STF

Discussion: LEGOE Final Draft (Ends 2/16/2021)

Posted Feb. 6, 2021, 10:01 p.m. by Vice Admiral Sarah Hemenway (President) (Sarah M)

This is the final review of the revised LEGOE. Please submit any comments or concerns no later than the end of the day on Tuesday, February 16, 2021.

Legislative Edict Governing Official Elections

I. SUPERSEDENCE OF PREVIOUS EDICTS

Edict Hemenway #51 is hereby rescinded and superseded by this Edict.

II. ESTABLISHMENT OF ELECTION SEASON AND ELECTION AREA

Election Season is hereby established as the period of time starting with the beginning of the nomination period and ending with the announcement of the final election results. The Election Area is hereby established as an area of the club software set aside specifically for Election-related business and discussion.

III. ELECTION COORDINATOR AND ASSISTANT ELECTION COORDINATOR

The Election Coordinator is an Executive Assistant with complete powers over the Elections. However, their power is limited to the Elections only, and ceases to exist once the elections are over and all pending disputes are resolved.

The Emergency Election Coordinator is an Executive Assistant whose powers are only exercised during one of the following conditions: a) the Election Coordinator has declared an LOA during the Election Season, b) the Election Coordinator is AWOL during the Election Season, or c) the Election Coordinator has missed a deadline contained in this Edict or the Election Timetable. During the stated conditions, the Emergency Election Coordinator’s powers are those of the Election Coordinator, and shall also be required to perform the tasks of the Election Coordinator.

The Election Coordinator may not delegate any tasks unless specific assistance or expertise is required, subject to the requirements under this Edict for the Emergency Election Coordinator to perform the Election Coordinator’s tasks. TECH is required to provide the Election Coordinator with whatever access to the STF server and system resources are required in order to fulfill his responsibilities and provide assistance in using them as needed.

For the duration of the Election Season, the Election Coordinator is responsible for ensuring the security of the election process, by any means necessary, including restricting all other individuals to any access to the voting mechanisms. Should the Election Coordinator find that the President is too involved in any campaign, any access necessary to ensure the security of the election process will be removed for the duration of the Election Season and given to the next member in Presidential succession (as defined in the GO bylaw or its replacement) who is not too involved in any campaign. Should the Election Coordinator find that the designated member of TECH is too involved in any campaign, any access necessary to ensure the security of the election process will be removed for the duration of the Election Season and given to another TECH member agreed upon by the Election Coordinator and TECH Chairman.

The Election Coordinator is tasked to see to the proper running and functioning of a democratic election process. In order to enforce this, the Election Coordinator is empowered to provide official warnings or reprimands, remove election related material from the STF server, remove voting privileges, remove posting privileges on the Election Area, and, in the most extreme cases, nullify or void a campaign ticket. Election matters may be taken to the President for further club-level punishment. All rulings by the Election Coordinator are final and are not subject to appeal.

The Election Coordinator and Emergency Election Coordinator are to be the impartial moderators of the Election and are therefore forbidden from running as a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate, from nominating or seconding any candidate, from campaigning for any candidate, and from openly endorsing any candidate.

IV. PROCEDURE

A. TIMELINE

  • The Election Season is to commence no later than the start of the President’s eighth month in office.
  • The President must name an Election Coordinator and Emergency Election Coordinator via Edict at least two weeks prior to the start of the Election Season.
  • Once an Election Coordinator and Emergency Election Coordinator are named, TECH will open the Election Area.
  • The Election Coordinator must announce, in Command and in the Election Area, an Election Timetable at least one week prior to the commencement of the Election Season, as well as any additional rules governing the Election. The Timetable will set out the timing of the different stages of the Election Season.
  • Both the Timetable and a link to any Election rules must remain posted on the Election Area MOTD. The Election Area will be deactivated no less than seven and no more than 14 days after the Election Season has concluded.

B. PARTICIPATION AND ELIGIBILITY

All members are invited to participate in the election process. For the purpose of this Edict, the definition of ‘member’ is the same as found in Member Order and Organization.

Certain election activities, including nominating, running as a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate, endorsing, and voting, are limited to ‘eligible’ members who meet the definition of ‘member’ 30 days prior to the start of the Election Season, and continue to meet the definition up to and including the time of the election activity in question.

