Vetoed Electoral Integrity Bill

[pugbandit]

A
BILL
To

Uphold Electoral Integrity

The people of Democracy Craft, 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 Integrity Bill”
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) The Act has been written by pugbandit and has been co-sponsored by ReinausPrinzzip, xerxesmc, 1950Minecrafter and Aladeen22.

2 – Purpose
(1) With people within DOS noting that Secretary of State being partisan can cause issues within the electoral system (such as the former Deputy Secretary of the DOS), we must ensure that elections are in the hands of non-partisan people.
(2) The Secretary of State should be held at the same standards as Electoral Officers as they are the boss of them.

3 - Terms

(1) The following section of the Constitution shall be amended from:

“The Department of State is charged with the Executive oversight and evaluation of departments and the cabinet. In addition, the Department of State is charged with the internal auditing and performance of all Government Departments and is responsible for writing the President's State of the Commonwealth address. The Department of State is also responsible for the administration and facilitation of towns as well as any communication between towns and the executive branch, which must be done through the Department of State. The Department of State shall lead matters of foreign relations with Governments outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Redmont. The Department of State shall oversee and manage federal elections.”

To:

“The Department of State is charged with the Executive oversight and evaluation of departments and the cabinet. In addition, the Department of State is charged with the internal auditing and performance of all Government Departments and is responsible for writing the President's State of the Commonwealth address. The Department of State is also responsible for the administration and facilitation of towns as well as any communication between towns and the executive branch, which must be done through the Department of State. The Department of State shall lead matters of foreign relations with Governments outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Redmont. The Department of State shall oversee and manage federal elections, with Electoral Officers and the Secretary of State not permitted to be in any political parties or to assist any election campaigns.

(2) When assuming the position of Secretary of State, the individual automatically assumes the position of Electoral Officer until they are no longer serving as the Secretary of State.

 

[GoldBlooded]

House Vote: 6-3-2
Senate Vote: 6-0-0

A
BILL
To

Amend the Electoral Integrity Bill

The people of Democracy Craft, 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 Integrity Bill Amendment”
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) The Act has been written by pugbandit and has been co-sponsored by ReinausPrinzzip, xerxesmc, 1950Minecrafter and Aladeen22.

2 – Purpose
(1) With people within DOS noting that Secretary of State being partisan can cause issues within the electoral system (such as the former Deputy Secretary of the DOS), we must ensure that elections are in the hands of non-partisan people.
(2) The Secretary of State should be held at the same standards as Electoral Officers as they are the boss of them.

3 - Terms

(1) The following section of the Constitution shall be amended from:

“The Department of State is charged with the Executive oversight and evaluation of departments and the cabinet. In addition, the Department of State is charged with the internal auditing and performance of all Government Departments and is responsible for writing the President's State of the Commonwealth address. The Department of State is also responsible for the administration and facilitation of towns as well as any communication between towns and the executive branch, which must be done through the Department of State. The Department of State shall lead matters of foreign relations with Governments outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Redmont. The Department of State shall oversee and manage federal elections, with Electoral Officers and the Secretary of State not permitted to be in any political parties or to assist any election campaigns.

To:

“The Department of State is charged with the Executive oversight and evaluation of departments and the cabinet. In addition, the Department of State is charged with the internal auditing and performance of all Government Departments and is responsible for writing the President's State of the Commonwealth address. The Department of State is also responsible for the administration and facilitation of towns as well as any communication between towns and the executive branch, which must be done through the Department of State. The Department of State shall lead matters of foreign relations with Governments outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Redmont. The Department of State shall oversee and manage federal elections, with Electoral Officers and the Secretary of State not permitted to publicly support or assist in any election campaign.

(2) When assuming the position of Secretary of State, the individual automatically assumes the position of Electoral Officer until they are no longer serving as the Secretary of State.

 

[218218Consumer]

Veto

This bill has been vetoed for the following reasons:

1) There is no convincing evidence that public support of a campaign will result in electoral fraud on the part of the DOS Secretary, much less that it is possible for the DOS Secretary to commit electoral fraud. Our government benefits from robust whistleblower protections for employees, including Electoral Officers, meaning that any misconduct may be reported and disputed in court immediately. Even so, vote verification is a relatively objective practice: it's largely checking the math of the Electoral Officers and relaying the results to senior staff and the public, meaning there is little room for even the most unequivocally biased Secretary of State to tamper with results.

2) By this bill's own admission, its support largely stems from public testimony provided by the Deputy Secretary alleging "partisan bias" during xEndeavour's tenure as Secretary of State. The testimony cites two key incidents as evidence of electoral misconduct from secretarial affiliation with a political campaign: 1) Secretary xEndeavour’s handling of the September mayoral election, in which he refused to illegally strike an inactive candidate from the ballot by the Deputy Secretary’s request, and 2) the secretary’s decision to count votes fewer than eight hours early to expedite the verification process.

As for the Secretary’s handling of the September mayoral election:
a) The Secretary was not a member of any party or a supporter of any campaign during the September mayoral election, immediately disproving the Fmr. Deputy Secretary’s attempt to establish a connection between Secretary xEndeavour’s association with a campaign and his decisions during the mayoral election.
b) Deputy Secretary LuckyPerms urged Secretary xEndeavour to illegally remove mayoral candidate Icypenguin79 from the ballot after the election had concluded due to Icypenguin’s in-game inactivity. This would have been unlawful given that activity requirements for local candidates had been inadvertently revoked by an Executive Order from a month ago. If anything, Secretary xEndeavour’s refusal to remove Icypenguin79 from the ballot in the face of pressure from a member of department leadership reaffirmed his commitment to his impartiality, the law, and his responsibilities over his personal beliefs.

As for the secretary’s decision to verify votes eight hours before the closure of the polls in the October presidential election, he has repeatedly emphasized the reasoning behind this decision:
a) To speed up the counting process in an election with over 200 votes in need of verification.
b) To assist in the verification process ahead of time due to timezone differences between the Secretary and his employees.

While support for this decision was not unanimous among Electoral Officers at the time, none of them have provided evidence as to how xEndeavour’s early counting of votes was a result of his association with my campaign or how the early counting of votes favored one campaign over the other.

It is my sincere belief that any impartial party can agree that given the reasoning xEndeavour has provided for counting votes early, there is little indication of his decision being evidence of electoral misconduct or being made due to political bias.

3) This bill unnecessarily suppresses the political rights of a high-ranking government official. If electoral fraud by a campaign-affiliated secretary is genuinely a concern, I’ve suggested repeatedly to the proponents of this bill that they could institute recusal requirements as a reasonable compromise: under such a system, the Secretary would have to recuse himself from oversight of elections in which he has significant interest and cede those responsibilities to the Deputy Secretary. Even though this would preserve “electoral integrity” by ensuring that no government official affiliated with a campaign could oversee an election while preserving the political rights of Secretaries of State, this was shot down.

I am both saddened and disappointed by Congress's efforts to institute FREACC 2.0 for a position in even less need of political regulation than judges. When I first joined this server and studied to be a lawyer, one of the very first things I read was that all players on DC were guaranteed “Freedom of Political Communication” under the Rights and Freedoms of our Constitution. It’s unfortunate that Congress wishes to remove that right from an honored position offered to only the most venerable players when doing so will have zero effect on so-called electoral integrity.

With that in mind, this bill will not be receiving my signature.