Polling Standards: When to allow private polls?

This is the second in a series of polls to revamp our current polling process.

Link to discussion thread

A previous poll indicated that we want to allow at least some polls to be marked as private, or not showing how each person voted. This poll is to determine exactly what is wanted.

Poll options:
Option A: Require Public polls by officials, Allow Private polls by citizens
Option B: Allow Private polls by officials, Require Public polls by citizens
Option C: Allow Private polls by officials and citizens
Option D: Abstain

Assumptions:
Opinion polls may always be posted as public or private.
Polls posted by officials include those polls posted by an elected or appointed official in an area they control not marked as an opinion poll. These polls have the power to require in-game actions to be taken.
Polls posted by citizens include those polls posted by a citizen marked as an "Initiative" or "binding" poll. These polls have the power to require in-game actiosn to be taken.

This is a private poll, and will run for 4 days. The option with the most votes will be used as the basis for the relevant section(s) of the polling standards.

-- Ravensfire

Couldn't an official always post a poll as a citizen?

Vind2 said:

Couldn't an official always post a poll as a citizen?

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That's a loophole that I've always tried to close.
My view is that if you are an official and you post a poll that's concerning your office, you are posting as an official. Always. That poll might be an opinion poll (if clearly noted as such), but it will not, can not, be considered a poll from a citizen. That's something you give up when you become an official.

I like the idea of a citizen's poll being a supreme check on what an official can do. I like that, once a decision has been made by a citizen's poll, the elected officials limited by that poll have to implement it. I can see some Con issues over this (can the official post a citizen poll to override it), but I can also see the converse - why would an official NOT post their poll as a citizen poll?

One more discussion to add to the list after this one gets done.

-- Ravensfire

Why should an official in charge of one of the "areas requiring a citizens poll": declare war/peace, change taxes, build a city, etc have to rely on another citizen to post the poll? Why have the Secretary of State (and maybe SoW) be prohibited from posting a poll for a declaration of war or a peace treaty?

We don't need to take away the official's rights as citizens, we need to be sure the citizens have as many rights as officials. All that is necessary is to ensure that polls posted by citizens can be binding.

I voted Allow Private polls by officials and citizens, Now i dont really care either way because i will always say what i voted for, (if i dont feel free to ask). Beyond that i say the option i voted for was winning and i wish to have this over and done with asap so i voted for it. Have a nice day.

Wheres the require public polls by officials and require public polls by citizens option?
Or maybe I am missing something from the discussion...

Black_Hole said:

Wheres the require public polls by officials and require public polls by citizens option?
Or maybe I am missing something from the discussion...

Click to expand...

A previous poll ended on the side of allow binding polls to be private.