The 12 month calendar Amendment

[Ian Plätschisch]

An election in the middle of July sounds like a great way to ensure low voter turnout

That schedule also seems quite crammed.  15 days for government forming is probably not enough for us slowpokes.

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

I applaud MPF's diligence and thought in this. He's clearly working hard at accommodating other ideas and opinions. But I have to admit that I don't see why we'd want fixed elections. It would sacrifice flexibility and variability, but I don't see the advantage in doing so. I guess it would be much more predictable?

[Magniloqueu Épiqeu da Lhiun]

This is truly difficult.

Traditionally, our elections have happened to be held in months with natural little online activity, namely New Year of the Common Era, or Summer Vacation (at least on the Northern Hemisphere). I think we could do with shifting Elections to March and Octobre, to be honest. That would mean either prolonging the tenure of a government, or cutting it extremely short. But I really think we should shift the time wherein the GE take place.

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

Sept 18, 2016 12:16:42 GMT -6 Sir Alexandreu Davinescu said:

I applaud MPF's diligence and thought in this. He's clearly working hard at accommodating other ideas and opinions.

Thanks, I am really trying to build a consensus.

But I have to admit that I don't see why we'd want fixed elections. It would sacrifice flexibility and variability, but I don't see the advantage in doing so. I guess it would be much more predictable?

Yes, so that voters know when the elections are, like "Wait, January is coming, I should figure out what the issues are"

[Glüc da Dhi]

Just some thoughts.

I voted in favour of the 12 month term version, because I like the idea. I do have some doubts however.

With regards to the effect on activity, I'm conflicted. It's certainly true that elections are the most active periods of a cycle. What I'm not sure about is whether elections increase total activity or just influence the spread of it. Just looking at myself, especially in the past when I was more actively involved, I did get sucked up in Talossan politics during elections, partly because I enjoyed it (although that has been less the case ever since we won and the MRPT actually had something to lose), partly because I feel strongly about certain issues, but its also pretty exhausting.

Looking at myself, but also most other active citizens (with some exceptions) I feel a lot of energy is put in drafting manifestos, campaigning, and partisan bickering, and very little in administration, provincial activity and non political activity. Now these things are very important in a normal democracy, and even more so in Talossa. Still, I do feel that maybe the balance is lost.

With regards to inactive citizens, sure some of them do show up during elections (and a regular schedule might help with turnout, which I like about this amendment), but they dont usually become exactly active. Most of the activity in elections is citizens who were already active discussing.
As for new citizens, it's definitely nice if they show up while stuff is going on, but I do also feel many come here for other stuff than just politics (especially when discussions are very negative, which they often have been recently, especially during elections).

This is not to say that the activity of elections isn't good for Talossa, I definitely think it is, and maybe Im just thinking these things because I have become a bit bored with Talossan politics, but I feel that if we want to succeed, we need to force ourself to be active outside election seasons, and even outside politics as well, and maybe a better balance where elections are held less frequently, but on a regular basis outside holidays or other busy periods, so everyone can get involved in them and we have more time left throughout the year to invest in actually doing stuff rather than just discussing how to do this, would help? I know this is just speculating, and I wish I had posted earlier to give more people time to respond, because Im genuinely unsure about this.

Aside from this, a more point is that I don't really like the VoC solution. What if no majority can be found at the end of a term? If its no longer possible to have new elections, maybe we should at least ask the Cosa to elect a replacement PM rather than the king.

I definitely like the fixed schedule is a benefit though.

I feel there should have been more discussion on this bill (some concerns have been raised that never really received a proper response), so maybe I will change my vote to AUS tomorrow, I don't know.

I hope this post made sense

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

Oct 20, 2016 13:23:47 GMT -6 Glüc da Dhi said:

maybe we should at least ask the Cosa to elect a replacement PM rather than the king.

I am 100% behind you on this!

The way I see it, we should have a Ranked Ballot every time the VoC is failed or the election is over.

Your ballot is weighted on your number of seats.

I proposed it in the past, but it failed. Perhaps I can try again in January...

[King John]

One thing I don't think we're taking into account is the possibility of the Cosa's being dissolved early, either by the Crown or (far more likely) by a failure of the Vote of Confidence. That would throw the whole schedule off, no?

It's like we're trying to fit the American fixed-term elections into what's essentially a Parliamentary system.

— John R

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

Nov 30, 2016 14:41:55 GMT -6 King John said:

One thing I don't think we're taking into account is the possibility of the Cosa's being dissolved early, either by the Crown or (far more likely) by a failure of the Vote of Confidence. That would throw the whole schedule off, no?

It's like we're trying to fit the American fixed-term elections into what's essentially a Parliamentary system.

— John R

If the VoC fails, we would have you select a new PM.

If you dissolve the Cosa, it would last only until the next scheduled election.

[King John]

What would last? We'd have no Cosa for a while?

— John R

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

I think he means upon early dissolution of the Cosa, we would essentially have a special election for the remainder of the dissolved Cosa's term.

[Marti-Pair Furxheir S.H.]

Dec 2, 2016 14:46:38 GMT -6 Sir C. M. Siervicül said:

I think he means upon early dissolution of the Cosa, we would essentially have a special election for the remainder of the dissolved Cosa's term.

Exactly...