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Bill: One Vote Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Chorus of Amyst
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This bill asks for an amendement to the Constitution. It will require two-thirds of the legislature to vote in favor. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: February 2069
Description[?]:
| Proposes to make a vote from any given citizen in any given region equal in power to that of any other given citizen in any given region. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The method used to determine the number of seats each region receives in the national legislature.
Old value:: A pseudo-proportional algorithm that gives considerable advantage to smaller regions.
Current: Equal representation, regardless of region population.
Proposed: A proportional algorithm that gives a very small advantage to larger regions.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 21:26:16, June 02, 2005 CET | From | Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | The CCF opposes this bill. It does not do what it states: make every person's vote equal. Instead it seeks to make the vote of a person in Kregon worth more than the vote of a person in Golavia: to deliver power to the larger regions, to centralize. The CCF would prefer an equal voice for all regions, but we are able to live wioth the present system as a compromise. |
| Date | 00:01:15, June 03, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | Larger regions should have more power precisely because they are larger and therefore have more voters. The current model gives the vote of a citizen from a smaller region a disproportionate amount of power. This proposal seeks to have all votes equal, and strives to attain a position as close to this goal as possible. The very small advantage to larger regions - caused by the fact that there are more people in those regions in any case - is more desirable than a large artifical advantage given to smaller regions. |
| Date | 04:50:43, June 03, 2005 CET | From | Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | Larger regions already have more representatives. As believers in the equality of all regions, we will vote against this bill if it is brought to a vote. |
| Date | 10:35:52, June 03, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | The Council respectfully notes that while Kregon, for example, contains 24.7% of the population of Lodamun, but only receives 22% of the Parliamentary seats. Golavia, on the other hand, holds 16% of the population and 18% of the seats. Thusly, a voter in Golavia holds more power than a voter in Kregon. The proposed change would not be perfect in equalizing the power of any given vote compared to any other vote, but it will certainly come closer. Additionally, the Council is quite willing to abstain from voting on legislation to return to the current algorithm, if the proposed change leads to further disbalance of vote power. It is not a particular algebraic model that the Council seeks, it is equality between voters. |
| Date | 08:02:42, June 04, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | The Council appreciates the debate from the representative from the CCF, and would be pleased to hear the views of other parties. |
| Date | 18:05:03, June 05, 2005 CET | From | CNT/AFL | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | A shameless power grab by the Council to strengthen their positions in Kregon and Andalay while attempting to undermine the PACF voting base in Golavia and Rapula. |
| Date | 18:13:49, June 05, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | Yet again a PACF party demonstrates the entire movement's hypocrisy. They only want democracy and equality amongst peers when it benefits them, it appears. What right does the CNT/AFL have to say that any one man's vote is worth more than the vote of any other man, simply because of where he lives? As has been stated, if the proposed model turns out to be even more disbalancing - even if the disbalance is in FAVOR of the Council's base - the Council pledges to allow the model to be changed back to the current one. Note that as the current model's percentage difference is approximately 8.11% (calculated by finding the absolute difference between each region's population percent and its percentage of seats in Parliament), the proposed model's disbalance would have to also be in the area of 8% to be considered equally or more disbalancing. As an intention of good will, the Council pledges to allow a change back to the current model even if the proposed model is equal in disbalance. |
| Date | 20:21:03, June 05, 2005 CET | From | Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | The point of our objeciton is that in a federal system, there SHOULD be a system designed to favour the smaller regions, in order to protect them from domination by the larger regions. |
| Date | 23:44:09, June 05, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | The Council would appreciate the views of the other parties, so that it may determine whether or not to pursue this bill. |
| Date | 23:25:15, June 06, 2005 CET | From | CNT/AFL | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | "Yet again a PACF party demonstrates the entire movement's hypocrisy. They only want democracy and equality amongst peers when it benefits them, it appears." The last election saw just 33% of Rapula and 18.5% of Golavia voting for the ruling coalition. The people of Rapula and Golavia alreads feel underrepresentative, that's why they are turning to the opposition. It appears that the Council cannot see that reducing the representation of these states in Parliament would further increase tensions; the same tensions that seem to be easing. |
| Date | 23:38:45, June 06, 2005 CET | From | National Centrist Party | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | If everyone is concerned about regional power plays, then the best possible solution would be to just flatten the vote structure. Give every region an equal number of seats, and the debate over this becomes null. |
| Date | 03:21:42, June 12, 2005 CET | From | Adam Smith Party | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | There is a basic priciple at stae here. All men are equal under the law, and this includes electoral law. One vote from Joe Smith in town A should and must have the same political weight as one vote from Mary Brown in town Z We therefor support whole heartedly this proposal. |
| Date | 19:38:44, June 12, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | The Council thanks the Adam Smith Party for its support. Regional power plays are not the issue with which the Council is concerned. It is equality of each citizen's vote that matters to us. |
| Date | 23:51:30, June 16, 2005 CET | From | Chorus of Amyst | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | If there is no further debate, the Council plans to move this to vote, whether to face victory or defeat. |
| Date | 01:11:29, June 20, 2005 CET | From |  Tuesday Is Coming | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | 259 to 141 with one month left. TIC apologizes that we have no seats to dedicate to this vote, perhaps we will soon be able to make a difference. |
| Date | 02:09:48, June 20, 2005 CET | From | Adam Smith Party | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | Great respect for democracy and the principles of all men being equal has been shown here by The MLP, CNT/AFL, CCF-Greens and @nd June Movem |
| Date | 02:10:01, June 20, 2005 CET | From | Adam Smith Party | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | Great respect for democracy and the principles of all men being equal has been shown here by The MLP, CNT/AFL, CCF-Greens and 2nd June Movement |
| Date | 02:10:42, June 20, 2005 CET | From | Adam Smith Party | To | Debating the One Vote Act |
| Message | (Duh. What happened there?) |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 141 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 259 | ||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 46 |
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