NS 181-1: Respect Our Vote Act

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Preamble: The piece of legislation titled Respect Our Vote Act was originally passed in March 2013. It's intention was to cut down the number of campaign telegrams being sent to the 10000 Islands, as well as inform the general public of impending consequences for doing so.

Record Number: NS 181-1

AWARE that elected delegates in 10000 Islands are free to vote however they wish on WA resolutions,

NEVERTHELESS, OBSERVING that delegates have traditionally based their votes on forum poll results,

AGREEING that the regional vote should be determined by the region with no undue influence from forces external to 10000 Islands,

NOTING that "mass telegrams" will enable resolution authors (or their supporters) to campaign directly to the region's WA members, instead of to the Delegate or through the forum as had traditionally been the case,

ALARMED that this shortcut presents a cheap and easy way to sway the WA vote of 10000 Islands, directly presenting a threat to the sovereignty of 10000 Islands,

Hereby:

DEFINES "WA campaigning" as campaigning related to WA resolutions, proposals, or drafts through the use of "mass telegrams."

ENACTS the 'Respect Our Vote Act' (ROVA) with the following provisions:

1. Maintains that WA campaigning from resolution authors (or their supporters) may be conducted in the regional forum's WA thread and/or via telegram to the WA delegate only;

2. Forbids WA campaigning by "mass telegrams" to islanders unless prior permission had been given by the Delegate;

3. Empowers the delegate to take whatever action deemed appropriate if provisions (1) or (2) are broken, including but not limited to:

   • Automatically voting in a way opposite to the propaganda;

   • Banning the offender from 10000 islands and its forum;

   • Black-listing the offender for future delegates' reference and continued punishment;

   • Launching a counter "mass-telegram" campaign in 10KI and/or NationStates to oppose the propaganda that was received.

   ALLOWS limited WA campaigning by native WA nations through the use of "mass telegrams" if that nation had been in 10000 Islands and the WA for at least 3 months. If the minimum residency period was not met, provisions (1), (2) and (3) stated above shall apply.

   CLARIFIES that the intent of this Act is to provide greater flexibility to delegates to take action against "mass telegram" propaganda without needing Co9 approval. Delegates may, at their discretion, allow certain forms of WA campaigning not specified above, so long as doing so will not affect our voting independence.

   MANDATES that this Act shall be posted into a Factbook dispatch, and that that Factbook dispatch must be pinned to the World Factbook Entry on the regions main page. Additionally, this law shall be posted in its current form within the 10000 Islands Game Play thread on the NS forums, and a link to the laws post shall be maintained in the Opening Post of the thread.