly version)


In PDF Form (which was made from the print_clark.php page):

www.talossa.ca/files/clarks/June2020Clark.pdf
! It appears something went wrong when creating the pdf file. Please stay tuned...

or can vote online here: www.talossa.ca/files/clark_vote.php

Or in this thread, until the 21st of the month, at 19h30 TST.

Senators or Cosa members are allowed to create a single thread in the Senate/Cosa chamber to post all of the Senate/Cosa Votes that are not cast in this thread. Any votes not posted either using the form above, the current thread, or any of the Senate/Cosa threads on witt might be ignored and void. Please do not vote by email or private messages.

When you vote, do not indicate any conditions which may make it sound like this vote isn't final: you can always change your vote later.

Please do not vote by email: We've had problems with email votes being caught in the spam filter.

All Cosa Members and Senators should have been emailed today.



Glüc da Dhi
Secretary of State

Note 1: There have been some problems with the chancery email system. Do not reply to sos@talossa.com, because I will not read it!
Note 2: Obviously in case of the Non Hereditary Monarchy amendment the real threshold is 3/4th not 2/3rd but there is no option for the database to show this yet...

Short answer: as far as I can see the bill is not automatically assented to, because the King had 30 days to respond and did so in time.

Rules for amendments are different:

"Article XII: Amendments to this Organic Law

Section 1 Amendments to this Organic Law may be proposed by two-thirds of the Cosa with approval of the Senäts. Approval of the Senäts shall be by simple majority, except that amendments to this article, amendments to the articles regarding election to and composition of the Senäts, and amendments to the article regarding territorial subdivisions require approval of two-thirds of the Senäts. (53RZ18)

Section 2 The King shall assent to amendments proposed by the Cosa and Senäts unless he returns them with his objections within thirty days of their proposal, or within fifteen days in the case of amendments passed on the last Clark of a Cosa term. The King shall not refuse assent if the identical amendment is approved by three-quarters of the same Cosa with an absolute majority of the Senäts, or by two-thirds of the following Cosa with a simple majority of the Senäts. (53RZ18)"

I'm not even the sure the automatic reproposal clause in VII.11 applies here. Probably not, because either the rules for amendments are simply different alltogether or the bill passed (which I guess means the Cosa and Senate propose the amendment but there still won't be a referendum.) The idea that the King could theoretically have waited until after the clark started suggests that interpretation is correct as well.
(Actually that clause might not actually be an automatic reclark clause either, cause apparently it wasn't interpreted that way before...)
Nevermind, apparently someone already clarked it again

https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=259.msg1730#msg1730

It is my pleasure to open call for bills of the June 2020 Clark.

Eventually, the clark can be viewed in real time here:

www.talossa.ca/files/cosa_vote_result.php?cosa=54&clark=6 (for the votes)

and here:

www.talossa.ca/files/clark.php?cosa=54&clark=6 (for the bills )

It is NOT too late to submit bills, of course, as you have OFFICIALLY until the morning of the 31st of this month, provided your bills have been in the Hopper before end of business day the 26th, of course. I will make the Clark on June 1st's morning and bills submitted up to a few hours before that will probably also be taken.

PLEASE note that in order to support a bill, you need to:

1 ) Be a Senator, the Secretary of State or the King
or
2 ) Have been nominated as a Cosa Member for the upcoming Clark BEFORE the 26th,

To vote on the Clark, you will have 3 options:

1 ) You will be able to vote in the Clark thread (which will be created later on the 1st of June), or in a separate Senate or Cosa voting thread. I will enter your votes in the DB.

2 ) You will be able to vote directly in the database, using your usernumber and DB password (which you can retrieve at: www.talossa.ca/files/login.php using the PSC of the election) or by login via Facebook (which requires manual activation on my part).



Glüc da Dhi
Secretary of State

54RZ23 - The Uniform Seneschál Election Act: Passed (164-0-0, 4-3-0) (Amendment requires approval by referendum)
54RZ24 - The Uniform Túischac'h Election Act: Failed (120-0-44, 2-4-1)
54RZ25 - Judiciary Amendment of 2020: Passed (93-27-44, 3-2-2) (Amendment requires approval by referendum)
54RZ26 - The Non-Hereditary Monarchy Amendment: Passed (137-27-0, 5-2-0) (Amendment requires approval by referendum)
VoC: Passed (149-15)

Votes per MZ can be found here: http://www.talossa.ca/files/cosa_vote_result.php?cosa=54&clark=5

The following members did not vote and risk losing their seats if they miss the next vote:
@Iason Taiwos

The following members did not vote for the second consecutive time and have lost their seats:
Jordan Placie