[DRAFT] Congressional Non-Concession

[Wille-Harlia]

[Title] Congressional Non-Concession

[Validity] Must not have Autocracy, must have Term Limits

[Description] After the most recent elections, certain members of the @@DEMONYM@@ Legislature have refused to concede their seats after they lost their respective races, making up baseless accusations such as made-up discrepancies in the electronic voting machines to use as proof of tampering with the elections. Attempting to resolve this as quickly as possible, an emergency meeting has been called in your office.

[Option 1] "There is a straightforward solution to this problem," says your Chief Election Administrator, @@RANDOMNAME@@, while @@HE@@ wipes sweat off @@HIS@@ brow, "if those legislators are claiming other nations hacked the electronic voting machines, we should simply do away with the machines and go back to good old counting by hand. That should shut them up, and anything else they make up will be outlandish enough to easily debunk." On @@HIS@@ way out, @@HE@@ drops a stack of papers on your desk.
[Effect] the old way is always the best way

[Option 2] "That would be way too much effort!" bellows your Minister of Efficiency, @@RANDOMNAME@@, as @@HE@@ walks to your desk in a perfectly straight line. "If we get rid of the electronic counting machines, and count by hand, that could lead to even more potential error! You see, these legislators know that they lost, they are merely making things up to justify their tantrums! Therefore, we must not bend, or be accommodating to their demands, instead, we should merely start the next legislature, and ignore them! " @@HE@@ then takes the shortest path possible out of your office by jumping over a chair.
[Effect] cutting corners is no longer frowned upon

[Option 3] "This is outrageous!" yells one of the legislators in question, @@RANDOMNAME@@, a member of the Opposition, while @@HE@@ gets up from @@HIS@@ chair and storms towards you. "You all are talking about the best way to ignore my completely legitimate complaints, meanwhile you do nothing to resolve the fact that I have been cheated out of my seat! The electronic counting machines were rigged against me, and the voters were bribed too! I, on behalf of myself and my comrades, demand a rerun of the elections, but only after the machines have been fixed! That way, we can see what the people really want, and if we lose then, then so be it." @@HE@@ bows to you obsequiously, and then leaves the room.
[Effect] "it was rigged" is a surefire way to get a redo on anything important

[Option 4] "Honestly, these politicians never cease to amaze me," says your brother, who crept into the room after everybody else left. "This is ridiculous! Those legislators lost their races. Do they accept this? No! It's a wonder they get anything done, all they do is posture! What you need to do, my dear sibling is to publicly denounce these legislators, while saying that conspiracy has no place in this great nation. Then, start the Legislature without them. That way, you can uphold the results, without changing voting methods, while still doing something." He gives you an awkward hug and then leaves.
[Effect] objecting to anything the government does while serving it can cause sudden unemployment

[Title] Congressional Non-Concession

[Validity] Must not have Autocracy, must have Term Limits

[Description] After the most recent elections, certain members of the @@DEMONYM@@ Legislature have refused to concede their seats after they lost their respective races, citing numerous coincidental occurrences as proof of foreign tampering with the machines employed to count votes. The legislators in question believe that this unjustly caused them to lose their seats. Worried about the impact of this refusal to allow democracy to function, an emergency meeting has been called to resolve the crisis.

[Option 1] "I'm going to be blunt," says famous General @@RANDOMMALENAME@@, while he inspects the reflection of his medals and uniform in the mirror in your office, "if those legislators think that they can just ignore the results of this election, they are dead wrong. If they refuse to concede, I say you send in the troops and force them too. The military should enforce the results of every election, in order to ensure a peaceful transfer of power." Brandishing his ceremonial sword, he cuts the head off of a statue in your office on his way out.
[Effect] fights among pre-school age children have increased, giving parents headaches
[Validity] Must have a military

[Option 2] "Make love, not war!" shouts your Minister of Pacifism, @@RANDOMNAME@@, while making a peace sign. "Well, not actually, but you get what I mean. Do we really want to be seen as tyrannical brutes who use the military to "enforce" election results? How about, instead of adding fuel to the fire, we simply ignore these legislators and their temper tantrums and start the new legislature anyway. We would be showing we take a no-nonsense policy towards those who obstruct our democracy while avoiding conflict! It's a win-win!" @@HE@@ then takes out a marker and scribbles a peace sign on your favorite painting.
[Effect] the government now ignores all dissenters within the government, but appeases those who are not

