Quote from: Açafat del Val on August 02, 2020, 10:14:52 AM
once I joined a political party, I suddenly had access to an active and responsive network of Talossans.

It's probably true that joining a political party is the fastest way to join a network. The sad thing is that this usually results in citizens joining parties not out of ideological agreement (or even understanding of the issues), but for networking purposes. Especially when there is one dominant party this creates a positive feedback loop that can be really suffocate political diversity. This was very much true in the RUMP days (and to be honest, I think Talossan political life is a lot more similar to the RUMP era than it was say 5 years ago, for multiple reasons) Also, it means that its harder for anyone not immediately interested in politics to fit in.

Anyway, congratulations to the winning senate candidates, the FreeDems for gaining seats and remaining the largest party, the LCC for a very strong debut, the NPW for gaining seats as well, and to all the sponsors of the various amendments.

Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on August 01, 2020, 07:31:24 PM

All referenda pass.  Can't actual ever recall a referendum failing, actually.

It probably helped that no party (or monarch) bothered to submit opposing ballot statements to any of them. Less active voters will only have seen the supporting argument on the ballot.

Fellow Talossans,

yesterday I informed the Seneschal and His Majesty of my intent to resign as Secretary of State.
I will not leave immediately, but will stay on my post until the election results have been certified by the Electoral Commission.

During my time as Secretary of State, we managed to get more comprehensive election rules, set precedents on a number of matters, including the correct enforcement of the laws surrounding write-in parties, and managed to draft a new wittiquette for the new forum.

However, there are also a number of things I had hoped to achieve, but never got around to, most notably including a further expansion of chancery staff, reform of the hopper, and a completed witt moderation guide. Perhaps a future SoS will be more succesful in these regards.

Many thanks are due to Marti-Pair Furxheir. Doing this job simply would not be possible without his continued efforts on the Talossan database.

When I became SoS I renounced my party membership, including access to party fora and discussion groups. I have also tried to refrain from making any public partisan comments, especially during election season. This has been a source of frustration at times, and I will be relieved to speak more freely from now on. Even so, I don't regret it as it is important that the referee of Talossan democracy should not be seen to have any partisan allegiance. I can only strongly advise my successor to do the same.

During the coming weeks I will try to assist my successor as much as possible with their new task.
Afterwards I will finish the Talossan Music Top 20 (which I hope many people will participate in) and then most likely take a temporary break from Talossa.

It was a priviledge serving this Kingdom as Secretary of State.

¡Sa viva el Regeu! ¡Sa viva Talossa!

Glüc da Dhi

From my very quick count if Sir XPB had voted for himself (or if S;reu Tamoran hadn't), he'd have won, but now it's probably the other way round. (This post is not the actual preliminary result obviously, too tired to post those today)

We're now 1 vote ahead of the 53rd Cosa election.

In about 30 minutes, the database will reveal the preliminary results of the elections here: http://www.talossa.ca/files/election_result.php

Keep in mind that these are preliminary results. There is always a chance that the result could still change before certification.

Also, the database will only post the raw senate votes. The calculations may in some case be quite complicated. I will likely post the full senate calculations on witt somewhere in the coming days. Of course, using the information in the database anyone can theoretically figure out who won.

Somewhere in the coming days (probably tuesday) I will contact the Electoral Commission about certification. This could then still take a while. The deadline (I think) is 14 days after the election results. It is possible they will be certified earlier, but please don't assume this will be the case. Patience is key here.

As for now: enjoy election night!

Quote from: King John on August 01, 2020, 05:58:21 PM
PRESENT

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

-- John R

This vote has been entered in the database.

Quote from: C. M. Siervicül on July 31, 2020, 02:46:02 PM
I cast my ballot as follows:

Cosa: LCC

Referenda:

54RZ16 - Contra
54RZ22 - Contra
54RZ23 - Contra
54RZ25 - Per
54RZ28 - Contra

This vote has been entered in the database.

