Allemande
07-04-2005, 06:28
It's election time in the United States of Allemande!
Here's a breakdown of the current government and the posts that are up for grabs:
The Chamber of Deputies - Lower House of the National Assembly (80 Deputies): Progressives - 1
Liberals - 35
Conservatives - 38
Libertarians - 6
The Senate - Upper House of the National Assembly (34 Senators): Liberals - 17
Conservatives - 17
State Governors (17 Governors): Conservatives - 10
Liberals - 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Up For Grabs: The Presidency (Liberal)
80 Deputies (1 Progressive, 35 Liberals, 38 Conservatives, 6 Libertarians)
9 Senators (6 Liberals, 3 Conservatives)
8 Governors (2 Liberals, 6 Conservatives)
The Presidency - Election Rules:
The President is elected by an Electoral College. Each State casts a number of Electoral Votes equal to its representation in both houses of the National Assembly combined. In addition, the Federal Metropolitan District gets the same number of Electoral Votes as the smallest State (3). This yields a total of 117 Electoral Votes. A majority of these (59) is needed to elect a President; if no candidate recieves a majority, the election goes to the National Assembly, where each State gets one vote (to be cast according to the outcome of a caucus of that State's Deputies and Senators combined). Voting continues until 9 or more States agree on a new President.
Electors are chosen directly by the people of each State. While in theory an Elector can cast his or her ballot any way he or she chooses, in reality all States have laws against free agency by so-called "faithless electors", making the vote a formality. This means that the Presidency hinges on 18 "winner-take-all" elections. Various efforts at reforming this system have been mounted since it was put in place with Allemande's current Constitution over 50 years ago, but none has even come close to success.
The Chamber of Deputies - Election Rules:
Voters fill each State's seats in the Chamber of Deputies by voting for a List. Voting Lists were introduced as a reform to eliminate the practice of "gerrymandering" (creatively drawing districts in such a way as to give one's party an edge) about 30 years ago. Various efforts have been made to further reform the system (usually through the introduction of proportional voting systems), but - as with Electoral College reform - none has come close to success.
Each Party with a spot of the ballot offers a List in advance of the election. The List consists of an ordered list of the names of persons that Party would like to see seated in the Chamber of Deputies. There need not be a name on the list for every open seat, but (at least for the major parties) that is the usual practice.
Rather than vote for individual Deputies, voters cast a single ballot for the List of their choice. Votes are then tallied and the number of Deputies to be elected is divided into 100%. The resulting quotient is the percentage of the vote required to win a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Starting with the Party that won the greatest vote total, a seat is awarded to that Party in exchange for a deduction of the required percentage from its vote totals. If seats remain to be awarded, this procedure is repeated until all seats are assigned. The following example should suffice:Seats to be Awarded - 7
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 43.17%
Conservatives - 40.07%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
100% ÷ 7 = 14.28%
The first seat goes to the Liberals. After 14.28% is deducted from their totals, the balance looks like this:Seats to be Awarded - 6
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 28.89%
Conservatives - 40.07%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
The next seat goes to the Conservatives. Recalculating:Seats to be Awarded - 5
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 28.89%
Conservatives - 25.79%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
Obviously the next two seats will go the same way as the last two. After that:Seats to be Awarded - 3
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 14.61%
Conservatives - 11.51%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
The last three seats will go to the Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians (respectively), yielding as a final resultFinal Results: Progressives - 0
Liberals - 3
Conservatives - 3
Libertarians - 1
Each Party then fills its seats from the List, starting at the top. This means that, in practice, people at the bottom of the List aren't likely to be elected, and in fact these positions are usually assigned as a way of showcasing a political novice or acknowledging the contributions of an old Party soldier.
The Senate & Governorships:
These posts are filled through direct election on a State-wide basis.
Terms of Office & Rotation: Presidency - 6 years
Senators - 12 years (¼ of the Senate stands for election every 3 years)
Deputies - 3 years (all Deputies stand for election every 3 years)
Governors - 6 years (½ of all Governors stand for election every 3 years)
OOC: Allemande chose to lengthen elected terms rather than shorten them when the "Term Limits" issue arose.
Current Polls: Progressives - 5%
Liberals - 34%
Conservatives - 33%
Libertarians - 5%
Other - 1%
None of the Above - 1%
Undecided - 21%
"None of the above" is not an option; the category is intended to display that percentage of the electorate that is disaffected/alienated from the system.
Other Comments: By law and custom, campaigns are limited to just six weeks (actually, 45 days). Since Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, by law) falls on 11/8, the campaign will begin no earlier than 9/24 (a Sunday). In recent years candidates have used the down time between the National and State Conventions (held in mid-August) and the legal start date to conduct polls, research issues (and candidates), write position papers, grant interviews, craft advertisements, prepare for the debates (there are usually either two or three, held in early October), raise funds, and establish a presence on the ground in key states. The effect is to produce a 90 day campaign in which the first half is more or less conducted under wraps (NOTE: So-called Political Action Committees are not completely bound by these rules; they can make announcements and even air advertisements as long as no candidate's name is mentioned, pro or con).
