[DRAFT] Bill for discussion to modify the composition of l'Etats de Cézembre

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Whereas some citizens have expressed the will to allow all citizens from our Province to participate in the democratic life of our assembly l'Etats (discussion)

Whereas the size of l'Etats may not be in accordance with the population of our province, with sometimes more seats that citizens

Whereas simplicity is not always the funniest route to efficiency

Therefore, be it enacted by L'Etats de Cézembre the following changes in the Cézembre Administration Guide, by replacing :

Chapter II- L'Etats de Cézembre
Article 7. Legislative power in the Sovereign Province of Cézembre is invested in l'Etats de Cézembre. l'Etats shall consist of no more and no less than twenty (20) seats.
Seats in l'Etats de Cézembre can only be assigned to citizens of Cézembre. Citizens may hold more than one seat, but no more than six. One seat cannot be divided among nor assigned to more than one citizen.
Article 8. The chancery is requested to conduct elections to l'Etats. Elections to l'Etats shall be conducted at the same time as elections to the Cosâ and in accordance with the national election laws and rules. The Sénéchal (or the Governor-General in case the Sénéchal has been absent for more than one week) may request the chancery not to conduct those elections in no less than one week before balloting day. If the Sénéchal (or Governor-General) makes such a request, the Sénéchal (or the Governor-General) shall conduct the elections in accordance with provincial election laws and rules.
Article 9. After elections to l'Etats, each party will receive 20 numbers, which will be produced by dividing the number of votes the party received by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The 20 highest numbers will be referred to as high quotients. In case the 20th highest number has the same value as the 21th highest number all numbers with the same value will not be considered high quotients. This will result in vacant seats in the assembly.
Each party will receive a number of seats, equal to the number of high quotients it received. Each party may divide its seats amongst Cézembrian citizens as it sees fit. If a member dies or resigns or is impeached by a motion receiving a 2/3rds vote of the L'Etats, the seats shall return to the party that assigned the seats.
Article 10. L'Etats shall have power to pass any bill into law by a simple majority vote of its Voting Members. Le Sénéchal shall send out a notification of voting period, of at least seven days. Each member shall have a prescribed amount of time in which to cast his vote (by email, telephone or forum post) before voting closes

by the following :

Chapter II- L'Etats de Cézembre
Article 7. Legislative power in the Sovereign Province of Cézembre is invested in l'Etats de Cézembre. l'Etats shall consist of a variable number of seats, assigned initially after each election, but which may vary during the period between 2 elections.
Seats in l'Etats de Cézembre can only be assigned to citizens of Cézembre. Citizens may hold more than one seat, but no more than six. One seat cannot be divided among nor assigned to more than one citizen.
Article 8. The chancery is requested to conduct elections to l'Etats. Elections to l'Etats shall be conducted at the same time as elections to the Cosâ and in accordance with the national election laws and rules. The Sénéchal (or the Governor-General in case the Sénéchal has been absent for more than one week) may request the chancery not to conduct those elections in no less than one week before balloting day. If the Sénéchal (or Governor-General) makes such a request, the Sénéchal (or the Governor-General) shall conduct the elections in accordance with provincial election laws and rules.
Article 9. The number of seats allocated after each election must be equal to 50% of the population of the Province of Cézembre one week exactly before the balloting date, rounded to the highest integer N. After the elections to l'Etats, each party will receive N numbers, which will be produced by dividing the number of votes the party received by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,.. up to N. The N highest numbers will be referred to as high quotients. In case the Nth highest number has the same value as the N+1 th highest number all numbers with the same value will not be considered high quotients. This will result in vacant seats in the assembly.
Each party will receive a number of seats, equal to the number of high quotients it received. Each party may divide its seats amongst Cézembrian citizens as it sees fit.
If a member dies or resigns or is impeached by a motion receiving a 2/3rds vote of the L'Etats, the seats shall return to the party that assigned the seats.
After the election, every citizen from the Province of Cézembre, requesting a seat at l'Etats to the Senechal de Cézembre, should be given one, provided this citizen does not already hold a seat. If this citizen dies or resigns or is impeached by a motion receiving a 2/3rds vote of the L'Etats, the seat shall be cancelled.
Article 10. L'Etats shall have power to pass any bill into law by a simple majority vote of its Voting Members. Le Sénéchal shall send out a notification of voting period, of at least seven days. Each member shall have a prescribed amount of time in which to cast his vote (by email or forum post) before voting closes

[xpb]

Thanks for all the effort on this but might it be simplified by just assigning the variable number of seats to all who request them, one per citizen?  Then there will not need to be an election.

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Thanks for all the effort on this but might it be simplified by just assigning the variable number of seats to all who request them, one per citizen?  Then there will not need to be an election.

Thanks X. Pol for your comment. I agree it would be much simpler, but we would lose the fun of having election periods, of presenting party programs, of voting for our preferred candidates, ..
A 3rd possibility could be to have only referenda, and suppress the provincial assembly - this would be even simplier (direct democracy !)
What do the other members of l'Etats think of these 3 proposals ? @Dame Litz Cjantscheir, UrN @Glüc da Dhi S.H. ?

[Glüc da Dhi S.H.]

I'm fine with this proposal.

As for the option of giving seats to whoever asks, townhall style, I suppose that would work for our current participation rates, but my one concern would be that citizens who are not active are also not getting represented. Perhaps an inbetween variant would be that people can claim a seat for themselves but alternatively appoint someone to receive an extra seat on their behalf (up to a certain limit).