Update: it appears that mpf has fixed the ballot to make it less likely to be blocked. I sent out a new round of ballot emails and I've already heard from one voter who didn't get the ballot before, but got it now, so that is a good sign.


Also, with regards to turnout: we're now definitely going to pass last year's turnout. The question now seems to be whether we can beat the turnout of the election before (which at the time was disappointing, but not awful, and would now considering the current circumstances be quite decent).

Quote from: Açafat del Val on July 20, 2020, 10:22:30 AM
Although this is a subform specifically for Florencia, I invite anyone of the greater Talossan public to comment or answer.

If this is truly the case, then I wrote in a terrible provision of the new provincial constitution. I had interpreted IX.3 far differently; it seems pretty plain to me that "...may...delegate the conduction of their elections to the Chancery" includes the very basic tasks of announcing the results and fixing the proportion of seats.

Florencia needs a firm answer here. If the SoS is refusing to fix the number of seats, apportion them, and delcare an arbitrary day for the commencement of the new Nimlet session, then Florencia will enter a weird grey zone because the Constitution outright specifies that the Chancery must do it. Without the Chancery, there is legally no Nimlet... and without a Nimlet, there is legally no way to amend the Constitution and prevent this.

Will the SoS do this, or not?

But futhermore, what is the extent to which a province may, under OrgLaw IX.3, "delegate" its elections to the Chancery?

I am worried about creating a precedent that broadens the interpretation of Org IX.3 beyond what is traditionally expected of the Chancery. I'd love for the Chancery to help provinces out with those things the chancery does better than the provinces themselves. Knowing all details of provincial law is not one of them. Same for doing calculations with raw votes that are available to everyone. Note that the current Florencian law might still be relatively straightforward, but it wouldnt have to be. Provinces could for example also have a law that asks voters to rank several candidates and then use some complicated preference system to determine who wins.

As for now, my suggestion would be for you to assign the seats and set a date. There is also a long tradition in pretty much every province of citizens just moving ahead on their own when institutions fail. Just some of the most recent exaples are me conducting the Cézembre Sénéchal election months after it should have happened, postponing the deadline when there wasn't any candidate, and then starting up the election when there was, or Ian doing the MM assembly call when the M3 failed to do so. Unless there is some person or party affected in a negative way I doubt the courts are going to throw it out.

Quote from: Béneditsch Ardpresteir on July 30, 2020, 03:52:42 PM
Part 3
Party Vote for Cosa: LCC

Part 4:
Confidentiality - Public

Part 5:
Referendum 1: Contra
Referendum 2: Contra
Referendum 3: Contra
Referendum 4: Contra
Referendum 5: Contra

Part 6:
If am elected as the Premier and Provincial Secretary of Maricopa, then I may have to resign from being the Senator.
So keep your fingers crossed...

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Quote from: owenedwards on July 29, 2020, 07:57:50 PM
COSA: NPW
Cézembre Senate: Ian Tamoran

54RZ16: Per
54RZ22: Per
54RZ23: Contra
54RZ25: Abstain
54RZ28: Contra

This vote has been entered in the database

The Chancery is aware of this. Fwiw, a mail was sent out (not from the database) to all citizens who hadnt voted on July 27th reminding them of the election (of course I cant rule out this has also gone in spam here and there, but I suspect no more often than usual and I highly doubt it has been blocked alltogether), so that should salvage the situation at least somewhat.

Also, from what I understand, mpf is working on fixing the issues (with some help of comments Bradley made that I forwarded to him).

With regards to turnout, I expected it to decrease, but currently it looks like it might be roughly the same, or even slightly higher.
Of course that is compared to a pretty low bar as turnout last election was devastatingly bad (and email problems then were significantly fewer than the election before that, which in turn had worse turnout than the election before that).

Quote from: Audrada Roibeardet on July 28, 2020, 06:37:42 PM
Cosa: PRESENT

Referenda: ABSTAIN

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