Elections in Adammia

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The main kind of election in Adammia is the general election, which is usually held once per year, and elects a number of national councilors to the Ruling Council equal to the number of provinces. All full citizens over the age of 12 can vote and stand as candidates. The single-transferable vote system is used. If a national seat is vacated, it is left vacated until the next general election.

As the Local Council of a province can decide how to select its Ruling Council representative, they have the option of electing a councilor. The only province which currently elects a councilor, Greater Tytannia, does so using instant-runoff voting (effectively the single-member version of STV). Unlike the national councilors, they can be replaced mid-term through a by-election. Historically, it was the case that all provinces were represented by an elected councilor alongside their landed noble, with all of these councilors being elected in a set of local elections, until the current system was introduced in 2022.

From 2013 to 2018, rather than being nominated by the legislature, the Prime Minister of Adammia was directly elected through what was a "National Election". Originally, the first-past-the-post system was used for this, before instant-runoff voting was introduced for the 2018 election. When the House of Citizens was introduced in 2019, its members were elected using party list proportional representation, implemented by a variation of the D'Hondt method which allows for preferential voting. It was at this point that the term "general election" replaced "national election". Elections to the House were due to switch to using STV in 2022, but the House ended up being abolished, and STV was used to elect to the Ruling Council instead.

In practice, local elections have historically been foregone conclusions due to their low population; this remains the case in Greater Tytannia, which the Lib-Mods hold unopposed. In contrast, the general election is seen as a genuine contest, with three or four parties and upwards of 40 votes potentially at play. Historically, Adammic National Election candidates were notorious for putting almost no effort into their campaigns. The National Election in November 2017 changed this trend, with the candidates producing detailed manifestos and using social media to campaign for the first time, and this became even more pronounced at the 2018 election. By the 2019 general election, all three main parties had organised campaign teams, with serious consideration being given to strategy and communications. This increase in the amount of effort being put into election campaigns coincided with the rise of the populist parties and the reaction of the monarchist Liberal-Moderates. More recently, however, the amount of effort put into election campaigns has decreased as political parties have become inactive; at the 2022 general election, only the Liberal-Moderates published a manifesto.

Procedure

Candidates

All candidates standing for any election must be over the age of 12. In order to become a candidate, a nomination form must first be completed, stating full name, micronational address, party affiliation and signature, and returned to the Office of State; they become a candidate as soon as the Office of State declares their nomination valid. The Office of State is required to make nomination forms available as soon as possible after an election is called. Candidates may withdraw at any time before the elections.

At the 2022 election, in order to speed up the election process, the Office of State waived the requirement to formally submit a nomination form, accepting candidates provided that they explicitly consented to being on the ballot.

Electors

There is no need to register to vote in Adammia; as long as a prospective elector is a registered full citizen, they will be allowed to vote. Voters must be over the age of twelve years.

Party selection

Most parties put together a candidate list for general elections by informal consensus. The Liberal-Moderate Party is unique in that it is the only Adammic party to have a written constitution, and its candidate list is determined by the party's executive committee (consisting of the leader, deputy leader and party president).

Voting

Historically, voting took place fairly flexibly, with a combination of physical paper ballots and submission via text message, email and Internet-based messaging platforms such as Skype, Facebook Messenger, Discord and even (on one occasion) Twitter direct messages. This was criticised by some as not properly maintaining the secrecy of the ballot, as counting staff could easily see how individual citizens voted. This perceived flaw led some citizens to spoil their ballot in protest. However, in 2019 a standardised system of Google Forms ballots being distributed via email was introduced, with voters being issued a unique verification code matched to a central electoral roll. Physical balloting is still retained for the small number of citizens, particularly the elderly, who do not have access to email.

The length of the polling period varies; prior to 2019 most elections lasted just one day, but since then a two-day period has been the standard, typically over a weekend. On occasion, the polling period has been extended to three days, typically in response to low turnout. Polling typically starts between 10am and 2pm, and closes at midnight.

