Bill: Draft Electoral Emergency Act

[Novakerbal]

A
BILL
To

Amend the Electoral Act​

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:

1 - Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Electoral Emergency Act.'​

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

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(3) This Act has been authored by Representative NovaKerbal, and coauthored by Representative girlfailcoded and Representative vvirtue_.​

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(4) This Act has been sponsored by Representative NovaKerbal and co-sponsored by Representative Scassany.​

2 - Reasons

(1) The Department of State currently lacks the ability to effectively respond to emergencies concerning an election.​

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(2) Recent events show points of failure in the democratic system that may allow unfortunate events out of the Government's control to prevent multiple players from voting during elections or referendums.​

3 - Amendments

(1) Section 13 of the Electoral Act shall be amended as follows:​

13 - Redundancy Electoral Emergencies​

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(1) The Secretary of State has the exclusive power to declare an electoral emergency., as well as the ability to delegate said power to the Deputy Secretary or an Electoral manager as circumstances require.​

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(a) Upon the declaration of an electoral emergency the Department of State shall publish an official announcement visible to the public which shall include at minimum the following information:​

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(i) Affected Parties​

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(ii) Method(s) chosen to rectify the situation.​

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(iii) Reasoning behind the decision, and why each method was chosen.​

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(b) Upon the rectification of the issue behind an electoral emergency the Department of State shall publish an official announcement visible to the public which shall include at minimum the following information:​

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(i) Affected Parties​

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(ii) A definitive declaration that the issue has been resolved and that affected parties are able to vote again immediately following the announcement.​

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(iii) The remaining period of time that the polls shall be open.​

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(2) An electoral emergency is called when an in-game election cannot be conducted reliably in-game. defined as either of the following events:​

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(a) Any single force majeure event that prevents, hinders or blocks 5 or more players from exercising their right to vote, or their right to Secret Ballot, as defined in Part IV, §32 of the Constitution.​

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(i) For the purpose of this act, a Force majeure event shall be defined as any event outside the control of the government of Redmont, or an event primarily within the jurisdiction of Staff.​

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(b) Any egregious error made by the Department of State that has the potential to taint the results of the election.​

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(3) Under an electoral emergency, all elections will conducted according to the law the preceded this act until declared otherwise by the Secretary of State. the Department of State may exercise any of the following options in order to ensure that the affected parties are not denied their constitutional rights:​

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(a) Extend: The Department of State may extend the electoral period by up to 48-hours if the situation can be reasonably rectified by staff within that time frame, and the affected parties will have sufficient time remaining to exercise their right to vote.​

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(i) Sufficient time remaining is defined as the amount of time required for the affected parties' access to the polls to be equivalent with the mandated time frame.​

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(b) Pause: The Department of State may pause the electoral period if the rectification of the issue is anticipated to take longer than 48-hours. Once the issue has been rectified, the Department of State shall reopen the polls for the remaining time left to fulfil the election timeline as prescribed by the Constitution or this Act.​

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(c) Restart: The Department of State may restart the electoral period if a significant enough event or breach has occurred such that the results of the election will be irreversibly affected.​

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(d) Continuance: In Situations where the Force majeure event behind the electoral emergency is unable to be rectified, or a potential solution will take longer than 4-days to arrive, the Department of State may, after exhausting all other valid remedies, continue the electoral period, the constitutional rights of any affected parties being subjected to reasonable limitations pursuant to Part IV, §32 of the Constitution.​

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(4) No legal or disciplinary action shall lie against the Department of State or its officers for the selection of any of the above methods, so long as it can be proven within a reasonable doubt that these actions were made in good faith and supported by reasonable and publicly stated justification. Liability may arise only where the reasoning published under subsection 13(2)(c) is demonstrably unreasonable, arbitrary, or made in bad faith.​

4 - Amendments

(1) Section 15 of the Electoral Act shall be amended as follows:​

15 - Transparency Requirements​

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(1) The DOS shall ensure that all scripts, programs, spreadsheet templates, systems, code, manuals, processes, and non-manual counting calculation methods are listed in the department’s forum and promptly updated following any modification.​

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(2) The DOS shall release the result of each election within 48 hours after the polls close.​

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(3) The DOS shall release all scripts, programs, spreadsheets, systems, code, manuals, processes, calculation methods, intermediate result calculations and documents created or edited after the latest release mandated by §17.(2) related to the voting system, the recording of votes and the result calculation, within 5 days after polls of an election or referendum close.​

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(4) The DOS shall, within 48 hours of results being published, release the names of all members who assisted with the tabulation of that election.​

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(5) The DOS shall, within 7 days after the close of polls in any election or referendum, release all materials used in the tabulation of that vote, including but not limited to scripts, programs, spreadsheets, and intermediate result calculations.​

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(a) This shall happen even if there are mistakes, disputes, election failures or any other event that challenges or contests the validity of the election or referendum.​

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(6) In the event of the conclusion of a voting period where an electoral emergency was declared, the Department of State shall publish an official announcement within 48 hours visible to the public in tandem with the official results. Which shall include at minimum the following information: ​

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(a) Affected Parties​

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(b)The length of any extension or pause during which the electoral emergency was being rectified, or the stated reasoning behind any restart of the electoral period.​

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(7) The DOS shall only be exempted from releasing or allowed to partially or fully censor/redact a script, program, spreadsheet, system, code, manual, process or document related to the election system, the recording of votes and the election or referendum result calculation if authorised by Staff.​