Election Campaigns Ordinance

Election Campaigns Ordinance

This legislation of election campaign policy has been constructed by President Eric Cooper, fully authorized by the President and all members of his Supreme Advisory Committee. This ordinance is intended to set a precedent for all subsequent Region 10 NCFCA Student Presidential campaigns. Revision of this legislative document may only be executed as written in the REVISIONS subsection.

The President will proceed to assemble these committees:

EXECUTIVE BODIES

1. SUPREME ADVISORY BOARD

The President will nominate three individuals as his supreme campaign advisors. The advisors will be the highest form of corporate power in the governmental system.

2. NOMINATION COURT

Each supreme Advisor will by default be granted a seat in the nomination court. Each of these individuals will select one other individual that is not currently a member of the incumbent’s administration to serve in the Court. This will bring the Court's roster up to six members. The President will then select the seventh member to finalize the Nomination Court roster.

In their selections, the supreme advisors and the President will be encouraged to select unbiased individuals to serve on the Nomination court. The nomination court will be the committee that selects the two final candidates for the Presidency, in the procedure depicted in a consequent subsection.

3. ELECTION COMMITTEE

This committee will be comprised of three individuals selected by the President, one of which will be designated as the Elections Committee Chief. This committee will be responsible for conducting the ballot tables on Election Day, handling media relations pertaining to the execution of the campaign, and manage all communications with the Region coordinator and other individuals/bodies of region authority. The President reserves the right to handle communications with the region leadership as deemed necessary by the President.

All committees MUST BE COMPLETED before the beginning of the CAMPAIGN PROCEDURE.

CAMPAIGN PROCEDURE

The procedure in which campaigns will be inducted is as follows:

1. CANDIDATE APPLICATION

The campaign for Region President will begin at the first official tournament of the season, excluding National Opens. Any aspiring candidate will be required to inform at least one member of the Elections Committee of their candidacy, whether it be by technological communications, paper, or spoken word. All persons within the region will be permitted to run a campaign if they so desire in this early stage of the process. All candidates MUST apply to the Elections Committee before or at the last regional qualifying tournament of the season.

2. COMMENCMENT OF CAMPAIGN

The Elections committee, the Supreme Advisory cabinet, the President, and the Vice President will be required to keep the list of candidates confidential until after the conclusion of first tournament of the season. The conclusion will be defined as directly after the close of the awards ceremony. The list may be announced through technological communications, paper, or spoken word. All candidates are subject to the CAMPIAGN REGULATIONS mandate, which is contained in a consequent subsection of this ordinance.

3. NOMINATIONS

The Region Presidential elections will only have two final contestants. These two final contestants will be decided by the Nomination committee. The nomination committee will vote on the nominees at the second or third official tournament of the season, depending on the convenience of the schedule. The results may be announced directly the conclusion of the tournament. If all members of the Nomination Committee are not able to be present at the third tournament, the individual votes will be sent to the President through technological communication, paper, or spoken word. The vote of the nomination committee must be counted and completed by the beginning of the last day of the tournament.

Each member of the Nomination Board will cast his/her vote for the individual whom they feel should be President. The two candidates who receive the most votes of the Nomination Board will be the final candidates. In the case of a tie of more than two candidates, the President will cast a vote to select one of the nominees, and the Vice President will cast his vote for the second nominee after the President has cast his vote. This procedure shall only be adapted in the case of a tie of two or more candidates in the Nomination Vote of the Nomination Committee.

All votes by the Nomination Committee, Supreme Advisors, the President, and the Vice President in the nomination vote must remain confidential between the executive bodies, the President, and the Vice President until after the General Election has been conducted.

4. CAMPAIGN EVENTS

All campaign events for the two final nominees shall be coordinated between the Elections Committee, the Media Relations Board of the appropriate candidate, and region leadership. All debates, rallies, speeches, etc. will be handled by this committee. The President and the Vice President retain the right to intervene in communications when necessary.

5. GENERAL ELECTION

The General Election will be held the day before Regionals ends. Three individuals will operate the ballot table: Each candidate will nominate one ballot worker, and that person will operate the collection procedure for that particular candidate. The President will select the third individual, whose sole job is to monitor the two partisan ballot-workers and the voters to prevent voter fraud. Only two candidates will be available for vote; all write-ins that are not one the final nominees will be discarded and disregarded.

The votes will be counted by the Elections committee, who will inform the President of the new President-elect and release a comprehensive report of the results to the President. The incumbent President will then introduce the new President-elect in the announcement speech. The President will officially concede his office to the President-Elect, as will be evidence by a handshake/gesture of commendation on the stage prior to the President’s departure. It is after these pleasantries are exchanged that the Presidency is officially conceded to the President-elect.

CAMPAIGN REGULATIONS

Each candidate must adhere to the standard construction of their respective campaigns.

Each candidate’s campaign staff must be assembled as follows:

PRESIDENTIAL TICKET
Presidential Candidate
Vice Presidential Candidate

STAFF ADVISORY BOARD

Campaign Manager

The campaign manager’s duty is to serve as the primary advisor to the candidate. The candidate reserves the right to make all final decisions pertaining to campaign functionality.

