Voter Rights Act 2023

Voter Rights Act 2023

Explanatory notes

1. The current status quo of having zero requirements in voter registration and zero enforcement powers to deal with election fraud is unconstitutional, as it is a violation of the state’s constitutional duty to protect election integrity (Appendix s1.7 [2020] SDSC 3; 38th Elections [2020] SDSC 10; 39th Election [2020] SDSC 11).
2. This law seeks to protect every person’s constitutional right to vote in free and fair elections by giving the Electoral Commission enforcement powers to protect election integrity.
3. This law seeks to regulate the power of the Supervisor of Elections per Article 10, §3.1 of the Constitution.
4. Article 1 establishes the Electoral Commission with the Supervisor of Elections as its chair. It is staffed by Electoral Commissioners appointed by the Supervisor. It has a duty to register voters, hold elections and referendums, and to safeguard election integrity.
5. Article 2 allows people to automatically register with Reddit accounts that are at least 1 month old and have over 500 karma. The Electoral Commission has a duty to monitor and strike out alt accounts if there is clear and convincing evidence.
6. Article 3 allows people to manually register if they do not meet the requirements for automatic registration. The Electoral Commission shall be tasked with processing these application forms.
7. Article 4 requires the Electoral Commission to audit all elections and referendums before certifying results. It imposes a duty on them to strike out fraudulent and illegitimate ballots if there is clear and convincing evidence.
8. Article 5 requires that appeals of the Electoral Commission’s decisions (i.e. striking out of alt accounts, fraudulent/illegitimate ballots, or denial of manual voter registration) go through mandatory reconsideration first. This is where the appellant presents evidence to the Electoral Commission and asks them to reconsider their decision. If, after reconsideration, they uphold their decision, then appeals will be heard by the courts. Article 5 also specifies when appellants have standing to appeal in the first place.
9. Article 6 requires that all CFCs and elections be put up and pinned on the subreddit for at least 24 hours.
10. Article 7 makes fraudulently registering to vote a crime. It also makes giving false/misleading information to the Electoral Commission a crime, with more severe penalties if it was done fraudulently. An absolute defence is given for the crime of giving false/misleading information if it was done unintentionally, in good faith, and the person did reasonable due diligence.
11. Article 8 requires the re-registration of all voters after the passage of this Act. There is substantially compelling evidence that shows many alt accounts have been registered under the old rules, and so it is constitutionally necessary to ensure that all voters are registered under the new rules to preserve election integrity going forward. With limited access to personnel and state resources, the Electoral Commission would also be unduly burdened if it could not start over and had to audit the current voter rolls with over 700 accounts.
12. Article 9 contains miscellaneous provisions regarding interpretation of this law.

Article 1 – Electoral Commission

§1. The Electoral Commission shall be an independent statutory body tasked with:

§1.2. The holding of elections and referendums, and

§1.3. The safeguarding of election integrity.

§2. The Electoral Commission shall comprise of the Supervisor of Elections, which shall serve as its head, and Electoral Commissioners.

§3. The Supervisor of Elections shall have the power to appoint and dismiss Electoral Commissioners at will.

§4. The Supervisor of Elections shall have the power to enact, amend, and repeal orders regulating the internal procedures and operation of the Electoral Commission.

Article 2 – Automatic voter registration

§1. The Electoral Commission shall establish a system of automatic voter registration where non-registered voters can register to vote using SimDemocracy’s associated voting software.

§2. A voter must be in possession of a SimDem Unique Identification Token.

§3.1. In order to make a determination that an account is an alternate account, the Electoral Commission must have clear and convincing evidence.

Article 3 – Audits and certification

§1. The Electoral Commission shall have a duty to audit all elections and referendums it holds.

§2. The Electoral Commission shall have a duty to certify the results of all elections and referendums it holds.

§3. Before certifying the results, the Electoral Commission must finalise its audit and strike out all fraudulent and illegitimate ballots from the election or referendum.

§3.1. In order to make a determination that a ballot is fraudulent or illegitimate, the Electoral Commission must have clear and convincing evidence.

§4. If an audit under this Article has or is likely to take over twenty-four (24) hours after the conclusion of the election or referendum, the Electoral Commission shall have the power to provisionally certify the results.

§4.1. This section does not preclude the Electoral Commission from conducting its duty to strike out fraudulent and illegitimate ballots under §3 and fully certifying the results after provisional certification.

Article 4 – Mandatory reconsideration and appeals

§1. Any person shall have the right to appeal the decision to strike out or not strike out a ballot under Article 4, §3 of this Act if they have probable cause to believe that the Electoral Commission erred.