C. NOMINATIONS

  • Any eligible Member can nominate another eligible Member for the position of President. Another eligible Member must then second the nomination.
  • A prospective Presidential Candidate may not nominate or second their own ticket; however, a prospective Vice Presidential Candidate may do so.
  • A Member can only nominate or second one individual; however, if that individual declines the nomination, the nominating Members are free to nominate another individual.
  • A Member cannot run for the position of President if they have nominated or seconded another Member unless the nominated Member has declined the nomination or is otherwise ineligible to run.

Once the nomination has been seconded, the Candidate must publicly accept the nomination and declare another eligible Member to be their Vice Presidential Candidate in a post on the Election Area. The Election Coordinator will then validate the ticket and the Candidate pair may begin campaigning. If the Candidate does not publicly accept the nomination by the end of the nomination period, he will be disqualified.

D. UNCONTESTED ELECTIONS

If at any time after the end of the nomination period there is only one validated ticket, then pending any unresolved election-related disputes, the Election Coordinator may declare an Uncontested Election.

When the Election Coordinator declares an Uncontested Election, then, notwithstanding the rest of this Edict, the Election Coordinator shall announce the sole ticket as the winners of the election and end the election season.

The date of the start of the new Presidential Term, as stated in the original Election Timetable, shall remain unchanged. The new President will be installed on the first day of the new Presidential Term.

E. CAMPAIGNS

Every person who posts on the Election Area is expected to keep their posts to the point, truthful, and within the bounds of common courtesy. Behavior such as, but not limited to, character attacks, inflammatory finger-pointing, trickery, and deception will not be tolerated and may lead to penalties at the Election Coordinator’s discretion. (Example: “Candidate X is a horrible person…” will not be tolerated. However, “Candidate X has made several mistakes as QDir. They are…” will be tolerated within the bounds of common courtesy). Any additional campaign materials, including, but not limited to, candidate websites, are required to meet the same standards as Election Area posts, regardless of the origin of the material. Any member may raise a concern to the Election Coordinator and the Election Coordinator is responsible for reviewing posts and campaign materials on a regular basis and for ruling on questionable instances as they occur.

Campaigning via the club’s software platform may take place on the Election Area only. Any MOTD announcements implying support for or voicing opinions against any specific ticket are expressly forbidden. MOTD announcements of upcoming Election Season events and timetables are permissible provided that they do not contain support for any ticket. Violations of these rules will result in sanctions from the Election Coordinator, and immediate removal of the announcement by TECH or the Election Coordinator.

All members are permitted to pose questions to the candidates after the candidate’s ticket has been validated, unless the member has been restricted from doing so by the Election Coordinator. Questions may be directed at some or all of the candidates, and may only be posted in the Election Area. Candidates are not required to answer the questions.

Except as provided by this Edict, no person shall post a message on the WeBB endorsing a Candidate. During the voting period, eligible members may post a message in the Election Area endorsing another candidate. Endorsements must meet the standards in this Section. No person may post an endorsement message that implies it is also on behalf of anyone who is not the person posting the message.

Candidates may individually contact people to discuss the Election and to ask for their support. In the event that the person contacted does not wish to talk about the Election, the Candidate must refrain from discussing it with him. At no time may any unsolicited campaign material be sent to more than one person at a time, including using capabilities offered by STF’s software platform. Use of the BCC field in any election related email is prohibited. Should an individual not wish to be contacted regarding the election, he may request that the Election Coordinator place him on a publicly accessible “do not contact” list. All members are required to abide by this list.

Discussion in any official STF chat mediums (e.g. Discord) is permissible as long as it does not imply support for or against a specific Candidate. (Example: “Have you read the election ship lately?” or “It sure is an interesting election” are permissible. However, “I can’t believe Candidate X said that” or “Candidate Y sure had some good answers today” or “I think it’s clear who’s winning” are not permissible).

F. ELECTION AREA MOTD

The Election Coordinator is responsible for maintaining the Election Area MOTD.

The Election Area MOTD shall contain a table containing important administrative information about the Candidates, which shall be updated by the Election Coordinator. At a minimum, the table shall include a list of the Candidate teams, the status of the Candidate teams, penalties and warnings that have been issued by the Election Coordinator, and a list of endorsements.

Candidates may provide a short summary of their platform to the Election Coordinator. A link to the summaries shall be posted on the Election Area MOTD after the Election Coordinator has approved them for length and standards compliance.