Allemande has no Vice-Presidency. By law, the Secretary of State is empowered to serve as Acting-President in the event that the office is vacated or the President is temporarily incapacitated, but this does not imply a formal right to succession. Instead, if the office is vacated (or the President is removed due to misconduct or a declaration of permanent incapacity), then the National Assembly elects a new President following the exact same procedure as in the event of a deadlocked Electoral College, to fill the balance of the current term. Most often, the Secretary of State - if willing - is given the post. Consequently, Presidential candidates traditionally announced the name of the person whom they will select to hold this important post prior to the official start of the campaign (in fact, all Cabinet selections are announced, usually after the Convention in August), and this person is usually thought of (and spoken of) as the candidate's "running mate".
Lower races track within 1% of the top of the ticket. In an off year, the "top" of the ticket is either the Governor's race or the race for one of a State's two Senate seats. Senators and Governors never run for office in the same year; half of the States (rounding down) elect a Governor during a Presidential election, while the other half (rounding up) elect a Senator. They they reverse roles in the off years. To determine success of failure in these races, I will generate a random modifier of +/-1% for each Party's line in each lower race, and then normalize to 100% (or actually, 99%+/-0.5%, since independents and minor party candidates always collectively draw at least 1% of the vote [their 1% will also be modified randomly, only by just the +/-0.5% alluded to above]).
OOC: I'm actually going to game this out using President Forever (http://www.80soft.com/pforever/info/), a political campaign game by 80soft.com (http://www.80soft.com/). I'm in the process of writing a scenario, and when I'm done, if those of you who have the game want to take a look at it, you can TG me and I'll send you a copy. I'm going to try and make this race as close as I can (with a slight edge to the Liberal incumbent), but I can't guarantee that it will be close.
For those of you who think this all too "American" (which it kind of is), I have other puppets (with Parliamentary governments) who will be gamed out later this year using one of the other models available from 80sift.com (Prime Minister Forever (http://www.80soft.com/pmforever/info/index.htm), using either the U.K., Canadian, or Australian versions (the U.K. version is yet to be published).
I will feed foreign events into the campaign, but keep in mind that - like most countries - nationalism may produce a backlash against any overt or covert attempt at election tampering. Do TG me first, so that we can get the effects right within the context of the unfolding campaign. I reserve the right to IGNORE "bolt-out-of-the-blue" surprises.
Here's a breakdown of the current government and the posts that are up for grabs:
The Chamber of Deputies - Lower House of the National Assembly (80 Deputies): Progressives - 1
Liberals - 35
Conservatives - 38
Libertarians - 6
The Senate - Upper House of the National Assembly (34 Senators): Liberals - 17
Conservatives - 17
State Governors (17 Governors): Conservatives - 10
Liberals - 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Up For Grabs: The Presidency (Liberal)
80 Deputies (1 Progressive, 35 Liberals, 38 Conservatives, 6 Libertarians)
9 Senators (6 Liberals, 3 Conservatives)
8 Governors (2 Liberals, 6 Conservatives)
The Presidency - Election Rules:
The President is elected by an Electoral College. Each State casts a number of Electoral Votes equal to its representation in both houses of the National Assembly combined. In addition, the Federal Metropolitan District gets the same number of Electoral Votes as the smallest State (3). This yields a total of 117 Electoral Votes. A majority of these (59) is needed to elect a President; if no candidate recieves a majority, the election goes to the National Assembly, where each State gets one vote (to be cast according to the outcome of a caucus of that State's Deputies and Senators combined). Voting continues until 9 or more States agree on a new President.
Electors are chosen directly by the people of each State. While in theory an Elector can cast his or her ballot any way he or she chooses, in reality all States have laws against free agency by so-called "faithless electors", making the vote a formality. This means that the Presidency hinges on 18 "winner-take-all" elections. Various efforts at reforming this system have been mounted since it was put in place with Allemande's current Constitution over 50 years ago, but none has even come close to success.
The Chamber of Deputies - Election Rules:
Voters fill each State's seats in the Chamber of Deputies by voting for a List. Voting Lists were introduced as a reform to eliminate the practice of "gerrymandering" (creatively drawing districts in such a way as to give one's party an edge) about 30 years ago. Various efforts have been made to further reform the system (usually through the introduction of proportional voting systems), but - as with Electoral College reform - none has come close to success.
Each Party with a spot of the ballot offers a List in advance of the election. The List consists of an ordered list of the names of persons that Party would like to see seated in the Chamber of Deputies. There need not be a name on the list for every open seat, but (at least for the major parties) that is the usual practice.
