I submit the following and spend 1 AP to pend it:
Proposal: Election Campaigns (AI=3)
{{{
Text in square brackets in this proposal is only an annotation and this
Proposal's effect is as if that text were not included at all.
[Changes from the proto:
- Added these annotations.
- Reordered the rule changes to make a bit more sense.
- Added the codification of the "you make it, you fill it" principle.
- Made it so the current holder of an office can initiate an election
for it by announcement.
- Added provision for uncontested elections.
- Increased pragmaticism.
- Added essential parameters to Campaign Proposals.
- A few other minor fixes.
]
Amend rule 1006 (Offices) by adding the following paragraph before the
final one:
A holder of an elected office who did not become its holder by
winning an election, and has not won an election for that
office since, is an interim holder. An elected office that is
either vacant or has an interim holder is an interim office.
[This definition is used in election initiations, below. Basically, an
interim holder is one who doesn't have a solid claim to hold onto the
office, and vacancy is included in the definition of an interim office
to avoid righting "if the office's holder is interim or if the office is
vacant" everywhere.]
Amend rule 1006 (Offices) by adding the following paragraph at the end:
When a proposal takes effect and creates a new office, if the
proposal does not specify otherwise, the author of that proposal
becomes the holder of the office.
[This codifies the "If you make an office, it's your job to fill it if
no-one else does." principle. Note that the holder of an office
installed this way is interim.]
Enact a new rule entitled (Campaign Proposals, with power 3), reading as
follows:
During the nomination period of an election, any candidate for
that election CAN submit a Campaign Proposal for that election,
provided e does not currently have a pending Campaign Proposal
for that election, using the normal mechanism for proposal
submission. Campaign Proposals SHOULD relate to the duties of the
office up for election. Commitment is an untracked Campaign Proposal
switch with values Committed (default) and Uncommitted. The author
of a Committed proposal may flip it to Uncommitted by
announcement.
[A Campaign Proposal is basically an extension of a candidate's platform,
allowing them to propose changes to any office that they wish to
associate with their election.
Commitment is basically stating whether a candidate wishes to be elected
only if their proposal passes. They can opt out of commitment, so that
they can be elected if it fails. This allows a player to encode "I will
take this office only if I can change it in this fashion." into the
election system.]
A Campaign Proposal is an Official Proposal exempt from
automatic distribution, and SHALL NOT be distributed as required
by the rules. The election with which a Campaign Proposal is
associated, as well as its Commitment, are essential parameters
for an Agoran decision to adopt a Campaign Proposal.
[The election procedure dictates when Campaign Proposals should be
distributed; they don't follow the normal distribution system. They also
have some additional essential parameters, although note that a player
can opt out of Commitment even after the proposal is distributed.]
When a Campaign Proposal is adopted, it CANNOT take effect
until the associated election ends. When the election ends, if the
winner was the proposal's author, then any player CAN once make it
take effect by announcement (with its power set as usual for an
adopted proposal). If the conditions for a Campaign Proposal to
take effect are met as a result of an action in a public message,
the author of the message SHALL make it take effect in that
message.
[Campaign Proposals need to meet two requirements in order to take
effect: their author must win the election and they must pass. The
former is what ties them to the election and allows candidates to safely
submit conflicting proposals. The latter is the safety guard (reinforced
by rule 106 which prevents non-adopted proposals from taking effect) to
ensure that a candidate can
This also means that voters can vote on the Campaign Proposals based on
whether or not they would be okay with the rule changes, knowing that
the actual choice of which one takes effect is dictated by the election
outcome.
Requiring them to take effect by announcement is a safety guard to
ensure that they don't take effect with no one noticing. In practice,
the Assessor will nearly always do this in the same message as resolving
the decision (and the poll, if applicable), however.]
Amend rule 1607 (Distribution) by replacing "In a given Agoran week, the
Promotor SHALL, as part of eir weekly duties, distribute all pending
proposals." with "In a given Agoran week, the Promotor SHALL, as part of
eir weekly duties, distribute all pending proposals except for those
exempted from automatic distribution by other rules."
[This ensures that the Promotor isn't obligated to distribute Campaign
Proposals normally.]
