Europeians Reject Viewable Election Results in Runoffs
Europeians Voted Against the Proposed Public Runoff Results Amendment (2021) in a Referendum Concluded Wednesday
Written by Lime
Europeians voted to reject publicly viewable election results in runoff elections, by a comfortable margin of 57.5% to 42.5% with a turnout of 40 votes – a decrease of 23% compared to the last time Europeians voted (March Senate elections). The referendum was triggered when President Calvin Coolidge chose to withhold people’s assent to the Public Runoff Results Amendment (2021), which passed the Senate in a 4-0-1 vote, and instead choose to send the amendment to a referendum where citizens would have the final decision as to whether the amendment becomes law. Despite a mandated 72 hours of debate before voting could take place there was virtually no debate or discussion amongst citizens in the debate thread, likely due to the issue having been widely debated on many previous occasions throughout the past year, including at the start of the month.
Publicly viewable election results were a key issue in the March Senate election, with Senators CSP and Forilian putting the issue at the heart of their campaigns. Senator Forilian proposed legislation shortly after his election, which would mandate that election results were publicly viewable in all elections, eliminating the exception for runoff elections where election results are hidden until voting closes. The current exception to runoff elections exists as a compromise between publicly viewable election results and hidden election results, after then-First Minister Calvin Coolidge’s executive order in January 2020 which decreed all elections results be hidden until voting closes, was vetoed by the Senate in a 6-0 vote just four days later. A compromise bill which mandated publicly viewable results in General elections, hidden results in all runoff elections, and allowed for Election Administrators to decide if results should be viewable or hidden in any other election was passed by the Senate and signed into law by the First Minister a month later in February 2020.
Given the President’s view on the issue, it was widely expected that he would either veto or withhold people’s assent to the amendment if it passed the Senate. Explaining why he choose not to sign the amendment, the President described the passed amendment as “rolling back a compromise solution that was put in place to try and appease both sides of the region” however conceded that “these sorts of issues are much better off not dictated to the public by the President” and should instead be decided by voters.
The final result of the referendum was perhaps unsurprising. An EBC poll conducted while the amendment was being debated by the Senate earlier in the month, found that 56% of respondents opposed the proposed amendment, and just 32% supported it, while 12% were neutral. The referendum result suggests that while those in favour of viewable election results may have increased their level of support, those in favour of hidden election results were able to keep a firm grip on their supporters and even gained a little more support as well. While it looks very unlikely that there will be any further attempt to introduce publicly viewable election results to runoffs during this Senate term, many will wonder if Europeians voted in favour of the compromise solution or if they were showing support for hidden election results in all elections. It is possible that in the next Senate election, candidates in favour of hidden results could feel emboldened by the results of this referendum and stand on a platform promoting hidden results.
