The Elections Act

Date Enacted: Sept. 20, 1800

Parliament Number: 1

Commons Vote: 4 Ayes, 0 Nays, 0 Abstentions

Lords Vote: 3 Ayes, 0 Nays, 0 Abstentions

Author: Prime Minister Birdish

Preamble

We, Pigeon the First, by the grace of Gods King of Hollow, First among the Noble Equals, Duke of the Remaining Royal Provinces, the Lord-Mayor of the City of Hollow, the Most Excellent, the Most Just, the Defender of the One True Faith, Subservient only to the True Holy Gods, in agreement with Our Parliament, deem it proper to issue the following law:

Body

Article 1 - The Hollow Tower Election Committee

§1. The Hollow Tower Election Administrators (HTEC) is a department which runs all elections and referendums. They are the primary authority on any electoral related matters.

§2. All elections shall be run in a fair and free manner.

§3. The Sovereign shall be an ex officio member of the HTEC.

§4. The Sovereign may appoint members of the Hollow Kingdom to the HTEC. These appointments must undergo a hearing in the House of Lords and must be approved thereby.

• §4.1. There may be no more than three members on the HTEC (including the Sovereign) at the same time.

§5. Members of the HTEC may not run an election or gain access to the vote spreadsheet if they are running as a candidate in that election.

Article 2 - Procedures for Commons Elections

§1. Elections for the House of Commons shall occur approximately two weeks after the previous election.

§2. The schedule for elections is as follows:

• §2.1. On the Wednesday of the second week after a House of Commons election, the Call for Candidates thread shall be created in ⁠elections.
• §2.2. The thread shall be open for around forty-eight hours, and any Candidacy statements made after forty-eight hours will result in the candidate not being put on the ballot.
• §2.3. On the Saturday of the second week after a House of Commons election, the ballot shall be posted.
• §2.4. The ballot shall remain open for approximately twenty-four hours. Any votes submitted after twenty-four hours shall be considered invalid.
• §2.5. Results shall be released within thirty-six hours of the ballot closing.

§3. A new channel called #verification shall be created, with message history perms disabled for everyone outside of the HTEC.

• §3.1. Users shall send a message in this channel after they have voted to verify that it is them who has submitted the ballot and not someone else inputting their username. Anyone who does not verify in #verification shall not have their vote counted.

Article 3 - Birdish Style Vote (BSV)

§1. All House of Commons elections shall be conducted using Birdish Style Voting (BSV).

§2. BSV shall function in the following fashion:

• §2.1. The number of candidates a voter may vote for in any election shall be 30% of all candidates on a ballot, rounded down to the nearest integer.
• §2.2. After the vote ends, candidates shall be ordered by number of votes from highest to lowest.
• §2.2.1. Any ties in the number of votes shall be resolved by one of the candidates in the tie being picked randomly to be placed higher in the order.
• §2.3. The top [number of seats] candidates will be elected to fill the seats in the House of Commons.

Article 4 - Number of Seats

§1. The number of seats shall be decided by the HTEC based on turnout, the number of candidates and the number of candidates who have been voted for.

• §1.1. The number of seats may not exceed the number of candidates with votes (at least one vote) and it may not exceed the total number of candidates.