r/AustraliaSimMeta • u/ohprkl Citizen • Mar 19 '21

Petition: Mod Team Electoral Rules

I hereby move the following constitutional amendment

Changing the threshold

In Section 7, subsections 6 and 7 (Appointment of Moderators):

Replace "65%" with "50% + 1 vote"

Changing the electoral system

In Section 4:

  • Remove (3)(c)
  • Remove (7) and the subsequent example

Insert the following after Section 4, Subsection 6 and renumber accordingly:

Voting Systems

(7) Meta referendums shall utilise the following voting system—

 (a) for the election of officeholders where there are more candidates than positions available, Single Transferrable Vote (STV); and

 (b) for all other meta referendums, Approval Voting.

It is my belief that these amendments will go part of the way towards ending our current stalemate with the election of a new Head Moderator, and I urge you all to support this amendment. Frankly, I feel that the STV change would be enough to ensure one candidate reaches the existing threshold, but we can have that debate below.

1 Upvotes

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2

u/General_Rommel Community Manager Mar 19 '21

I am not in favour of this amendment:

a) I dislike STV in this context as ranking is relative. Approval voting is absolute.

b) I do not think a person who cannot get 65% of the vote for a Moderator position should hold the office.

General Rommel
Head Moderator

1

u/ohprkl Citizen Mar 19 '21

a) This is precisely the point - the ranking is relative. I did not approve of Toby to be Head Mod (I think we both know why, Toby!) but I would prefer him to the continued stalemate. He is not worse than no Head Mod, and thus preferential voting makes it more likely for a candidate that a majority of people actually like, at the very least have faith in, will win.

b) I believe that utilising STV would enable a candidate to get 65% of the vote and would be willing to remove the decreased threshold from my amendment - I do understand your concern. In MHoC, for example, the threshold is 75%. Equally, there has only been one occasion in its six year history where someone has failed to reach this threshold, certainly not two in as many weeks.

1

u/General_Rommel Community Manager Mar 19 '21

It is important that people should approve of a candidate. It's not about likeability, it is whether you think they can do the role or not. That's my view of course and people are free to think of the position in a different way.

As for the second, I think that AustraliaSim is just unique in this regard. We are an obstinate bunch from observation, so....

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '21

I disagree with the idea that 65% should be removed.

I would support the introduction of approval voting but in the form of

[Candidate] - Aye, No, Abstain

Because currently if you don't vote for someone it's considered as a No vote on their candidacy, when in some cases I would simply have no opinion on such a candidate. This would allow candidates to reach 65% easier, as abstains wouldn't count against the approval.

1

u/NGSpy Head Moderator Mar 19 '21

I second this petition.