For Ballot-Maker: Vote to qrtxian! Indeed he did a great job so far

-__-, I only have one question, how should we address you, as your username is rather hard to pronounce?

How about Councilor SarcFa?   

- Fine by me if you join in -__-.  I'll add you to the list of councilors.

- Congratulations on your appointment to ballot-maker, qrtxian.  Shall we call it Balloteer for short?  It's an honor and a responsibility.  If you're willing, I'd like to have the balloteer also be in charge of ensuring an accurate tally as the votes come in.  Maybe you'd also be in charge of closing the election in the case that one or more councilors don't check in to vote in a timely manner.  I'll leave it to the council to decide.

To make the process easier to follow, I'd like to propose some rules for voting. 

1) I like qrtxian's idea of having councilors sign the ballot to indicate their vote and make it easier to tell who has voted.  The ballot should list the issues and have a place for councilors to sign either FOR or AGAINST a measure. (the council or balloteer can decide the exact terms)

2) Councilors should copy the ballot from the last person who voted and add their signatures.  No need to rewrite the ballot and no chance for it to be changed in transcription.

3) Make your arguments in a separate space.  Don't break up the ballot with comments after each item.

4) Once a vote is cast, it is cast.  No changing votes or editing the ballot.  Listen to arguments before voting and consider your decisions wisely.

5) To get an issue on the ballot, it should be proposed and seconded.  The exact wording/nature of the issue should then be established.

6) Amendments/Addenda - I see these as separate sub-issues.  Maybe list them under the main issue and vote separately?

Those are my ideas for now.  Here is a sample of what this session's ballot would have looked like:

Before voting:

Research:

Dr. Malar's Research Plan:

FOR(AYE,YES):  AGAINST(NAY,NO):

Councilor TMS2224's Compromise Research Plan: Withdrawn - wouldn't have appeared on the ballot under the new system.

Budget and Development

No Social Funding:

FOR:  AGAINST:

Increased Espionage:

FOR:  AGAINST:

No Advanced Projects:

FOR:  AGAINST:

Colonization and Exploration

Colonization of Currently Known Worlds:

FOR:  AGAINST:

Councilor qrtxian's Colonization Plan:

FOR:  AGAINST:

After voting:

Research:

Dr. Malar's Research Plan:

FOR(AYE,YES): qrtxian, LordCarlos, Noctilucus, NikolaiOmega, TMS2224, Master1223wr AGAINST(NAY,NO):

Councilor TMS2224's Compromise Research Plan: Withdrawn - wouldn't have appeared on the ballot under the new system.

Budget and Development

No Social Funding:

FOR: qrtxian, LordCarlos, Noctilucus, NikolaiOmega, TMS2224, Master1223wr AGAINST:

Increased Espionage:

FOR: qrtxian, NikolaiOmega, TMS2224 Master123wr AGAINST: LordCarlos, Noctilucus

No Advanced Projects:

FOR: qrtxian, LordCarlos, Noctilucus, NikolaiOmega, TMS2224, Master1223wr AGAINST:

Colonization and Exploration

Colonization of Currently Known Worlds:

FOR: Master1223wr AGAINST: qrtxian (assumed), LordCarlos, Noctilucus, NikolaiOmega, TMS2224

Councilor qrtxian's Colonization Plan:

FOR: qrtxian, LordCarlos, Noctilucus, NikolaiOmega, TMS2224 AGAINST: Master1223wr

The way I see it, the amendments and addenda would be discussed beforehand and included on the ballot in such a way that making comments isn't necessary.  A vote should be yes or no based on the issue as listed on the ballot and not conditional to extra comments inserted into the ballot during a vote.  It isn't practical for a couple reasons:

- Say the third voter decides to tack on an amendment.  Now the first two voters either don't get a say on the amendment or they have to go back and vote again.  What if they want to change the amendment?  Now the third voter has to go back and address it. What we have is a discussion of the issue and not a vote.  Amendments and addenda ought to be proposed before the ballot is finalized.

- If councilors don't copy the ballot and sign FOR or AGAINST, then I have to go back with a pen and paper to tally the votes and track which councilors voted.  If everyone is making comments on the ballot and stuffing amendments in during the vote, then I also have to write down all the comments and conditions and try to make sense of it.  It's kind of a pain.  If we add a few more councilors it will just become too tedious.

This ballot isn't a perfect example for the very reason that people did comment on the ballot and stuff amendments in.  So my example ballot makes it look like I disregarded people's comments.  Let's just use the colonization issue as an example.  After discussion it may have looked like this:

Councilor qrtxian's Colonization Plan:

FOR: AGAINST:

Amendment - 12 week limit to colonization plan:

FOR: AGAINST:

Actually, maybe it would have been decided to include the amendment as part of the plan before the ballot was drawn up.  That way, no amendment or comment would show up on the ballot.

Edit to add: Seems TMS2224 changed his reply while I was putting this together.  I'll just leave it up as support for my proposal.

TMS2224's Research Deviation Proposal

Councilor qrtxian, I would like to propose a motion that would be put on the next ballot. The motion would go under Research. It is as follows. We deviate from Dr. Malar's Plan and research up to Stinger One, then we go back to Dr. Malar's Plan.

Thanks for letting me join!

I really don't care what you call me, but I like SarcFa, as TMS2224 suggested.

Hope the next session is soon.

Councilor TMS2224 - Your measure may be outdated by the time of the next ballot, as the next council session won't occur until after Commander Mekoides delivers the current report. However, if not I will make sure to add it.

Looks like the council may be getting ahead of itself again - better hurry up with the next 12 turns!

I don't think you really mean that Counsilor TMS2224, are you really implying that you will take an unresanoable approach on our next meeeting, just because the counsilor offended you?