§2. The state shall have the right to appeal if it has probable cause to believe that the Electoral Commission erred in:

§2.1. Removing or not removing an account under Article 2, §3 of this Act, or

§3. In order to exercise the right to appeal under this Article, an appellant must first request for mandatory reconsideration with the Electoral Commission.

§3.1. In their mandatory reconsideration request, an appellant must provide the evidence which led them to have probable cause to believe the Electoral Commission had erred.

§3.2. This requirement shall be waived when there are no available Electoral Commissioners to conduct mandatory reconsideration.

§4. When the Electoral Commission receives a valid request for mandatory reconsideration, the Electoral Commission shall have a duty to assign a different Electoral Commissioner to independently reconsider the decision being appealed.

§5. If, after mandatory reconsideration, the decision is upheld by the Electoral Commission, the appellant shall have the right to appeal the decision to a court.

§5.2. For all other decisions, the appeal shall be heard by the Supreme Court.

§6. In making a factual determination on the appeal, the courts must consider and give considerable weight to, if applicable:

§6.1. The fact that two Electoral Commissioners independently considered the same case and came to the same decision and,

§6.2. The relevant experience and expertise of the Electoral Commissioners,

§6.3. Any expert evidence used by the Electoral Commission which informed its decision.

Article 5 – Voter rights

§1. All Call for Candidate posts for the elections of President and Senators must be pinned and posted on the SimDemocracy subreddit for at least twenty-four (24) hours.

§2. All posts linking to elections and referendums must be pinned and posted on the SimDemocracy subreddit for at least twenty-four (24) hours.

Article 6 - Mandatory Ballot Provisions

§1. A ballot is to contain –

(a) The Reddit username of each accepted candidate;

(b) Where possible, the Discord username of each accepted candidate; and,

(c) The Call for Candidates Statement of each accepted candidate.

Article 7 – Amendments to the Criminal Code

§1. Add Article 36a to the Criminal Code titled "Fraudulent Voter Registration" with the following:

   "§1. A person commits fraudulent voter registration if they:
       §1.1. Register to vote while already being registered, and either
       §1.2. Know that they were already registered to vote, or are reckless as to the fact that they were already registered to vote, or
       §1.3. Did not promptly give valid notification to the Electoral Commission of the erroneous registration once they knew or otherwise ought to have known that they were already registered.
   §2. A notification to the Electoral Commision under §1.3 of this Article shall only be considered valid if it is accompanied with clear and convincing evidence that the person owns the erroneously registered account.
   §3. The sentences available for fraudulent voter registration shall be a ban between two (2) weeks and one (1) year."

§2. Add Article 36b to the Criminal Code titled "Misrepresentation to the Electoral Commission" with the following:

   "§1. A person commits misrepresentation to the Electoral Commission if they give false or misleading information to the Electoral Commission.
   §2. A person commits fraudulent misrepresentation to the Electoral Commission if they:
       §2.1. Give false or misleading information to the Electoral Commission and,
       §2.2. Either know the information was false or misleading, or are reckless as to whether the information was untrue or not.
   §3. It shall be an absolute defence to a crime under §1 of this Article if the accused person:
       §3.1. Acted with reasonable due diligence and good faith in giving the false or misleading information, and either
       §3.2. Promptly notified the Electoral Commission of the false or misleading information once they knew it was false or misleading, or
       §3.3. Did not know that the information was false or misleading.
   §4. The sentences available for misrepresentation to the Electoral Commission shall be a mute or ban between one (1) day and three (3) months.
   §5. The sentences available for fraudulent misrepresentation to the Electoral Commission shall be a ban between two (2) weeks and one (1) year."

Article 8 – Transitory provisions

§1. The Electoral Commission shall require the re-registration of all voters before allowing them to vote in any election or referendum held after the passage of this Act.

Article 9 – Interpretation and severability

§1. Unless contrary intention is indicated in this Act, the Supervisor of Elections shall also be considered an Electoral Commissioner.

§2. Any appeal made under Article 5 of this Act by a legal person not eligible to do so under §§1-4 shall be dismissed for lack of standing.

§3. So far as it is possible to do so, the courts shall have a duty to interpret and give effect to this Act in a way which is compatible with the Constitution.

§3.1. If it is absolutely necessary to do so, this duty shall empower the courts to go beyond ordinary statutory interpretation and to read in and read out words (i.e. add, remove, or substitute words) into the statute while respecting general legislative intent.

§3.2. If, nevertheless, it is still not possible to interpret and give effect to a section or subsection of this Act even with the powers under §3.1, the courts shall have the power to strike out specific sections and subsections of this Act.