Okay, so this is legal text from myself, Miestra, and Mic'haglh.  I'm still working on it, and haven't yet tackled the party procedures thing.  I'm not sure where to stick that in the Organic Law or what the principles should quite be.


Whereas the Ziu believes in further perfecting our democracy, and accordingly wishes to better establish its belief that the outcome of a vote should match the will of the voters as much as possible, and that the people should be in charge of that outcome and not party bosses, and that there is room for parties of every size,

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Part I: Ironclad Party Lists

THEREFORE, the second section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

QuoteBased on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats".
    1. The party seats shall total 200, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than twice the number of Senators minus one.
    2. Each party shall receive a percentage of party seats as equal as possible to its percentage of the popular vote, but each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, each party shall assign these seats to individuals, in accordance with law. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
    3. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosa until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

shall be amended to read:

QuoteBased on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats".
    1. The party seats shall total 200, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than twice the number of Senators minus one.
    2. Each party shall receive a percentage of party seats as equal as possible to its percentage of the popular vote, but each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, the Secretary of State shall assign these seats to candidates nominated by that party.  The Secretary of State shall assign seats by assigning a seat to the first person on a party's list.  If the party won more than one seat, then the Secretary of State will assign a seat to the next person on their list, and so on until the end of the party's list.  The Secretary of State will then return to the top of the list, and continue in the same manner until all of the party's seats have been assigned.
    3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than forty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer.
    4. Any seats which cannot be assigned in accordance with law may be filled by the King according to his own best judgment, or left vacant.
    5. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
    6. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosa until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

FURTHERMORE, the third section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

QuoteIn the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The King shall appoint a replacement to each vacancy. If the seat belonged to a party with a functioning party leader, the King must appoint as a replacement whichever person shall be so designated by that party's leader. If there is no functioning party leader, or if the party leader refuses to designate a replacement, the King shall appoint the replacement according to his own best judgment.

shall be amended to read:

QuoteIn the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The Secretary of State shall assign the seat to another candidate of that party in the same manner described in the second section, above. If this is not possible, the King may assign the seat according to his own best judgment in accordance with law, or otherwise leave the seats vacant.

FURTHERMORE, there shall be a new second subsubsection of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx which shall read:

Quote2.3.2. The Secretary of State shall confirm to their satisfaction that all citizens appearing on a party list consent to do so. Only citizens so consenting shall be recognized as being on a party's list for the purposes of Lexh.B.2.3, and only said citizens will appear on the party's list as shown on the ballot.

FURTHERMORE, the first subsection of the fourth section of Title H of El Lexhatx, which currently reads

Quote4.1. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than ten times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer.
4.1.1. The total number of party seats is twenty.

shall be amended to read

Quote4.1. The total number of party seats is twenty.

FURTHERMORE, the first subsubsubsection of the first subsubsection of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, which currently reads

Quote2.3.1.1. The party leader may assign seats to any eligible citizen(s) they see fit, so long as the following criteria are met:
2.3.1.1.1. The party's internal procedures are followed
2.3.1.1.2. No one who was not named on the list is assigned more seats than any eligible citizen who was named on the list
2.3.1.1.3. The total number of seats awarded to those not on the list does not exceed 1/3 of all seats won by the party
2.3.1.1.4. No person occupies more than the maximum legal number of seats.

shall be deleted in its entirety.

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Part II: Standards of the Cosa

FURTHERMORE, the fourth section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

Quote1. In addition to the seats apportioned between parties after a General Election, the Secretary of State shall assign one Cosa seat to any citizen who becomes eligible to vote after the most recent Election Deadline but before the dissolution of the Cosa, upon the request of such citizen, up to a maximum number as this Organic Law might provide. Any additional seat so assigned shall cease to exist should its holder vacate or be removed from the seat and shall not be subject to the procedures for filling vacancies in the Cosa, and shall also cease to exist upon the dissolution of the Cosa.
2. The maximum number of seats that may be assigned to new citizens between general elections shall be 7.5% of the seats apportioned between parties, rounded up to a whole number of seats.

shall be amended to read

QuoteThe Cosa may impeach any of its members from the Chamber with a two-thirds majority vote and with the approval of the King. Following impeachment, a replacement will be chosen as otherwise provided in this Organic Law. Following a failed expulsion, the accused Member of the Cosa may not again be impeached for the same offence, pursuant to the Seventh Covenant of the Covenant of Rights and Freedoms. The former Member of the Cosa is not barred from running for office in future elections as long as the former Member of the Cosa maintains citizenship.