Until recently, it was the case that the results from subdivisions were declared individually, and could be declared early if the subdivision reached 100% turnout before polls closed nation-wide. As the STV system requires all votes to be counted at once, this is no longer the case. As of 2022, Myway is the only subdivision which submits its votes collectively, with the Office of State employing Lord Admiral Christopher Hall as the effective returning officer for the colony. After polls close, votes are first verified by cross-referencing the electoral roll, giving an overall turnout figure and setting the quota for the first round. Rounds are then calculated one at a time until all the positions have been filled. Each stage is announced on Twitter, and in 2022 the entire count was broadcast live on Twitch for the first time. Once the results are counted, the returning officer - usually the Lord Chancellor - will give a short speech announcing the winner, and sign the official declaration of result. The elected candidates then immediately assume office.

There have been a number of tied elections (or stages of elections) in the past, due to Adammia's relatively small election. Initially, ties were broken by simply waiting for a candidate to back down, as in the 2013 Tytannia local election. A tie in the 2016 national election was resolved by waiting several days for another subdivision to declare significantly past the deadline. Since 2017, the standard procedure for dealing with a tie has been random lot; this was enshrined in law by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments (for local and general elections respectively).

National elections (2013 - 2018)

National Elections directly elected the Prime Minister. They were abolished in favour of general elections by the Sixth Amendment to the Supreme Directive, which introduced the House of Citizens.

Election First candidate Second candidate Third candidate Turnout
Name Party Votes % Name Party Votes % Name Party Votes %
2013 Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher Independent 11 78.6 Sir Reginald Hall Independent 3 21.4 70%
2014 Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher Independent 15 71.4 Julie Foster Independent 6 28.6 82.1%
2015 Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher Moderate Party 12 57.1 Sir Paul McKenna Labour Party 9 42.9 72.4%
2016 Sir Paul McKenna Labour Party 12 52.2 Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher Moderate Party 11 47.8 92%
August 2017 Prince Jake Liberal Party 11 45.8 Emperor Mother Jayne Belcher Moderate Party 9 37.5 Sir Paul McKenna Labour Party 4 16.7 82.8%
November 2017 Sir Alex Helliker Moderate Party 11 39.3 Admiral Ems Simpson Nuclear So-and-so Party 9 32.1 General Sir Luca Panconi Liberal Party 8 28.6 66.7%
2018 Lord Juliano Saunders Storm Party 19 54.3 Lord Alex Helliker Liberal-Moderate Party 10 28.6 Lord Sam Maude Labour Party 6 17.1 79.6%

General elections

House of Citizens (2019 - 2021)

Year First party Second party Third party Fourth party Turnout
Name Leader 1st prefs Score % Seats Name Leader 1st prefs Score % Seats Name Leader 1st prefs Score % Seats Name Leader 1st prefs Score % Seats
2019 LMP Michael 15 18.23 40.2 6 Storm Worthington 9 10.83 23.9 3 RGA Thompson 4 8.57 18.9 3 Dank Peace 2 7.75 17.1 1 58.5%
2020 Ind. P. Saunders 10 14.53 28.1 3 LMP Michael 10 13.53 26.1 4 RGA Thompson 6 8.23 15.9 3 Storm Worthington 3 7.72 14.9 2 59.6%
2021 LMP Green 7 Storm Worthington 2 Ind. N/A 2 Ind. P. Saunders 1 N/A

Ruling Council

Year First party Second party Third party Fourth party Turnout
Name Leader 1st prefs % Seats Name Leader 1st prefs % Seats Name Leader 1st prefs % Seats Name Leader 1st prefs % Seats
2022 LMP Michael 9 39.1 3 RLP Green 7 30.4 1 Ind. N/A 4 17.4 1 Ind. P. Saunders 3 13.0 0 46%

Local elections

Party vote share graph for National Elections (total vote) and general elections (first preferences).
Party vote share graph for local elections (2013 - 2018).

By-elections