Until decided otherwise by law, I will be using my discretionary authority as Chief Justice to establish the following procedures for elections so that everyone knows what's going on. Under these procedures, the next elections will begin on
August 29.
Nominations: Nominations for candidates will begin 5 weeks after the conclusion of the previous election and will be open for 10 days. Possible candidates may either be nominated individually by themselves, another, a political party or private organization. Anyone who accepts their nomination will be immediately registered as a formal candidate if valid. Candidates for delegate will be asked to provide a candidate for vice delegate. No person may stand as a candidate for both delegate or vice delegate and senator. Anyone may withdraw their candidacy while nominations are still open. Once registered, candidates may begin campaigning immediately. After 10 days nominations will be closed, and no new candidates will be allowed to register and current candidates will no longer be allowed to withdraw their candidacy. Any candidate for delegate who has not yet chosen a candidate for vice delegate will disqualified.
Voting: Polls will be opened immediately following the closing of nominations and will stay open for 4 days. I will send all citizens a ballot by in-game telegram, and they may end their vote to me by telegram. Everyone who does so will in response receive a unique serial number. I will then save a record linking that serial number to a your ballot, but not your name, and will delete your telegram. Ballots posted publicly in the threads will not be counted. After 4 days the polls will be closed and the votes tallied. The Senate's winners will be selected using the
Droop quota, and ties will be broken by whoever registered first on the forums. A full list of those voting and a separate list the ballots cast and their associated serial numbers will be posted along with the results. Voters should check to make sure that the number of voters matches the number of recorded ballots, that their vote has been correctly recorded and that I am not committing electoral fraud.
If you object to these procedures or have concerns, please start a thread in either the Petitions area or the Senate rather than spamming this one. I'm particularly curious if you'll let me get away with my initiative for secret ballots.
