Please review the attached amendment to Section 8 of the Code of Laws.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The following amendment to the Code of Laws is hereby presented to the Citizen's Assembly for ratification. This is a citizen initiative poll, is public, and will be open for four days. To pass, 60% or more of those voting must vote yes.
Question: Do you approve the attached amendment to Section 8 of the Code of Laws?
Answers Yes, No, Abstain
[Link to discussion thread]
---------------------------------------------------------
Text of section to be replaced.
Section 8 - Office Limits and Vacancies
A) Limits to Running for Offices.
I. No Citizen may run for more than one office during an election cycle.
B) Limits to Holding Office
I. No member of the Triumvirate or the Judiciary may hold a second office.
II. Governors and Members of the Cabinet may hold up to two offices at the same time.
C) Vacancies
I. A Vacancy occurs when an office is empty due to the office holder resigning, judicial action, impeachment, if no citizen ran for election for that office or when a new office is created.
II. Triumvirate Vacancies
IIA. If there is a Vacancy in the Triumvirate, the President shall nominate a citizen to that office. If the Presidency is Vacant, the Secretary of State, or Secretary of War if the Secretary of State is also Vacant, shall nominate a citizen to that office. The citizen must accept the nomination prior any further steps.
IIB. The Judiciary shall confirm the appointment. If confirmed, the citizen takes office immediately. If not confirmed, a different citizen must be nominated.
IIC. The nominee may be any citizen that does not currently hold a Triumvirate or Judicial position. If the nominee holds another office, they must resign immediately upon confirmation.
IID. This appointment may not be challenged by a confirmation poll.
III. Cabinet Vacancies
IIIA. The President must offer the position to the Deputy, if there is one.
IIIB. If there is no deputy, the President must request interested citizens that do not currently hold office to contact them. If no such citizen contacts the President within 72 hours of the office being declared Vacant, the President may appoint any citizen to the office.
IIIC. This appointment may be challenged by a confirmation poll.
IV. Governor Vacancies
IVA. The Governors Council must request interested citizens that do not currently hold office to contact them. If no such citizen contacts the Council within 72 hours of the office being declared Vacant, the Council may appoint any citizen to the office.
IVB. If there is no Governors Council, the Minister of Interior must request interested citizens that do not currently hold office to contact them. If no such citizen contacts the Minister of Interior within 72 hours of the office being declared Vacant, the Minister of Interior may appoint any citizen to the office.
V. Judicial Vacancies
VA. The President must request interested citizens that do not currently hold office to contact them. If no such citizen contacts the President within 72 hours of the office being declared Vacant, the President may appoint any citizen to the office.
VB. This appointment may be challenged by a confirmation poll.
VI. All vacancy appointments which are subject to a confirmation poll are provisional until the time for a confirmation poll has passed, or when a confirmation poll for that appointment concludes with a 'Yes' majority.
Note: section VIA is a previous amendment which has been posted in the constitution / CoL thread but has not been edited into the CoL.
VIA. Any citizen may post a confirmation poll for an appointment to a Vacant office within 48 hours of the appointment. This must be a private poll, asking the question "Should the appointment of <citizen name> as <office> be confirmed", with the options Yes, No and Abstain. This poll must last for 3 days. If the poll closes with more no votes than yes votes, the appointment is reversed. This citizen may not be appointed to that office again that term. The appointee holds the office and is free to exercize the full powers of the office until such time as the appointment is reversed.
VIB. A Citizen who holds office may apply for a new office before the 72 hour waiting period provided they write in their application that they will resign from their current office. That citizen does not have to resign until the provisional period passes.
VII. Being a member of the Designated Player Pool is not considered holding an office and thus is not counted against a Citizen in terms of being able to run for and hold multiple offices.
---------------------------------------------------------
Text of section to be added in place of the above original text.
Section 8 - Limits on Office Holders, Vacancies, and Appointments
A. Limits to Running for Offices.
I. No Citizen may run for more than one office during an election cycle.
B. Limits to Holding Office
I. No member of the Triumvirate or the Judiciary may hold a second office.
II. Governors and Members of the Cabinet may hold up to two offices at the same time, at least one via appointment.
III. No citizen may be appointed to a 2nd office unless no citizen without a position is interested in the empty office. The appointing official must announce a deadline for citizens to indicate their interest in the office, which shall not be less than 72 hours after the time the deadline is announced. This deadline is used solely for the purpose of demonstrating no citizen is interested in the office for the purpose this subsection. At any time that a citizen without an office expresses interest in the vacancy, the deadline of this section is considered fulfilled, a citizen without an office may be appointed immediately, and no person already holding an office may be appointed to this vacancy.
IV. A resignation contingent on an appointment may be used as a mechanism to permit a current office holder to acquire a new position, without violating subsections B.I and B.II of this section.
C. Vacancies
An office is vacant if any of the following conditions is met:
- No candidates accept a nomination for the office during elections
- The current office holder resigns, is impeached (recalled), or is removed from office as the result of a judicial action.
- The current office holder is absent from the Democracy Game forum, without notice, for a period of 5 or more days, and does not post in the Democracy Game forum within 48 hours of being notified that his/her presence is required.
D. Filling of Vacancies
A vacant office must be filled via the first method in this list which applies to the situation.
- The deputy for an office, if one exists, assumes the duties of the office.
- The President, if resigning from office and not being removed as the result of a recall or judicial action, appoints his/her successor.
- The President appoints a citizen to the office, other than the office of President.
- The Secretary of State appoints a citizen to the office of President, in cases where the vacancy is not due to voluntary resignation.
- The Secretary of War appoints a citizen to the office of President if the office of Secretary of State is also vacant.
- If the entire triumvirate is vacant, all three Triumvirate offices are filled via a Special Election, with nominations lasting 2 days and election polls lasting 3 days. After the special election, if any new Triumvirate member is elected, any remaining Triumvirate offices are filled by the appointment process in this section.
- If a special election for triumvirate offices fails to select any new triumvirate members, the highest ranking cabinet officer remaining assumes the duties of President.
E. All vacancy appointments are provisional until the time for a confirmation poll has passed, or when a confirmation poll for that appointment concludes with a 'Yes' majority.
F. Any citizen may post a confirmation poll for an appointment to a Vacant office within 48 hours of the appointment. This must be a private poll, asking the question "Should the appointment of <citizen name> as <office> be confirmed", with the options Yes, No and Abstain. This poll must last for 3 days. If the poll closes with more no votes than yes votes, the appointment is reversed. This citizen may not be appointed to that office again that term. The appointee holds the office and is free to exercize the full powers of the office until such time as the appointment is reversed.
G. Being a member of the Designated Player Pool is not considered holding an office and thus is not counted against a Citizen in terms of being able to run for and hold multiple offices.
----------------------------------------------------------------