G. VOTING

During the Voting period, campaigning continues. Voting is by secret ballot, utilizing a method decided upon by the Election Coordinator that allows for votes to be “locked” and has appropriate security. Every eligible Member is eligible to vote once, except for the Election Coordinator, who does not vote unless needed as a method of tie-breaking. The Election Coordinator is empowered to determine how tie-breaking votes will be handled, which must be included in the published Election Rules.

During the Voting period, the Election Coordinator shall post a message on the main club announcement area that voting has started and that eligible members should have voting access. The announcement must also state that a person who does not have voting access, but believes their alleged ineligibility is in error, should contact the Election Coordinator.

If there are more than two Candidate teams that can be voted for, a preliminary run-off round of voting shall be held before the final round of voting. Only the two Candidate teams with the highest number of votes cast for them in the run-off round of voting shall be on the ballot for the final round of voting.

The winning Candidate team is the one with a plurality of votes in the final (or only) round of voting, i.e., the highest number of votes.

All ballots shall be destroyed upon the deactivation of the Election Area.

H. RESULTS

The Election Coordinator is responsible for tallying all votes cast and announcing the results of each round publicly in Command and the Election Area. The announced results shall include the number of votes cast for each Candidate team.

The new President will be installed on the first day of the new Presidential Term.

I. WITHDRAWALS, INVALIDATIONS, AND DISQUALIFICATIONS

If a Presidential candidate or Vice Presidential candidate withdraws from the election at any time after his ticket has been validated, the Election Coordinator shall invalidate the ticket. A candidate may only withdraw by personally posting a notice to that effect in the Election Area.

If a Vice Presidential candidate withdraws from the election after his ticket has been validated, but prior to the end of the nomination period, the Presidential candidate may publicly declare an eligible member as his new Vice Presidential candidate prior to the end of the nomination period, at which time the Election Coordinator shall revalidate the ticket. Otherwise, the ticket shall remain invalidated.

If a Vice Presidential candidate withdraws from the election after the end of the nomination period, but prior to the start of the voting period, and the Election Coordinator decides that there are special circumstances, the Election Coordinator may set a time period for the Presidential candidate to publicly declare an eligible member as his new Vice-Presidential candidate, at which time the Election Coordinator shall revalidate the ticket. Otherwise, the ticket shall remain invalidated. The special time period must end no later than the start of the voting period.

If a Vice Presidential candidate has withdrawn from the election, the Presidential candidate may not campaign until the Election Coordinator has re-validated the ticket.

All tickets that are invalidated, nullified, or voided by the Election Coordinator shall be considered disqualified. No disqualified ticket may campaign or appear on the voting ballot.

If a ticket is disqualified during the preliminary run-off vote, and there still remains more than two valid tickets on the ballot, the disqualified ticket shall be removed from the ballot, and all votes for the disqualified ticket shall be reconsidered as uncast votes. If a ticket is disqualified during the preliminary run-off vote, and there remains only two valid tickets on the ballot, the Election Coordinator shall end the run-off vote, and the two valid tickets shall move on to the final voting round, as originally scheduled in the Election Timetable.

If a ticket is disqualified during the final voting period, the Election Coordinator shall end the vote, and follow the procedure for an Uncontested Election.

V. IRREGULARITIES

In the event that the procedure outlined in this Edict is not properly followed, the Election Coordinator may note an irregularity.

If in the judgment of the Election Coordinator the irregularity does not violate the integrity of the election process then he must state so publicly and provide reasoning.

If in the judgment of the Election Coordinator the procedure outlined in this Edict may be adjusted to account for the irregularity without violating the integrity of the election process, he must state so publicly and explain what temporary adjustments will be made and why.

If in the judgment of the Election Coordinator the irregularity does violate the integrity of the election process or render a fair and honest result impossible to determine, the Election Coordinator may declare a Irregular Election. An Irregular Election may only be declared in extreme circumstances, upon the advice and consent of the sitting President or senior-most member who is not a candidate in the election, and must include a detailed explanation of why it is impossible to recover from the irregularity.

If an Irregular Election is declared, the election is considered void. The Election Coordinator must immediately restart the election process with fresh nominations. The new election process will follow the same procedure as a normal election unless explicitly stated otherwise by the Election Coordinator. Should the new election process extend into what would be the new Presidential term, the sitting president will remain in office for the duration of the new election process until a new President is installed, and the new President’s term will be shortened by the amount of overlap.

VI. CONCLUSION

This edict may not be amended or replaced during an election season, except with the posted consent of the currently sitting President, Vice President, and Election Coordinator.


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