43RZ33 - The Three-Strike Amendment

WHEREAS the current wording of Article XVIII Section 10 of the Organic Law defines "intentional deliberate voluntary" non-voting in three consecutive elections to the Cosa to be tantamount to a citizen's renouncing his citizenship, but doesn't require any actual proof or evidence beyond his simply not voting - which non-voting could be due to inadvertence, ignorance, or even a distate for political participation, none of which conditions is or should be considered synonymous with no longer desiring to be a citizen, and

WHEREAS the exception granted in the Article for persons who don't want to vote "for reasons of conscience" isn't broad enough, since someone may not want to vote simply out of lack of interest in the election, or fatigue with politics in general, or any number of other reasons, and

WHEREAS the King's power of clemency is defined as being applicable only in cases in which "it is clear that the non-vote was unintentional or there were mitigating or extenuating circumstances such as accidents or technical mistakes", which again is too limiting, and doesn't allow - as it should - for cases in which the non-voter's intention was somewhat less than clear, or when it was clear that he intended not to vote but not for any reason that should get his name removed from the citizenship rolls, and

WHEREAS we ought to err on the side of NOT erasing someone's name from the rolls, and

WHEREAS that would be best accomplished by allowing the Secretary of State and the King a bit more leeway in applying the "three-strikes" principle,

THEREFORE the Ziu approves the following amendment to the Organic Law, and transmits it to the people for ratification.

Article XVIII Section 10 of the Organic Law is amended to read, in whole:

If any citizen should fail to vote in an election for the Cosa, he shall be deemed to have incurred a "strike", unless the Secretary of State believes that the failure to vote may have been unintentional, or the King believes that the citizen's record and the circumstances of his failure to vote warrant an exception being made, in either of which cases no strike shall be incurred. If any citizen incurs strikes in three consecutive elections, he shall be deemed to have renounced his citizenship.

Uréu q'estadra så,
Ián, Duke of Lupul (King of Talossa)