By-Elections Amendment (BEA)

Passed by the Senate on 13 March 2025.

Ratified by referendum on 15 March 2025.

Preamble

Whereas: The Constitution currently does not specify which voting method should be used in by-elections.

Whereas: By-elections should maintain the proportionality of the Senate as much as is possible

By-Elections Amendment (BEA)

Part 1: Voting Method

§1. The Constitution shall be amended to include the following directly after §1 of the Appendix:

§2. Senate by-elections shall be conducted using a variant of the TEA (Threshold Equal Approval) voting method. Voters will give each candidate an integer score between 0 and 5, with 0 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. Blank scores are also permitted and will be counted as 0s.

§2.1. Initialization will proceed as follows, where the Senators referenced in this section are those who were members of the Senate immediately after the vacancy arose.

§2.1.1. For each voter, construct a virtual ballot that assigns each Senator the same rating the voter gave them in the election or by-election in which that Senator was elected. If a voter did not vote in all such elections, then no virtual ballot is constructed for them.

§2.1.2. Initialize the virtual threshold to a score of 5. Initialize each virtual ballot’s weight to 1. Initialize the quota to match the quota used in the most recent Senate election.

§2.1.3. Identify all Senators scored at or above the virtual threshold on virtual ballots with a total weight of at least a quota. If there are no such candidates, go to step §2.1.5. Otherwise, for each such Senator and the set of virtual ballots that scored that Senator at or above the virtual threshold, calculate the value n such that the sum of min(w, n) for all virtual ballots in the set is equal to one quota, where w is the weight of each virtual ballot. Identify the Senator with the least value of n, and reduce the weight of each virtual ballot in that Senator’s set by min(w, n).

§2.1.4. If any Senators have not yet been identified, go to step §2.1.3. Otherwise, go to step §2.1.8.

§2.1.5. If the virtual threshold is greater than 1, then reduce it by 1 and go to step §2.1.3.

§2.1.6. Identify the Senator with the greatest sum of ballot weights across all virtual ballots that give them a positive score. Set the weight of each virtual ballot that gives them a positive score to 0.

§2.1.7. If any Senators have not yet been identified, go to step §2.1.6.

§2.1.8. Initialize each ballot’s weight to match the weight of the corresponding virtual ballot. If no corresponding virtual ballot exists, initialize that ballot’s weight to 0.

§2.1.9. Initialize the threshold to a score of 5.

§2.2. After initialization, tabulation will proceed as follows.

§2.2.1. Identify all candidates scored at or above the threshold on ballots with a total weight of at least a quota. If there are no such candidates, go to step §2.2.2. Otherwise, for each such candidate and the set of ballots that scored that candidate at or above the threshold, calculate the value n such that the sum of min(w, n) for all ballots in the set is equal to one quota, where w is the weight of each ballot. Elect the candidate with the least value of n. Tabulation is complete.

§2.2.2. If the threshold is greater than 1, then reduce it by 1 and go to step §2.2.1.

§2.2.3. Elect the candidate with the greatest sum of ballot weights across all ballots that give them a positive score. Tabulation is complete.

§2.3. Ties at any point in the election calculations shall be broken using the following method, where candidates eliminated at each step do not move on to subsequent steps. Once only one candidate remains, any remaining steps are ignored. Use virtual ballots if the tie occurs during §2.1 and uses the ballots cast in this election otherwise.

§2.3.1. Break the tie in favor of the candidate(s) with the greatest sum of ballot weights across all ballots that give them a score above the threshold.

§2.3.2. Break the tie in favor of the candidate(s) with the greatest sum of weighted scores.

§2.3.3. Break the tie in favor of the candidate(s) with the greatest sum of unweighted scores.

§2.3.4. Break the tie pseudorandomly with all tied candidates given an equal probability of winning.

Part 2: By-Elections

§1. Article 3 §3 of the Constitution shall be amended to the following:

§3. The number of seats in the Senate shall be determined after the conclusion of a Senatorial election in accordance with the Appendix §3 and its subsection.

§2. Article 3 §4 of the Constitution shall be amended to the following:

§4. In the event that a Senate seat becomes vacant, a by-election shall be held to fill the seat for the remainder of the original term.

§4.1 All voters who were found to be eligible to vote in the most recent Senate election that have not since lost their eligibility to vote shall be permitted to vote in the by-election.

§4.2 By-elections must be initiated within 1 day of the vacancy being declared.

§4.3 A Call for Candidates may be issued in anticipation of a vacancy if sufficient notice of resignation or removal is provided.

§4.4 If no prior notice is given, the Call for Candidates must be issued within 24 hours of the vacancy being declared.

§4.5 The Call for Candidates shall last for 24 hours.

§4.6 Voting for the by-election must begin no later than 48 hours after the Call for Candidates ends.

§4.7 By-elections are exempt from the "Saturday Start" requirement in the Appendix §5 and may begin on any day.

§4.8 The Supervisor of Elections shall oversee the by-election process.

§4.9 If a by-election cannot be held within the specified timeframe due to extraordinary circumstances, such as a state of emergency, the President may appoint an interim Senator with the approval of the Senate.

§4.10 The interim Senator’s term shall expire upon the earlier of:

§4.10.1 The successful swearing-in of a Senator elected through the by-election

§4.10.2 The conclusion of the biweekly Senatorial elections, as outlined in Article 3 §§1–3 of the SimDemocracy Constitution, and the commencement of the new Senate term