A wise remark Councilor Qrtxian! While I can understand everyone's dedication and passion to look ahead, it would seem more practical to wait until we have received news from Commander Mekoides and tailor our proposals to the situation at hand.

I will wait to join a political party until I think it is necessary.  As of now since we have not made contact with any other races I believe we should focus on building our economy, so if the time comes where we have to fight we can afford it. 

Also there are other less militaristic ways to take control of space, such as making the other races be enamored with our culture so they rebel against their leaders and join us.  There is also the diplomatic path of alliances to victory.

If I read correctly all win conditions except ascension are on, right?

Also if we absolutely must have weapon technologies we can take the route of trading for them with other races that we have good relations with.

"i would like to see all councilors that really care about this project join"-Lord Carlos

Well, Councilor, I see that you haven't read the message that announces the formation of your party. I am merley borrowing a comment.

Also, I seriously am allergic to nuts. Please, in the future if you wish to compare me to inatimate objects compare me to a children's book. I quite like books.

***INCOMING TRANSMISSION - SECURITY LEVEL ALPHA***

***FROM: COMMANDER MEKOIDES, EXTERRA COMMAND***

***TO: INITIATIVE COUNCILORS AND ROYALTY, TOLMEKIA PRIME***

***JULY 01, 2227***

Cmdr Mekoides

  Councilors.  We've made excellent progress this quarter.  We currently have 4 colony ships carrying out councilor qrtxian's plan.  The fourth was extra, as we had the Space Miner retrofitted after the Exterra asteroid mines were complete.  Many new worlds have been discovered, but none yet that are both of sufficient quality and habitable with current technologies.  Our options in this area are dwindling, but we've crafted a proposal to finalize our exploration and begin claiming worlds for the Initiative. A process which, I will add, shall be greatly accelerated due to breakthroughs in our research program.

  First I'll present the current status of the initiative, then Dr. Malar will provide details of our successes, followed by Viceroy Gunray's assessment of our economic situation.  We're also testing a new method of transmission - breaking our update into packets to make the amount of data being sent more manageable.  So don't be alarmed if there are any interruptions, it's all part of the plan.

  The quarterly report.  Our assessors insist on compiling it and presenting it to me, so I keep sending it.  Eventually they'll have some actual data to assess.  Perhaps then they'll manage to provide us with something useful.

  The local starmap.  I've had the astronomers provide the star names and planet quality designations.  You'll notice we've discovered a purple star.  They tell me it's a big deal, but they also told me we're about a hundred million years to late to reap the benefits.  Dr. Malar will have more information.

Our colonization proposal is to have our current colony ships conclude their exploration with the last few stars in their vicinity, then claim the best planets we have knowledge of.  Our second wave of colony ships will then proceed to "back-fill" the remaining planets while our flagship, the Kushana, continues exploration northeast of us.  What follows are details of the proposal.

  Here is a close-up of the area west of Exterra.  Unexplored systems are indicated in white on the map.  Blue lines indicate the course of our leading ships, while red lines indicate the proposed path of future colony ships as they claim worlds starting from the most distant and proceeding to the nearest planets.

  Here's the eastern front.  The Kushana has already reached the limit of her range and is ready to swing around toward what we have dubbed the Corridor Systems.  You'll see more detail of those on the next map.  We may have the Kushana move to investigate an anomaly just located by our colony ship prior to heading out.  The colony ship will continue to explore until it finds a habitable planet.  This is on the edge of Thalan space, so it's here or nowhere.  We have a second colony ship en route to claim an addition world, but no follow up ships are planned unless we find three worlds we simply can't hand to the Thalans.

  Here is the greater galactic map.  As you can see, our galactic rivals are making progress as we deliberate.  I remain confident in our position and recommend decisive action by the council as we reach this critical juncture.  Our current ships are indicated in blue.  You'll also see a third set of arrows, in green.  These indicate a possible expedition to the Corridor Systems, should the Kushana find anything of import there.

You can see on this map the scope of our exploration.  If we can lay claim to outlying worlds and secure our core systems, we should have a solid foundation for future expansion.

***TRANSMISSION INTERRUPT - STAND BY FOR RECONNECT***

***RESUME TRANSMISSION - SECURITY LEVEL ALHPA***

Viceroy Nute Gunray

  Thank you, councilors.  Our economy has remained stable since our last report, though still running a slight deficit.  Though I agreed that we could handle a delay to allocate research toward speeding our colonization, I still urge that we continue on to research Xeno Economics.  I understand that freighter construction may be low priority at present, but I will always remind the council of the importance of trade once we have contacted our closest neighbors.  Allow me to present some economic data along with some proposals for your consideration.

  Our current economic outlook.  We have been monitoring taxation and general approval ratings, aiming to keep approval over 75%.  As you can see, we will be forced to lower taxes yet again to sustain vigorous growth.  Our population continues to outpace the rate of emigration due to colonization efforts, but our income  is lower overall due to tax reductions.

You can also see we have allocated spending toward espionage.  We should have an agent ready before the end of the year.

  Here is a proposed economic plan to allow for some social development.  As you can see, current projects are unaffected by the change in spending.  Future projects may be delayed by a week, but we feel the delay to be justified by the benefits of our proposed social developments.

  One proposed development is a Navigation Center.  We could finish one in the third quarter at our proposed level of spending.  All ships tied to Exterra would be capable of traveling an additional one parsec per week with navigational support.

  Another development is the establishment of Exterra as our Economic Capital.  This move makes sense, since Exterra is likely to be one of our most populous planets and center of our trading network.  We could establish the capital by the end of the year.

Thank you councilors.  I look forward to your remarks on our proposals.

Cmdr Mekoides:

  We'll take any questions, councilors.

Until next we speak.

***END TRANSMISSION***