1. THE VOTER MUST reside in the United States of America, or be a US citizen residing outside the US. Violation of this or any other rule to follow, will automatically cause a spoiled ballot in the elections of this 100 member committee, an entity named “The California Parliament. Inc.”. All voting and vote counting shall be for ranked ballots (and “eballots”) only, where one number beginning with #s 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. etc. (the more the better for tie-breakers), and only one number is allowed to be marked by the voter for each consecutive preference. Xs, checks, or the same number by more than one choice, will cause a spoiled ballot. All counting of votes will be under pure proportional representation (PR), for all elections and all decisions, from single winner internal elections for the rules which determine the majority ruling coalition, to each multi winner district. The California Parliament, Inc., shall also be known as the “Fifth California Parliament”, which will be a 100 member committee to direct the “Fifth California Parliament Election”, and all 12 subsidiary mini-states, which are groups of counties, grouped for population balancing purposes. Mini-state elections take place on the same dates as The California Parliament, Inc., except mini-state elections fall on odd numbered years.
2. VOTER may vote only once during each California Parliament (CA-PAR) election cycle. In cases where a second ballot or “eballot” is cast, only the latter of the two ballots will be counted.
3. BALLOT VERIFICATION requires only the name of the voter, or a witness when no name is used. Verification of ballots occurs only when called on, and happens only during each vote count; the first vote count, the second vote count, etc. New vote counts are required for each resignation and death with no fanfare at all. Only the next highest ranked name is promoted, which is automatically elected in cases of death or resignation, and ballots cast for the departing member, are single transferred (stv=single transferable vote) to the next highest ranked name.
4. “EBALLOTS” are ballots cast via email. EBALLOTS must be sent to votehere@constitutionalgov.us, a private email address used by the secretary and other observers, for receiving eballots. No reply or follow-up email will be sent to voters who cast eballots, unless the voter indicates that he/she wishes to be self-appointed to the CA-PAR, or unless a question regarding verification is raised by a volunteer vote counter.
5. ARCHIVES of all records of every ballot cast since the CA-PAR was founded are kept as proof, within the archives of the US Parliament, as The California Parliament, Inc. was originally founded as a division of the US Parliament.
6. COMPLETE NAME of the members, nominees (seconders nor required) will be used, as specified by the member or nominee, for each election and will be made public, and will be available through the California Parliament's secretary's office. No person may nominate more than one person. Nominations mailed through US Mail or email, must be postmarked and received between January 31st and April 1st in each election cycle. Pacific Standard Time (PST) shall apply in all time-relevant cases on all elections. First and last names are preferred, however most names, as requested, will be permitted on the ballot (no titles). A nominee's name may appear on the ballot once, so fusion voting is not allowed.
7. NOMINEES' STATEMENTS for the "5th California Parliament Election" must be post-marked and received before 4/15/2010. Late statements shall be included when possible.
8. SPACE FOR THREE OR MORE WRITE-IN choices must be provided on each ballot, in all elections.
9. BALLOTS MUST be post-marked and received between April 20th and August 5th. Any US resident, nominee and/or proxy may observe the counting of the ballots. Volunteer counters will conduct the vote counting.
10. STATE PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS will have the same rules and dates as the national parliament election, but will fall on even years between the US Presidential Election cycles every four years. State Parliaments will merge into population balanced Super-states.
11. COUNTY PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS will have the same rules and dates as the national parliament election, but countywide activities will fall on odd years. County Parliaments will merge into population balanced Mini-states.
12. ALL NOMINEES and write-in names that win 1/100ths of the total votes cast may vote as a member of parliament (MP), or member of state parliament or super-state parliament (MSP), or member of county parliament or mini-state parliament (MCP).
13. PARTY LEADER within the CA-PAR is a label for the highest ranked name categorized under each party. Party leaders are responsible for the distribution of all ballots and rules to the members of their party/category and lists.
14. CATEGORIZATION AND PARTY NAMES The first and most important criterion in determining the nominee's party/category is the nominee's requested party/category in USA Parliament matters. The second most important criterion in determining the nominee's party/category is determined by the nominee's state's records, as written by the member while registering to vote. Appointed and elected members may be categorized with any party/category that they wish, but the party/category of all members must be the true one. Elected members may decide to change or switch their party/categorization at any time. Members automatically qualify for the ballot in the next election cycle under the party/category of their choice The third most important criterion for determining the nominee's party/category will be set by the party/category of the person who the nominee voted for Taoiseach, or prime minister.
15. PAPER BALLOTS must be mailed to CA PAR, PO Box 970, Paradise, California, 95967. Choices marked on paper ballots are guaranteed to be confidential. For telephone info., call 530.589.5294.
