Amendment - Vacant Presidency

[Black_Hole]

Looking through our constitution, I found a slight problem. There is no way to elect a new president should the office of presidency be vacant. The constitution only has a remedy if there is nobody elected, not if the president resigns or is removed during the term. To remedy this, I suggest we amend the constitution as follow:

Current:

Section I.1 Gubernatorial Election of a President
The Governors are responsible for choosing a citizen to serve as President if an election cycle completes with no citizen elected to the office of President. A Governor will create a thread for interested citizens to post in, and be questioned by the Governors. 3 days after the creation of this thread, the Legislature will vote amongst all interested Candidates via Private Poll. The citizen receiving the most votes is elected President. If more than one citizen ties, a run-off election will be held between only those citizens.

Revised:

Section I.1 Gubernatorial Election of a President
The Governors are responsible for choosing a citizen to serve as President if an election cycle completes with no citizen elected to the office of President or if the office of President becomes vacant. A Governor will create a thread for interested citizens to post in, and be questioned by the Governors. 3 days after the creation of this thread, the Legislature will vote amongst all interested Candidates via Private Poll. The citizen receiving the most votes is elected President. If more than one citizen ties, a run-off election will be held between only those citizens.

 

[Cyc]

Good addition, in my opinion. Closing up a loop-hole.

 

[Falcon02]

Is there verbage elsewhere for other official positions?

 

[Black_Hole]

Is there verbage elsewhere for other official positions?

Yes, but it requires the President to make the appointment:

Section H.3 Vacancies
The President will appoint a citizen to any Vacant office. If a deputy exists for that office, the President must offer the appointment to that citizen. This appointment may be challenged by any citizen by that citizen posting a confirmation poll within 24 hours of the appointment.

Obviously without a President we can't appoint a president by this article.

 

[DaveShack]

Another idea which would require less intervention would be to have a line of succession, for example:
President, Vice President, Domestic, Military, FA, Trade & Tech, Governors in order of province/state creation.

 

[Furiey]

A few questions:

At the moment we have only one Governor - having the governors vote on this puts it all in the hands of one person in that situation, or when we have 2 (or an even number) could end up with a split vote - how would we resolve that?

Why is this vote by private poll when the main elections are public?

I must admit Daveshack's idea is growing on me although it needs the details working out eg: what order, do we include a VP (which we haven't got and is not elected), does everyone automatically move up? do they just get a choice to accept if no then passed to the next in line? what happens if no one wants it?

Or do we stick with the original idea but have all elected official take part in the selection?

 

[DaveShack]

Another idea would be to just have a special election with all citizens voting.

 

[Black_Hole]

Another idea would be to just have a special election with all citizens voting.

Thats actually what currently happens:
"3 days after the creation of this thread, the Legislature will vote amongst all interested Candidates via "

According to the constitution, the legislature is the assembly, or the citizens as a whole. It appears this article just means that the governors organize the efforts, but all of the citizens still vote.

We could also have a line of succession, thoughts?

 

[Cyc]

I still like the original addition. Yes, the CJ is correct. The Governor(s) organize the process and the citizens then vote for the candidate of their choice. THAT verbage could be cleared up some AND, as Furiey said, we should change that to a public poll.

Is there not a Chain of Command?

 

[Black_Hole]

How does this look?

Section I.1 Gubernatorial Election of a President
The Governors shall organize efforts to find a President if an election cycle completes with no citizen elected to the office of President or if the office of President becomes vacant. A Governor will create a thread for interested citizens to post in, and be questioned by the Governors. 3 days after the creation of this thread, the Assembly will vote amongst all interested Candidates via Public Poll. The citizen receiving the most votes is elected President. If more than one citizen ties, a run-off election will be held between only those citizens.

 

[Cyc]

Looks good. Don't think anyone will have a problem understanding that. Especially with this discussion thread.

 

[Furiey]

That looks better, much clearer.

Are only Governors able to question the candidates? Why not allow anyone to ask questions. Just removing "by the Governors" from that bit would allow it.

 

[Cyc]

That looks better, much clearer.

Are only Governors able to question the candidates? Why not allow anyone to ask questions. Just removing "by the Governors" from that bit would allow it.

Then we might as well remove "Gubernatorial" from the Section heading, if all one Governor has to do is post one thread. I think we should leave it up to the Governors. Our first Governor is fully capable of asking good questions and I'm sure the rest will be too. Anyone could probably PM the Governor(s) with their question(s).

 

[Furiey]

Nothing against the Governors, but I suppose I don't really see why it should be Gubernatorial, why not use the chain of command to organise it but then have it like any other election with anyone able to ask questions of the candidates? But possibly that is going beyond what this ammendment was meant to do, just add for a vacant office to what already exists.

 

[CommandoBob]

A chain of command sounds good.

How does the office become vacant? If the President resigns, that's easy. But what if he is just missing for a while? How long/much of what action/lack of action has to occur to declare the office vacant?

 

[Cyc]

Nothing against the Governors, but I suppose I don't really see why it should be Gubernatorial, why not use the chain of command to organise it but then have it like any other election with anyone able to ask questions of the candidates? But possibly that is going beyond what this ammendment was meant to do, just add for a vacant office to what already exists.

You're probably right. That's beyond this amendment. Let's complete this to cover a vacancy and work on your suggestion afterwards. I will stand by what the citizens say.

A chain of command sounds good.

How does the office become vacant? If the President resigns, that's easy. But what if he is just missing for a while? How long/much of what action/lack of action has to occur to declare the office vacant?

That sounds like a question for the Judiciary. Maybe even a Judicial Review.

 

[DaveShack]

I still don't see the point of having anything more than a special election. Cut down the days required for the nomination and poll, but run it the exact same way a normal election runs. Having the governor(s) organize it just adds unnecessary complexity.

Getting a law for the chain of command should actually have a higher priority than the one for filling a vacant presidency. A CoC would let the game progress for the 3-5 days it would take to fill the job.

 

[Nobody]

Chief justice appoints one.

 

[Cyc]

I still don't see the point of having anything more than a special election. Cut down the days required for the nomination and poll, but run it the exact same way a normal election runs. Having the governor(s) organize it just adds unnecessary complexity.

Getting a law for the chain of command should actually have a higher priority than the one for filling a vacant presidency. A CoC would let the game progress for the 3-5 days it would take to fill the job.

It is a specia election, DaveShack. The only difference between this one and one you might put together is that this one is initiated by the Governor(s). It's a perk for the Governor to question the candidates about the needs of their cities and citizens (and of course nation). There is no additional time spent, in fact it may even be streamlined.

As far as a Chain of Command, the Constitution mentions the Chain of Command and I assume the CoC is the order in which the Executive Branch is listed in Article E of the Constitution. For me, the Chain of Command (CoC) is already established in its order per the Hibernia Constitution.