Bill: Rejected Clarification of the Harassment of a Polling Place Offence Act

[AverageAnnika]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
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A BILL TO

CLARIFY AND REMOVE AMBIGUITY FROM THE HARASSMENT OF THE POLLS OFFENCE




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The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:


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PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the ‘Clarification of the Harassment of a Polling Place Offence Act’ or the ‘CHPPOA’

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

(3) This Act has been authored by AverageAnnika.

(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by DrFunks.

(5) This Act amends the following acts:

(a) Criminal Code Act

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) This bill intends to remedy the outlandish possibility of being able to harass a polling place whilst there is no ongoing election.

(2) Recent events have brought up the disturbing ambiguity of the ‘Harassment of a Polling Place’ offence in the CCA which, by the letter of the law as it currently stands, would allow for someone to be convicted of the offence despite there not being an active election.

PART II — Contents

4. Amendments

(1) Part II section 8 of the Criminal Code Act shall be amended as follows:
”8 - Harassment of a Polling Place
Offence Type: Indictable
Penalty:
(a) First offence - Up to 100 Penalty Units; Up to 10 minutes imprisonment; Up to 2 months disqualification from office
(b) Subsequent offences - Up to 250 Penalty Units; Up to 25 minutes imprisonment; Up to 2 months disqualification from office
A person commits an offence if the person:
(a) engages in any conduct inside a building containing an active polling place or within 50 blocks of a building where an active polling place is located that:
(i) interferes with the freedom of voters to vote; or
(ii) disrupts the administration of the polling place; or
(iii) violates the restrictions set out in §11(2) of the Electoral Act.
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5. Ex-Post Facto
The provisions in this bill shall override ex-post facto.

 

[greymc]

- People shouldn't be able to advertise at a polling place at any time. It's a clear restriction. If we change this, people could just spam advertisements with items or animals right before a vote starts.

Also, active polling place is not defined. It could read as it always applies, as active could mean voting is held there, even if not now.

 

[unalign]

- Motioned to amend
Be more specific on what "active" is and ex-post facto is

(a) engages in any conduct inside a building containing an active polling place or within 50 blocks of a building where an active polling place is located that:
(a) engages in any conduct inside, or within 50 blocks of, a building containing a polling place where an election, referendum, or any other kind of poll is actively occurring, or is scheduled to commence within 30 minutes or less, that:
...
5. Ex-Post Facto
The provisions in this bill shall override ex-post facto.

 

[Dartanboy]

Nay - Advertising should never be allowed within polling places, which should remain neutral always.

Furthermore it becomes very difficult to enforce. What happens if a billboard is put up within 50 blocks of a polling place and it is not taken down when an election begins?

The action was legal when they did it but only became illegal when the election began?

It is better to consistently maintain this law.