Official Term 7 Censor Procedures
The Term 7 Censor Procedures have been listed below. They are based off of Sigma's procedures.
Duties of the Censor
The Office of Censor is defined in the Code of Laws, in Section 1.B.III.IIIB. The Censor is in charge of conducting elections, validating elections and posting the official results of the elections. They are also responsible for validating all official polls, posting instructions related from Assembly votes and maintaining a list of names for cities, units and other items as approved by the Assembly.
Elections
All times will be listed in both UTC and EDT. The nomination and election dates and times will be announced in advance.
Nomination threads will be posted in the main forum, and will start at least 8 days before the end of the term. Citizens may nominate themselves or any number of other citizens to office. A nominated citizen must explicitly accept a nomination to be a candidate for office. Self-nominations are considered accepted unless other-wise indicated.
Citizens may only nominate themself during the nomination period. If a citizen knows that they will be absent during said period, they may ask for a self-nomination in the Censor's thread.
Citizens may not accept a nomination in more than one office. Should this happen, the Censor will attempt to determine the preference of the citizen prior to the election polls. If this cannot happen, the first office the citizen accepted the nomination for will be the election in which they are the candidate.
Election polls will be posted 4 days after the Nomination threads are posted, and will be set to run for 3 days. These polls will list all valid candidates, plus abstain, and will be marked as Private. If there is only one candidate for the office, no poll will be posted.
In the event of a tie between two or more candidates, a run-off poll will be posted once the previous poll closes. This poll will list the tied candidates, plus abstain, will be set to run for 2 days, and will be marked Private. This process will be continue until there is a single winner.
Candidates may withdraw from the election at any time. Although they cannot be removed from the ballot, their vote total will be ignored for the purpose of determing the winner. If there is only one remaining candidate after a withdrawal, that candidate is immediately declared the winner of the election.
Polling
Polls are used for Naming Polls, Opinion Polls, Referenda, Initiatives, Recalls, and Citizens Assembly Floor Votes.
Opinion Polls
Opinions Polls are all polls posted by citizens not labeled as Initiatives, and all polls posted by Officials acting in their area labeled as "Opinion" or "Informative". Results of this poll are considered non-binding, but may be used as the basis of a decision. Please be aware that an official may not follow the winning choice.
Referenda
Referendum polls are those posted by officials acting within their area. Results from a Referendum poll are considered binding and official, and superceed are other decision types except for initiative. A referendum may be posted by a representative of the official, if and only if that official agrees to it.
Initiatives
Initiative polls are the ultimate form of decision, and can only be superceeded by another initiative poll. Initiative polls are started by Citizens.
Citizens Assembly Floor Votes
Citizens Assembly Floor Votes are votes of the Citizens Assembly as defined in Section 1.A of the Code of Laws. Unless otherwise specified, a Floor Vote should have the force of an Initiative. The Censor is encouraged to open discussion and polls of the Citizens Assembly, though any citizen may do so.
Naming Polls
Naming Polls are all polls related to the naming of cities, units, geo-political or geographical features, and should be treated as referenda posted by the Censor. All naming polls shall require at least a 33% majority to declare a winner, otherwise another poll is necessary with only the top 3 options so that at least one will receive 33%. In the event of a rename poll, the current name for the city or unit will automatically be nominated as an option, and will proceed to the second poll if it is necessary.
Polling Standards
Polls must be written in a fair and clear manner to be validated. The first post of a poll must contain the question for the poll, the options with explanations if not clear, a link to the discussion thread(s), the type of poll, the length of the poll and how the poll will be interpreted. Lobbying or supporting any option is not to be in this post.
Unless required otherwise, polls must be at least 2 days in length, with 3 or 4 days preferred if time is available. It is not required, although strongly preferred, that a discussion be held before a poll is posted. Polls must be public unless required otherwise by law.
Validation
The Censor or a designated representative will review each binding poll, and validate those that meet the above standards and other legal requirements. If a poll does not meet requirements, the Censor will work with the author to improve the poll and validate it. The Censor may override any decision by a designated representative. The Censor may also change the validation status of a poll after the initial decision, although this decision must reflect the standards in force at that point in time.
Any poll not reviewed within 48 hours of closure is assumed to be validated.
Recall Polls
A Recall poll is one that asks if particular official should be removed from office. This poll may be posted by any Citizen, and follows the above standards with the following exceptions. The length of a Recall poll must be 96 hours. The Recall poll must be marked as Private.
Citizens are reminded that although Recall polls can be emotionally charged, they must act in a civil and respectful manner. Moderators will take special notice of such a poll due to its very nature - citizens should act with respect and courtesy towards each other.
Amendments to these Procedures
The Censor may propose and make amendments to the Procedures of his Office at any time, provided they are annouced and discussed 48 hours before they take effect. Should any citizen disagree with this amendment, he may post an initiative poll which will decide whether or not the amendment will take effect.