Amend rule 2154 (Election Procedure) to read as follows:
A player CAN initiate an election for a specified office:
a) With 2 Support, if either the office is interim or the
most recent election for that office was resolved more
than 90 days prior, and provided that the initiator
becomes a candidate in the same message.
b) By announcement, if e is the ADoP and if the office is
interim, or if e is the holder of that office.
The above notwithstanding, an election for an office CANNOT be
initiated if one is already in progress.
[This cleans up when elections can start. Basically, anyone can
challenge the existing officer if they are interim or if they have been
in their office for a long time; the ADoP can open an election for an
office that needs one; and the current officer can always open
competition for the office.]
After an election is initiated and until nominations close, any
player CAN become a candidate by announcement. A candidate
ceases to be a candidate if e ceases to be a player during the
election. An election is contested if it has two or more
candidates at the end of the nomination period, and uncontested
otherwise. For a contested election, nominations close at the end
of the poll's voting period. For an uncontested election,
nominations close at the end of the nomination period.
[Players must explicitly opt-in to become candidates, and can do so up
until the winner is locked in, effectively.]
When an election is initiated, it enters the nomination period,
which lasts for 7 days. In a timely fashion after the nomination
period ends, the ADoP CAN and SHALL, in the same message:
1) If the election is contested, initiate an Agoran decision
to select the winner of the election (the poll). For this
decision, the Vote Collector is the Assessor, the valid
options are the candidates for that election (including
those who become candidates after its initiation), and the
voting method is instant runoff.
2) Distribute all pending Campaign Proposals associated
with the election.
3) If POSSIBLE per the following paragraph, end the election
immediately.
[After the nomination period, the ADoP kicks off the election by both
starting the election poll (if needed) and distributing its Campaign
Proposals. The Assessor is the vote collector for the poll because that
seemed less invasive than forcing the ADoP to be vote collector for the
proposals.]
If at any point an uncontested election has a single candidate,
and that candidate either is not the author of a Committed
Campaign Proposal for that election or that proposal was adopted,
then any player CAN declare them the winner of the election by
announcement. If at any point an uncontested election has no
candidates, or a single candidate who is the author of a failed
Committed Campaign Proposal for that election, then any player CAN
declare the election ended with no winner by announcement. The
Assessor SHALL do one or the other in the same message in which e
resolves a decision to adopt a Campaign Proposal for an ongoing
uncontested election.
[This paragraph is a bit of a doozy, but basically it means that
uncontested elections work the way you think: if there are no
candidates, they end, and if there is only won, they win. The complexity
comes from the fact that if the one candidate has a Committed Proposal,
then things must wait until it concludes, although they can flip it to
Uncommitted and then end the election themselves.
No provision is made for contested elections where all but one candidate
has dropped out, since I didn't want to have to write rules to allow
cancellation of Agoran decisions.]
A poll CANNOT be resolved until the decisions to adopt all
associated Campaign Proposals are resolved. When resolving the
poll, if a given candidate authored one of the associated
Campaign Proposals, that proposal is Committed, and it was not
adopted, then that player is disqualified.
[This provides that a player with a Committed proposal that failed is
not permitted to win the election, as part the intent of Commitment.]
When the poll is resolved, its outcome, if a player, wins the
election. When a player wins an election, e is installed into the
associated office and the election ends.
Amend rule 955 (Determining the Will of Agora) by appending "The rule
providing for an Agoran Decision by instant runoff may disqualify one or
more options; in such a case, they are eliminated prior to beginning the
first stage of the vote count."
[Enabling of disqualification.]
Amend rule 2138 (The Associate Director of Personnel) by replacing the
bullet:
2. The date on which the most recent election for each office
was initiated.
with:
2. The current status of the ongoing election for that office
or, if there is no ongoing election for that office, the
date on which the last election ended
3. For filled elected offices, whether or not the holder is
interim.
[Since the actually relevant date for election timing is when the most
recent election ended, not started, this changes the reporting to
the election has no candidates, end it per the following
paragraph.account for that. Likewise, interim office-holders
should be marked so
it is easy to know when elections can be started.]
Amend rule 2472 (Office Incompatibilities) by replacing "Promotor and
ADoP" with "Assessor and ADoP".
[The Promotor and ADoP don't interact at all, but now, the ADoP
distributes proposals. As a result, they should be kept apart from
Assessor for the same reason as Promotor.]
}}}
I pend this proposal for 1 AP.
-Alexis