MEDIA RELATIONS BOARD

Media relations coordinator (Reserve campaign spokesperson)

Campaign spokesperson (Reserve media relations coordinator)

Should the media relations coordinator not be available at the necessary periods, then the campaign spokesperson will substitute, and vice versa. Should neither be available, then the campaign manager will fill the temporary void.

The job of the media relations coordinator is to handle communications with the Elections Committee and any other authoritative body in areas of media and events. The candidate reserves the right to intercede as he/she feels necessary. The job of the campaign spokesperson is to handle all interviews and relations having to do with media which are not from an authoritative body, such as an executive body or region leadership.

All other positions pertaining to the campaign, such as the bodyguard and web managers, will only be employed at the discretion of the candidate. These positions are under no formal regulation because they are not part of the official campaign staff.

The candidates have until 1 week after registration ends to fill out their campaign staffs.

ENFORCEMENT OF CAMPAIGN REGULATIONS

The enforcement of the campaign regulations will be as follows:

Any candidate that offends or violates any legislation within the regulations of the campaign will be subject to a potential impeachment. Impeachments may be called by any member of the Nominations Committee or Elections Committee. If any of these members impeaches a candidate, they must present and explicate their grievance against the candidate/the candidate’s campaign to all members of the Nominations Committee and Elections Committee. This presentation may be made by way of technological communications, paper, or spoken word. This presentation is required to remain confidential between the Executive bodies, the President, the Vice President, the impeached candidate, and all members of the impeached candidate’s campaign. After this presentation, the Elections committee must vote on whether they believe the grievance is enough to warrant the removal of the candidate from the ballot. If the vote passes through the Elections Committee, then the Nominations Committee must vote in identical fashion. If the vote passes through the Nominations Committee, then the candidate’s name will be removed from the ballot and the Nominations Committee will re-vote on a replacement nominee, which may be any of the candidate applicants who did not receive a final nomination in the previous nominations vote.

SYSTEM OPERATIONS IN THE EVENT OF A RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

If the incumbent chooses to run for re-election, then the current Elections Committee will serve as the Supreme Advisory committee as well. They will therefore adapt all responsibility of the Supreme Advisory Committee. The incumbent will not have access to any confidential information such as voting results from the Nominations Committee. The nominations committee will be selected in the same fashion, save one alteration: The Chief of the Elections Committee will assume all responsibilities that the incumbent would have had if the incumbent wasn’t running for re-election, such as nominating the seventh member to the Nominations Committee and tie-breaker power. The Chief will also select one other member of the Elections Committee to assume all responsibilities that the Vice President would have had.

In the case of a re-election campaign, the incumbent would by default be one of the final two nominees. Only one other final nominee would need to be selected by the Nominations Committee. Every President is only permitted to serve two one-year terms, whether they be in succession or otherwise.

SYSTEM OPERATIONS IN THE EVENT OF A CANDIDATE DEFICIENCY

In the event that only one individual registers as a presidential candidate, The Supreme Advisory Committee Chief will automatically be handed the opportunity to run against him. If the Supreme Advisory Committee Chief is unavailable or does not wish to run, the opportunity will be delegated to the Junior Supreme Advisor. Should the Junior Supreme Advisor be unavailable or not wish to run, the opportunity will be handed to the Amateur Supreme Advisor. If the Amatuer Supreme Advisor is unavailable or does not wish to run, the opportunity will be delegated to the Vice President. If the Vice President is unavailable or does not wish to run, then the nomination will be delegated to the current President if he has not served two terms already. If the current President has served two terms already, and if none of the individuals mentioned above are willing to accept the second nomination, the single nominee will win the Presidency uncontested.

REVISIONS

In order to revise this document, a revision must be proposed by a member of the current Supreme Advisory Committee, Elections Committee, Nominations Committee, the current President, or the current Vice President. In order for the revision to be adapted, a vote must pass through the Elections Committee. In the event that the legislation is approved in the Elections committee, then the Nominations Committee would vote in identical fashion. The revision would need at least 4 votes from the nominations committee. Should the vote pass through the current Nominations committee, then incumbent President would reserve the final vote on whether to ratify the revision or veto the revision.

ALTERATIONS OF EXECUTIVE BODIES

The incumbent President always reserves the right to remove and replace his Vice President, all members of the Elections committee, his Supreme Advisory Committee, and the one member on the Nominations Committee that he/she selected (Thus, four of the seven Nominations Committee members).The nomination court members that were not selected by the President may be impeached by a proposal by another member of the administration and a majority vote between the Nominations Committee, the President and the Vice President.

CONCLUSION

This Ordinance, including the Revisions policy, MUST be adapted in ALL future campaigns. The actual election process may only be altered if this document is edited or re-written through the provisions of the Revisions policy.

Signed,

President Eric Cooper
Supreme Advisor Jeremiah Rankin (C)
Supreme Advisor Nathaniel White (J)
Supreme Advisor Aaron Cooper (A)

RATIFIED:
1/26/09
Unanimous vote