Cyc
I added the ending pieces to the definitions.
Yes, depending on the wording of the poll the abstain option in a majority required poll could work either way. My point is that it will always work as either YES or NO, never as ABSTAIN so should not be presented as an option. I am very against ABSTAIN being in this type of poll because it is very misleading. When people see ABSTAIN they vote it in order to show participation without modifying the results of the poll.
Instead of 3 different types of polls, how about if we use 3 different quorums? The quorum for a Constitutional amendment could be 3/4 of the Presidential returns (around 35, or 150% of the active citizens). The quorum for a law change could be 3/4 of the active citizens (around 16). The quorum for a standard change could be 1/2 of the active citizens (around 12). Alternately, get rid of the census of active citizens and use just the presidential returns (3/4 for amendments, 1/2 for laws, 1/4 for standards makes 35, 26, 13 for the 3 quorums). This has the strong advantage of keeping things simple.