FURTHERMORE, the fifth section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

QuoteEach person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosa and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 4, above.

shall be amended to read

QuoteEach person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). An MC vacates his seats if they fail to vote on two consecutive Clarks, if they resign from office, or if they die. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be re-assigned according to the second section, above.

A very nice first run for Team In The Wind @Crement Itravilatx and at least my Posse didn't come in last.

A deal's a deal hun..

From Stage 17 on, my Mençeis dropped in the ranks at a steady rate.  They finish nearly last, a testament to the shortcomings of my "buy the highest priced favorites and then try to fill in the gaps" strategy.  For TCAT France, I'll be switching it up.

Luc, thank you for running this -- super fun as usual to follow along!

Nifty!  I like to tinker... may I join el Verbånd Talossan Cufabrichind?

Still waiting for a reply, but it seems the author has decided to just move forward without finishing the CRL process.  So I guess it's moot!

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on Today at 07:15:36 AM

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on Yesterday at 09:15:49 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Yesterday at 02:10:46 PMMaybe we still need seat limits, just higher ones?  Tweak the formula instead.

The current formula for the seat limit is (10 * Cosă size) / turnout, rounded up. If we are to abolish the one-third off-lister allowance, I suppose the equivalent exchange would be to increase the seat limit by one third, i.e. (40 * Cosă size) / (3 * turnout). How much of an increase do you have in mind?

Sorry for not waiting for a response, but I did some math. Under this modified formula, in a 20-seat Cosă the seat limit would be 3 at a turnout between 89 and 133, meaning you would need at least 4 MCs to hold an absolute majority. How does that sound?

That sounds pretty reasonable to me.  It doesn't seem like we should have a scenario where three people can control the legislature -- that seems too much of a concentration.  And speaking from experience, I have a hard time imagining a scenario where a party gets a majority of the vote without having even four people who could stand in the Cosa.  And keeping the seat limit, while just raising the ceiling, means that independent candidates can still stand.

It seems like this bill should also fold in an end to the new citizen seats, while we're at it.  We shouldn't have a mechanism to allow a statute to give new citizens such a huge sway, and they're already going to be impossible once the Cosa shrinks to 20.

I also saw that @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be had a suggested new statute to require MCs to confirm their willingness to stand, and that seems like another good thing to include.  (It doesn't seem like a big logistical hurdle -- @Sir Lüc , would this be a challenge to implement?)

And it makes sense to include some principles that must be met by internal party procedures for making their lists: timeline, openness, etc

Okay, so the provisions I'm currently planning on working out are:

• Switch to ironclad party lists
• Add in the confirmation step
• Change the formula for seat limits
• Remove the new citizen seats provision
• Replace the vacancy procedure so that seats are just redistributed to the other people on the list
• Some mechanism governing party procedures for making their lists

I feel like I'm forgetting some things, though.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on Yesterday at 09:15:49 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Yesterday at 02:10:46 PMMaybe we still need seat limits, just higher ones?  Tweak the formula instead.

The current formula for the seat limit is (10 * Cosă size) / turnout, rounded up. If we are to abolish the one-third off-lister allowance, I suppose the equivalent exchange would be to increase the seat limit by one third, i.e. (40 * Cosă size) / (3 * turnout). How much of an increase do you have in mind?

Sorry for not waiting for a response, but I did some math. Under this modified formula, in a 20-seat Cosă the seat limit would be 3 at a turnout between 89 and 133, meaning you would need at least 4 MCs to hold an absolute majority. How does that sound?

...we Dared Something Worthy. 

And in that, We Who Left were provoked.

Had Mad King Ben in March 2004 never publicly accused on Wittenberg (Witt X) another Talossan citizen of domestic violence, the "Split" would never have happened, the Wittenberg of that time would never have been "commandeered" in-spirit, and the Talossan domain-names would have continued to be held in trust for the nation in toto without issue.

- GV, one of the eleven Founding Parents of the 2004-2012 Republic of Talossa

I don't know you, but any time a good citizen leaves, it is a sad thing, indeed.  May the future see your return to the Regipäts! - GV

Congrats!