Rather than vote for individual Deputies, voters cast a single ballot for the List of their choice. Votes are then tallied and the number of Deputies to be elected is divided into 100%. The resulting quotient is the percentage of the vote required to win a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Starting with the Party that won the greatest vote total, a seat is awarded to that Party in exchange for a deduction of the required percentage from its vote totals. If seats remain to be awarded, this procedure is repeated until all seats are assigned. The following example should suffice:Seats to be Awarded - 7
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 43.17%
Conservatives - 40.07%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
100% ÷ 7 = 14.28%
The first seat goes to the Liberals. After 14.28% is deducted from their totals, the balance looks like this:Seats to be Awarded - 6
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 28.89%
Conservatives - 40.07%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
The next seat goes to the Conservatives. Recalculating:Seats to be Awarded - 5
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 28.89%
Conservatives - 25.79%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
Obviously the next two seats will go the same way as the last two. After that:Seats to be Awarded - 3
Vote Totals Progressives - 4.31%
Liberals - 14.61%
Conservatives - 11.51%
Libertarians - 11.31%
Others - 1.14%
The last three seats will go to the Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians (respectively), yielding as a final resultFinal Results: Progressives - 0
Liberals - 3
Conservatives - 3
Libertarians - 1
Each Party then fills its seats from the List, starting at the top. This means that, in practice, people at the bottom of the List aren't likely to be elected, and in fact these positions are usually assigned as a way of showcasing a political novice or acknowledging the contributions of an old Party soldier.
The Senate & Governorships:
These posts are filled through direct election on a State-wide basis.
Terms of Office & Rotation: Presidency - 6 years
Senators - 12 years (¼ of the Senate stands for election every 3 years)
Deputies - 3 years (all Deputies stand for election every 3 years)
Governors - 6 years (½ of all Governors stand for election every 3 years)
OOC: Allemande chose to lengthen elected terms rather than shorten them when the "Term Limits" issue arose.
Current Polls: Progressives - 5%
Liberals - 34%
Conservatives - 33%
Libertarians - 5%
Other - 1%
None of the Above - 1%
Undecided - 21%
"None of the above" is not an option; the category is intended to display that percentage of the electorate that is disaffected/alienated from the system.
Other Comments: By law and custom, campaigns are limited to just six weeks (actually, 45 days). Since Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, by law) falls on 11/8, the campaign will begin no earlier than 9/24 (a Sunday). In recent years candidates have used the down time between the National and State Conventions (held in mid-August) and the legal start date to conduct polls, research issues (and candidates), write position papers, grant interviews, craft advertisements, prepare for the debates (there are usually either two or three, held in early October), raise funds, and establish a presence on the ground in key states. The effect is to produce a 90 day campaign in which the first half is more or less conducted under wraps (NOTE: So-called Political Action Committees are not completely bound by these rules; they can make announcements and even air advertisements as long as no candidate's name is mentioned, pro or con).
Allemande has no Vice-Presidency. By law, the Secretary of State is empowered to serve as Acting-President in the event that the office is vacated or the President is temporarily incapacitated, but this does not imply a formal right to succession. Instead, if the office is vacated (or the President is removed due to misconduct or a declaration of permanent incapacity), then the National Assembly elects a new President following the exact same procedure as in the event of a deadlocked Electoral College, to fill the balance of the current term. Most often, the Secretary of State - if willing - is given the post. Consequently, Presidential candidates traditionally announced the name of the person whom they will select to hold this important post prior to the official start of the campaign (in fact, all Cabinet selections are announced, usually after the Convention in August), and this person is usually thought of (and spoken of) as the candidate's "running mate".
Lower races track within 1% of the top of the ticket. In an off year, the "top" of the ticket is either the Governor's race or the race for one of a State's two Senate seats. Senators and Governors never run for office in the same year; half of the States (rounding down) elect a Governor during a Presidential election, while the other half (rounding up) elect a Senator. They they reverse roles in the off years. To determine success of failure in these races, I will generate a random modifier of +/-1% for each Party's line in each lower race, and then normalize to 100% (or actually, 99%+/-0.5%, since independents and minor party candidates always collectively draw at least 1% of the vote [their 1% will also be modified randomly, only by just the +/-0.5% alluded to above]).
OOC: I'm actually going to game this out using President Forever (http://www.80soft.com/pforever/info/), a political campaign game by 80soft.com (http://www.80soft.com/). I'm in the process of writing a scenario, and when I'm done, if those of you who have the game want to take a look at it, you can TG me and I'll send you a copy. I'm going to try and make this race as close as I can (with a slight edge to the Liberal incumbent), but I can't guarantee that it will be close.
For those of you who think this all too "American" (which it kind of is), I have other puppets (with Parliamentary governments) who will be gamed out later this year using one of the other models available from 80sift.com (Prime Minister Forever (http://www.80soft.com/pmforever/info/index.htm), using either the U.K., Canadian, or Australian versions (the U.K. version is yet to be published).
I will feed foreign events into the campaign, but keep in mind that - like most countries - nationalism may produce a backlash against any overt or covert attempt at election tampering. Do TG me first, so that we can get the effects right within the context of the unfolding campaign. I reserve the right to IGNORE "bolt-out-of-the-blue" surprises.