4.6. The voting process

Ideas

Laws can be initiated by the Representative Council or the citizens.
They can be voted on by the Representative Council or the citizens, but the latter will always have the final say.
Amendments to the Constitution are always voted on by citizens.
Citizen voting is carried out on a blockchain that guarantees the security, authenticity, and integrity of the results.
The general principle is applicable at all levels of power (international, national, regional, municipal...)

General Approach

Proposing a New Text

The proposal for a law or an amendment to the Constitution is:

Initiated by 10% of the members of the Representative Council, spontaneously or on the proposal of a Ministry or a Commission.
Initiated by 1% of the citizens. (Citizens' Initiative Referendum)

If the proposal falls within the jurisdiction of the proposed level.
If it complies with the Constitution.
If it is a legislative or constitutional procedure. The goal is not to block the process but to guide it correctly.

The proposal is then submitted for voting. In the case of a legislative procedure, the Representative Council may proceed to vote or request a citizen vote. In the case of a constitutional procedure, citizen voting is systematic.

Parliamentary Legislative Procedure

In cases where an in-depth study does not seem necessary, the bill may be drafted by a temporary committee of the Representative Council and submitted for voting by both chambers (Representative Council and Council of Elders). Each chamber must approve the text for it to be adopted, possibly by a supermajority.

A one-month probationary period allows the citizens to initiate an appeal on the Software Democracy platform. If this appeal is launched, the probationary period is extended by three months. If 1% of citizens validate this appeal during this period, the citizen legislative procedure is initiated. Otherwise, the Law comes into effect.

Citizen Legislative Procedure

The citizen legislative procedure must allow informed choices by citizens.

Preparation of the file:
- A temporary commission is appointed to prepare the submission file.
- A temporary committee of the Council of Elders may add its analysis and comments.
- Members of the Representative Council may provide a comment, individually or collectively.
Publication of the file with the scheduled voting date.
Voting over a 24-hour period.
The results are announced at the end of the voting period.
If passed, the Law comes into effect immediately.

Amendment of the Constitution

Changes to the Constitution are mandatorily submitted to a citizen vote, and follow the following steps:

Preparation of the submission file for the vote:
- A temporary committee is designated to prepare the submission file.
- A temporary committee of the Council of Elders may add its analysis and commentary.
- Members of the Representative Council may provide a comment, individually or collectively.
- The Court of the Just adds its analysis and commentary.
Publication of the file with the planned voting date.
Voting over a 24-hour period.
The results are communicated at the end of the voting period.
If voted, the amendment to the Constitution comes into effect immediately.

Emergency Procedure

The action of the institutions of the Software Democracy is part of the long term. In a crisis situation, an emergency procedure must allow a quick response.

A possible application of this procedure is discussed here.

Oversight

The entire democratic process is under the supervision of a randomly drawn Citizen Oversight Council, which can at any time report malfunctions, suspend a voting procedure, or initiate an appeal that can lead to the dismissal of one or several members of the implicated Councils.

Evaluation of results

The vote should favor a yes / no response. If necessary, a list of values can be proposed.

The blank vote is recorded. It can signify a principled disagreement with the question asked or indicate that the file is not clear enough or poorly prepared. If the blank vote score is in the top 10% of the blank vote scores of votes already conducted, a new Committee will start the study work from scratch.

Variations

At the global level

International votings are strictly exercised within the scope of application of the Universal Constitution: definition of fundamental freedoms and rights, preservation of Software Democracy, international monetary policy, resolution of international conflicts, access to Space...

Decisions taken at the global level are applied and, if necessary, transcribed into national law.

In terms of representation, a weighting key defines the modalities according to which representatives are chosen (e.g., x representatives per country, x representatives per x million inhabitants). This distribution key is written into the Universal Constitution.

Each State appoints a member to sit on the Council of Elders, ensuring that it takes into account the diversity of member countries.

Global votings having a considerable impact:

deadlines are longer to allow for in-depth drafting of files and public debate. A delay of 1 to 3 months between the publication of the file and the voting for a legislative procedure, and 3 to 6 months for a constitutional procedure.
votings take into account both individual and globalized votes at the level of Nations. To be adopted, a proposal must obtain a majority of votes and a majority of States, possibly a qualified majority.

At the national level

Votings are exercised within the scope of application of the National Constitution: organization of institutions, functioning of the economy and monetary policy, internal affairs...

Decisions taken at the national level are applied and, if necessary, transcribed at the regional and municipal levels.

A weighting key can define the weight of each region in the national government, either in the Representative Council or in the Council of Elders. This distribution key is written into the National Constitution.

The delay between publication of the file is typically 2 to 8 weeks for a legislative procedure, and 1 to 3 months for a constitutional procedure.

At the regional level

Regions have significant autonomy and can mobilize their citizens to decide on regional-scale projects.

The scope of action of regions is defined in the National Constitution.

A weighting key can define the weight of each municipality in the regional government. This distribution key is written into the Regional Charter.

The process of preparing votings at the regional level is simplified because it cannot involve a constitutional procedure. It remains otherwise identical, with shorter deadlines between the submission of files and the voting (between 2 and 4 weeks).

At the municipal level

The same logic is implemented at the municipal level.

In practice

The voting process is implemented in the Code of Software Democracy.

Voting tokens

Thanks to their digital identity, each citizen automatically receives a digital voting token for each election, along with all the documents produced during the preparation of the vote. These allow them to study the proposed question.

This token will be used to express their vote on the blockchain corresponding to the level of the vote (global, national, etc.). Blank votes are taken into account. A token not used by the end of the voting period will expire without effect (abstention).

The interest of the blockchain

The blockchain makes the voting results incorruptible and allows for the consultation of an unforgeable history of past votes. Moreover, while institutions cannot identify who voted for what, everyone can check the use of their token and its compliance with the cast vote, and access the history of their past choices.

The incorruptibility of the blockchain makes the results of a vote instantaneous and indisputable.

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