Furore over Executive Order
First Minister Issues Private Ballot Mandate
Written by Maowi
On Friday January 17, First Minister Calvin Coolidge (Calvin) sparked controversy by issuing Executive Order 97. The legislation mandates that all future elections take place with private ballots - i.e. that their vote tallies are not shown in progress throughout the election, with the final results only revealed at the end of the voting period. The move was met with vocal criticism from many, and a Senate motion to veto the executive order - the second of Calvin's term - has already passed, nullifying the law.
The discussion around private ballots originated from Calvin himself following his election to the post of first minister. In an article for his private media outlet, The Panda's Pen, he argued that a private ballot would have reduced stress for the candidates and eliminated the strategic voting that was seen in the first minister election, which had resulted in a tied run-off and had to be settled by the Senate. During the three and a half pages of discussion spurred by the article, no clear consensus was reached, beyond a few people indicating support of a trial run at least. Lloenflys then posted a Grand Hall thread with a poll to gauge opinions on the matter; this poll showed fairly significant support for implementing private ballots on all elections, although a similarly sized group opposed it in all circumstances. Shortly after that, the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation conducted a more extensive poll to investigate the effect such a change would have on elections and published its results and analysis. These again showed a slight majority in support of using private ballots, fairly consistent with the informal Grand Hall poll results.
The Chancellery subsequently decided to implement the change on the next election to occur as a trial run: this turned out to be a Senate by-election between Bowzin and Xecrio. Reactions were mixed, with some commenting that Europeia's usual election day excitement was lacking because of the private ballot, while others pointed out that a Senate by-election such as this one would never have been particularly gripping. To exploit the opportunities brought by the private ballot, HEM ran an exit poll for the Europeian News Network, which some people enjoyed, although it was stated by some that exit polling merely served as an inferior substitute for seeing vote tallies in real time. After this election, however, discussion on the topic died out, and the Chancellery showed no inclination to change the system.
Seemingly frustrated by the lack of further action or debate, Calvin made the decision to take the matter into his own hands via executive order. The response from the region was very vocal, with a few voices of support interspersed among some loud criticism. As well as complaints about the policy itself, such as that it is too broad and ought not to cover Senate elections given that it may render the size poll useless, there was also an outcry about Calvin's approach to the issue, with many stating that he should have tried more actively to lobby for Senate action before resorting to an executive order, viewed by some as a circumvention of Europeia's legislative system. Calvin defended his actions, responding that he "linked the discussion thread from my paper, as well as the Grand Hall discussion thread, and I am not a Senator, so this pretty much the next logical step for me."
The following day, Senator Drecq motioned to veto the executive order, arguing his view on the order's flaws in terms of both policy and "legislative mechanics." The motion, having received support from five senators, has been passed. Senator Malashaan also started two discussion threads in the Senate; one on potential future legislation on private ballots, and another about the need to clarify in our law what the purpose of an executive order should be and what exactly it can or can't legislate upon.
For the Europeian Research Institute, GraVandius carried out a poll to find out the public's opinion now. Support seems to have been lost for private ballots since the original round of discussion, whether as a result of the trial run or the executive order. In terms of Calvin's executive order, opinion is generally in opposition.
It now remains to be seen whether the Senate, having vetoed the executive order, pursues any further legislation on the topic; this will, above all, determine whether Calvin's potential alienation of some people nevertheless returns results in his campaign for a private ballot.
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