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

I'm fine with this proposal.

As for the option of giving seats to whoever asks, townhall style, I suppose that would work for our current participation rates, but my one concern would be that citizens who are not active are also not getting represented. Perhaps an inbetween variant would be that people can claim a seat for themselves but alternatively appoint someone to receive an extra seat on their behalf (up to a certain limit).

Thanks for this interesting proposal. I'm afraid that if we allow this, then citizens who have not been elected at l'Etats will have 2 votes, one for the initial election, and one afterwards, where they can vote again for their same favorite  member of l'Etats.. To mitigate this, we could either limit to 2 or 3 the number of maximum additional seats given post-elections to a single person, or only allow citizens who did not vote initially to appoint someone to receive an extra seat on their behalf. Your thoughts ?

[xpb]

I'm fine with this proposal.

As for the option of giving seats to whoever asks, townhall style, I suppose that would work for our current participation rates, but my one concern would be that citizens who are not active are also not getting represented. Perhaps an inbetween variant would be that people can claim a seat for themselves but alternatively appoint someone to receive an extra seat on their behalf (up to a certain limit).

Thanks for this interesting proposal. I'm afraid that if we allow this, then citizens who have not been elected at l'Etats will have 2 votes, one for the initial election, and one afterwards, where they can vote again for their same favorite  member of l'Etats.. To mitigate this, we could either limit to 2 or 3 the number of maximum additional seats given post-elections to a single person, or only allow citizens who did not vote initially to appoint someone to receive an extra seat on their behalf. Your thoughts ?

I'm a bit confused, as in the Townhall style then there would not be a vote for forming l'Etats.  Each person could represent a seat (in fact we would only have a maximum of 16 seats at the moment based upon population).  I'm ok with someone assigning a proxy, but in this case they would first claim the seat, then assign the proxy.  This all would be done in public, there would be no secrecy. 

Someone who had given a proxy after claiming a seat could simply retract their proxy if they wanted to be active in l'Etats, but they would at least have to take the action to claim a seat in order to issue a proxy.  As to the number of proxies that could be held, I'm open to some threshold.  If we had 4 active seat holders, and we had 75% participation of claiming seats (which would be an outlier in terms of participation based upon previous voting patters) that could result in an additional 8 seats claimed and offered as proxy, which could be balanced at 2 per additional per active member in l'Etats.  Certainly the seat holder wishing to offer a proxy could do so to a member of their choosing, until that member had the maximum number of proxies held.

[xpb]

Alternative wording

Chapter II- L'Etats de Cézembre

Article 7. Legislative power in the Sovereign Province of Cézembre is invested in l'Etats de Cézembre. l'Etats shall consist of a variable number of seats, assigned based upon request by citizens of Cézembre. Seats in l'Etats de Cézembre can only be requested by citizens of Cézembre. Citizens may represent more than one seat by proxy, but no more than two additional proxy seats. One seat cannot be divided among nor assigned to more than one citizen.

Article 8. There are no elections to l'Etats, as it is an ongoing body of representatives within Cézembre.  The Sénéchal (or the Governor-General in case the Sénéchal has been absent for more than one week) shall receive written requests for seats in l'Etats by citizens.  After confirmation of credentials of citizenship, those making a request shall be provided a seat in l'Etats.  In turn, the citizen that is seated may extend a proxy for their seat to another seated citizen within l'Etats who does not yet have two proxies held.  A proxy extended must be accepted by a seated member in writing, who shall have full control of that seat until such time the citizen extending the proxy retracts the assignment.  Should a person issuing a proxy to a seat later renounce or be removed from citizenship, the proxy is automatically retracted.

Article 9. The number of seats in l'Etats may not exceed the population of the Province of Cézembre. There will be no vacant seats in the assembly, as they either held by active members, or extended to active members by proxy.  Citizens retain the right of association with any organization that they choose, but their votes from seats in l'Etats de Cézembre are held in their name either by right or by proxy, and are not held by parties, associations, consortiums, corporations, or other organizations.

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Sorry also for my abscence here for a few weeks. @xpb 's proposal is indeed much simpler and avoid the fun may-be but the burden for sure of an election.
I also suggest to vote on this one. As the constitution will be modified after this bill and the one for the election of the lord warden, I agree we should have a referendum on the new constitution, at the end of this Cosa ? So we have time to change other parts if needed.

[xpb]

Sorry also for my abscence here for a few weeks. @xpb 's proposal is indeed much simpler and avoid the fun may-be but the burden for sure of an election.
I also suggest to vote on this one. As the constitution will be modified after this bill and the one for the election of the lord warden, I agree we should have a referendum on the new constitution, at the end of this Cosa ? So we have time to change other parts if needed.

I made a hash out of the last election, and I am sure you would do better.  Howeve, this would make things almost the same by involving those who are interested, and alleviating some administrative tasks.

[xpb]

Things in l'Etats have been fairly loose in terms of adoption of new law.
The process might not need to rise to the level of https://wiki.talossa.com/Standing_Orders_of_the_General_Assembly_(Fiova), but with all citizens having the opportunity to participate in l'Etats there also would not have to be a subsequent referendum, just administration of the process by the Sénéchal (or designee) and certification by the Cunstaval.