21RC01 - The Election Simplification (Amendment) Act

In order to simplify the procedure for national elections and to eliminate the work load of the Secretary of State over the process, and to take advantage of new technologies and people's individual initiative, the Cosa hereby enacts the following:

A. Article 33 is rewritten as follows: “All elections to the Cos are to be conducted during a period of one calendar month, from the day following the dissolution of the Cosa (the balloting day) to the 21st day of the same month (the election deadline).”

B. Article 34 is rewritten as follows: "During the election period as defined in Art, 33, voters who wish to participate shall cast ballots. A "ballot" is defined as written notification of one's choice for a political party (and for any referendum choices) given to the Secretary of State. This notification can be by electronic submission (e-mail, forms via WWW and fax), by conventional mail, or hand-delivery. Voters, political parties, and other private groups are responsible for the manufacture and distribution of their own ballots, The Secretary of State simply counts the ballots as they come in; he does not produce ballots."

C. Article 35 is rewritten as follows: "The Secretary of State may require in advance that all e- mail addresses be registered with him for citizens seeking to vote by e-mail. When more than one vote is cast from a single terminal, he may demand proof of each vote before registering those votes. He may implement measures to discourage fraud, but these must be fairly and evenly applied."

D. Article 36 is rewritten as follows: "A voter may write a letter to the Secretary of State at any time, designating the letter as a Vote In Advance (VIA) Form. The VIA Form will stand, after it is signed by the Citizen and received by the Secretary of State, as a substitute ballot during the following year. If the Citizen is unable to vote in any national elections during that year, the party choice indicated on the VIA Form will be entered as that citizen's choice in said election(s)."

E. In Article 37, the first sentence ("Voters shall send their ballots back to the Secretary of State by whatever means is most convenient, including having Tavelieirs return their ballots for them if the voter and the Tavelieir concur") is deleted.

F, Article 37a is rewritten as follows: "In the case of vacant seats occurring between elections, the Prime Minister may authorize a by-clection to fill any and all vacant seats, All vacant seats as of the date of the END of the by-election are filled at once by said by-election. A by-election affects only those vacant seats, but is otherwise conducted exactly like a general election. The vacant seats are divided according to the percentage of the vote won by the parties in votes cast for that by-election, and take effect at the beginning of the next Clark."

Uréu q'estadra så,
Ben Madison (MC-PC)