Senate Election Voting Amendment

Senate Elections Voting Method Amendment

Preamble

Whereas: The tabulation method for Senate elections presently specified in the Constitution is not the one currently in use.

Whereas: Switching to the tabulation method specified in the Constitution would have many negative effects, such as forcing the Supervisor of Elections to only count the votes of candidates.

Whereas: The electorate should have the opportunity to choose between fixing STV and switching to the more proportional TEA Voting method.

Part 1: Voting Method Referendum

§1. Article 20 of the Constitution shall be amended to the following:

§1. Within 48 hours of the Senate Elections Voting Method Amendment of 2025 being passed, a referendum shall be held to determine the new method of tabulation that will be used for Senate elections.

§1.1. The referendum shall have Single Transferable Vote and Threshold Equal Approval as the only two options.

§1.2. Voters will choose one of the two options to cast their vote for.

§1.3. If the Threshold Equal Approval option wins a majority of votes, then the Constitution shall be amended according to Parts 2 and 3 of the Senate Elections Voting Method Amendment of 2025 upon the completion of the first senatorial election held after the referendum has concluded.

§1.4. Otherwise, the Constitution shall be amended according to Parts 2 and 4 of the Senate Elections Voting Method Amendment of 2025 upon the completion of the first senatorial election held after the referendum has concluded.

§2. Except for the above process, the Constitution may only be amended with a simple majority vote in the Senate, followed by a public referendum which shall have to pass with a two-thirds ( 2 / 3 ) majority vote in favor of the amendment.

Part 2: Voting Method Referendum Cleanup

§1. If specified by the Constitution, Article 20 of the Constitution shall be amended to the following:

§1. The Constitution may only be amended with a simple majority vote in the Senate, followed by a public referendum which shall have to pass with a two-thirds ( 2 / 3 ) majority vote in favor of the amendment.

Part 3: Threshold Equal Approval Voting

§1. If specified by the Constitution, Part 7 §1 of the Constitution shall be amended to the following:

§1. The Senate shall be elected using 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.

§1.1. Tabulation will proceed as follows.

§1.1.1. Initialize the threshold to a score of 5. Initialize each ballot's weight to 1. Initialize the quota to the total number of ballots cast divided by the total number of available seats.

§1.1.2. Identify all unelected 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 §1.1.4. 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, and reduce the weight of each ballot in that candidate's set by min(w, n).

§1.1.3. If all seats are filled, tabulation is complete. Otherwise, go to step §1.1.2.

§1.1.4. If the threshold is greater than 1, then reduce it by 1 and go to step §1.1.2.

§1.1.5. Elect the candidate with the greatest sum of ballot weights across all ballots that give them a positive score. Set the weight of each ballot that gives them a positive score to 0.

§1.1.6. If all seats are filled, tabulation is complete. Otherwise, go to step §1.1.5.

§1.2. 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.

§1.2.1. 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.

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

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

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

Part 4: Single Transferable Vote

§1. If specified by the Constitution, Part 7 §1 of the Constitution shall be amended to the following:

§1. The Senate shall be elected using the STV (Single Transferable Vote) voting method. Voters will rank candidates sequentially starting with their most preferred candidate. Voters may not give the same ranking to multiple candidates. Voters may not skip over rankings, but they may leave candidates unranked.

§1.1. Tabulation will proceed as follows.

§1.1.1. Initialize each ballot's weight to 1. Initialize the quota to the quotient obtained by dividing the total number of ballots cast by one more than the total number of available seats.

§1.1.2. Assign each ballot to the highest-ranked candidate on that ballot who has not been elected or eliminated. If no such candidates are ranked on a ballot, it remains unassigned. Identify the candidate whose assigned ballots have the greatest sum of weights. If the sum for this candidate does not exceed one quota, go to step §1.1.4. Otherwise, elect the identified candidate, and calculate the surplus as the difference between the sum of the candidate's assigned ballots' weights and the quota. Multiply the weight of each ballot assigned to the candidate by the quotient obtained by dividing the surplus by the sum of the candidate's assigned ballots' weights.

§1.1.3. If all seats are filled, tabulation is complete. Otherwise, go to step §1.1.2.

§1.1.4. Eliminate the candidate whose assigned ballots have the least sum of weights. If the number of seats not yet filled is less than the number of candidates who have not been elected or eliminated, go to step §1.1.2.

§1.1.5. Elect all candidates who have not been elected or eliminated. Tabulation is complete.

§1.2. Ties that occur during step §1.1.2 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.

§1.2.1. Initialize the tiebreaker rank to 1.

§1.2.2. Break the tie in favor of the candidate(s) with the most votes that rank them at the tiebreaker rank.

§1.2.3. If the tiebreaker rank is less than the number of candidates, then increase it by 1 and go to step §1.2.2.

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

§1.3. Ties that occur during step §1.1.4 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.

§1.3.1. Initialize the tiebreaker rank to 1.

§1.3.2. Break the tie by choosing the candidate(s) with the fewest votes that rank them at the tiebreaker rank.

§1.3.3. If the tiebreaker rank is less than the number of candidates, then increase it by 1 and go to step §1.3.2.

§1.3.4. Break the tie pseudorandomly with all tied candidates given an equal probability of being chosen.