16. FOR SINGLE-WINNER ELECTIONS, such as the election of a set of rules, the single-transferable vote system (STV, Droop) will be used through preference voting.
17. TIE VOTES will be broken by calling new elections.
18. VOTES OF CONFIDENCE for the three PMs or Taoiseachs and/or two secretaries and/or rules, may be taken at any time, by any member of The California Parliament Inc., and subsidiary mini-state parliaments.
19. EXECUTIVE MINISTERS OF The California Parliament Inc.'s state executive committee shall also consist of "Cabinet Ministers", who shall be elected by a simple majority or better (three or more, of the five executives ministers). The elected three Prime Minister(s) and the elected two Secretaries are the five executive ministers, and cabinet ministers are the full ministries. Additional deputy ministers may also be approved/elected by the ruing executive members, a simi-confidential system where the executives rank the nominees, on a privately circulated, internal ballot.
20. RESIGNATIONS. When any elected stands down, resigns, retires, or dies - the single-transfer of 1st preference votes from the voters' ballots that had elected the departing member, will be used to elect the 2nd preferred choice on the same voters' ballots (STV) for every election to fill vacated seats.
21. UNMARKED BALLOTS AND EBALLOTS may be reproduced, copied, re-type set or reduced for distribution. Each ballot must include all nominees' correct party affiliation (or lack of), a detachable voter registration form (paper ballots only), USA Parliament contact information, and initiative(s) of the ballot maintained by the CA-PAR’s elected secretary(s). All ballots released to the public from the The California Parliament Inc.'s elected secretary(s) shall count as a legitimate ballot, even after the ballot had been updated to reflect party switching, withdrawal or any other corrected errors and changes.
22. CONFIDENTIALITY OF CHOICES made by all voters is guaranteed by the elected parliament secretary, except on eballots
23. ELECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA PARLIAMENT, INC. will be based on the Sainte-Lague party list system (STV, Hare) through preference voting (PrV) or instant runoff voting (IRV).
24. ORDER OF NOMINEES on the ballot of the USA Parliament ballot, and of all subsidiary parliament and their ballots, will be determined by the results caused by the voters’ ranking of the nominees on the ballots. Ties will be broken through alphabetizing the names. New nominees will be placed on the ballot in the order that they were nominated, below higher ranked elected members. If elected members switch party/categories at any time, they will be placed in the new party/category below all other nominees already listed. Parties and categories will be listed on the ballot in alphabetical order.
25. THESE RULES will not change once approved by majority vote by the 5th California Parliament, Inc.. These rules shall apply to the 5th CALIFORNIA Parliament Inc.'s Election, and the subsidiary county parliaments' elections, unless they are voted down by a majority vote of the 5th California Parliament Inc.'s voting MSPs before release of the ballot for the "5th CALIFORNIA Parliament Inc.s Election" on 4/20/2010.
26. NO PERSON MAY BE CENSORED, and no limits may be placed on free speech by/of any other person or nominee, including CA-PAR elected members and staff, at any time. Party/category's names may not be used in such a way that mimics or libels names of other party/categories or individuals. Those that refuse to comply, by continuing to libel others through their choice of party name, will be categorized as members of the Anarchist Party.
27. DUTIES OF THE SECRETARIES shall include overseeing the communication link between members. The secretary shall approve the verification methods that are used for internal and external parliamentary voting, to call for new elections when ties occur, and to oversee convening and recessing of each parliament assembly.
28. THE TRIPLE PRIME MINISTER/DUAL SECRETARY SYSTEM will be implemented in each California Parliament, and executive decisions will be made by the five, in a majority rule vote, or at least 3/5ths. Only three of the five executive members are needed to implement actions by the executive. Rule 30 will be the voting system used for election of the three prime ministers and the two secretaries, with three and two being the desired number of seats to be filled.
29. HOW THE VOTE-COUNT WORKS: Majority Preference Voting (MPV) for the rules and other single-winner elections. Everyone's vote goes initially to his or her 1st choice. If no alternative has a majority, then the alternative with fewest votes is eliminated, and each of its ballots goes to voter’s next choice. This process of elimination & re-distribution continues until 1 alternative has a majority of the ballots.
30. THE SAINTE-LAGUE seat allocation for The California Parliament, Inc. 1. Divide the election's total number of votes by 100 (number of seats). This is the 1st quota. 2. Divide this quota into each candidate's votes, and round off to the nearest whole number. That's that candidate's seat allocation. 3. If, due to rounding, this awards a number of seats different from the desired number of 100 seats, then adjust the quota slightly up or down, till, when paragraph 2 is carried out, it will award exactly 100 seats.
31. ENDORSEMENTS – The California Parliament, Inc. will not make political endorsements, as required by California state law. This, and all other laws governing California non-profits will be strictly observed.