[Option 3] "This is outrageous!" yells one of the legislators in question, @@RANDOMNAME@@, who storms into your office and shoves the Minister out of the way, and into your favorite vase, breaking it. "I have been cheated out of my seat by the...uh..." @@HE@@ looks at @@HIS@@ hand, where you think you see ink marks. "By the Bigtopians! Those bigwigs know that I advocate for anti-Bigtopian policies, and in return, they must have hacked into the most secure network in @@NAME@@ to change the results to make me and my comrades lose! Don't ask me how they did it, all I know is that they must have!" @@HE@@ then storms out just as loudly as @@HE@@ came in.
[Effect] at the Olympics the teams from foreign nations complain that @@DEMONYMNOUNPLURAL@@ are sore losers

[Option 4] "Honestly, these politicians never cease to amaze me," says your brother, who crept into the room after everybody else left. "This is ridiculous! Those legislators lost their races. Do they accept this? No! It's a wonder they get anything done, all they do is posture! If you just abolished the Legislature, you could do so much more, so much quicker. And maybe, just maybe, you could give me a high-paying government job for helping you out with this?" While talking with you, he takes out a piece of paper covered in legalese, and a pen, which says "World's Best Leader". Your brother says, "Simply sign here, and you will be able to rule - I mean lead, much more efficiently."
[Effect] the number of national ministries is at an all-time high as @@LEADER@@ is forced to delegate most of their newfound workload

[Title] Congressional Non-Concession

[Validity] Must not have Autocracy, must have Term Limits

[Description] After the most recent elections, certain members of the @@DEMONYM@@ Legislature have refused to concede their seats after they lost their respective races, citing numerous coincidental occurrences as proof of government and private tampering with the machines employed to count votes. The legislators in question believe that this unjustly caused them to lose their seats. Worried about the fallout and eventual repercussions of this, an emergency meeting has been called to resolve the crisis.

[Option 1] "I'm going to be blunt," says famous General @@RANDOMMALENAME@@, while he looks over short bios of the legislators in question, "if those legislators think that they can just ignore the results of this election, they are dead wrong. If they refuse to concede, I say you send in the troops and force them too. The military should enforce the results of every election, in order to ensure a peaceful transfer of power." Brandishing his ceremonial sword, he cuts the head off of a statue in your office on his way out.
[Effect] "Use Your Fists" has replaced "Use Your Words" in most pre-schools
[Validity] Must have a military

[Option 2] "Make love, not war!" shouts your Minister of Pacifism, @@RANDOMNAME@@, while making a peace sign. "Do we really want to be seen as tyrannical brutes who use the military to "enforce" election results? How about we don't escalate things, thereby depriving the legislators in question of more ammunition against us? Instead, we let them throw their temper tantrums, and simply start the next legislature without them, giving their seats to the winners of the respective races. Doing that will definitely solve the problem, 100%." @@HE@@ then takes out a marker and scribbles a peace sign on your favorite painting.
[Effect] the nation's official policy is "If I Pretend It's Not There, Maybe It Will Go Away"

[Option 3] "Lies!" yells infamous conspiracy theorist, Giorgio Jones, peeking out from an air vent wearing a tinfoil hat. "The elections were fraudulent! The voting stations were rigged to support a certain candidate! I demand that the cheated legislators be reinstated to their seats, and a formal apology be issued by the government!" When security comes to remove him from your office, he takes out a violet and says, "The power of Violet compels you to let me go!" Obviously, this does nothing, and security successfully removes the man from your office.
[Effect] the power of Violet compels @@LEADER@@ to do whatever the man in the tinfoil hat says

[Option 4] "Honestly, these politicians never cease to amaze me," says your brother, who crept into the room after everybody else left. "This is ridiculous! Those legislators lost their races. Do they accept this? No! It's a wonder they get anything done, all they do is posture! If you just abolished the Legislature, you could do so much more, so much quicker. And maybe, just maybe, you could give me a high-paying government job for helping you out with this?" While talking with you, he takes out a piece of paper covered in legalese, and a pen, which says "World's Best Leader". Your brother says, "Simply sign here, and all your problems will go away."
[Effect] fans of government of the people, by the people, and for the people pine for the good ol' days

[Title] Congressional Non-Concession

[Validity] Must not have Autocracy, must have Term Limits

[Description] After the most recent elections, certain members of the @@DEMONYM@@ Legislature have refused to concede their seats after they lost their respective races, citing numerous coincidental occurrences as proof of government and private tampering with the machines employed to count votes. The legislators in question believe that this unjustly caused them to lose their seats. Worried about the fallout and eventual repercussions of this, an emergency meeting has been called to resolve the crisis.

[Option 1] "I'm going to be blunt," says famous General @@RANDOMMALENAME@@, while he looks over short bios of the legislators in question, "if those legislators think that they can just ignore the results of this election, they are dead wrong. If they refuse to concede, I say you send in the troops and force them too. The military should enforce the results of every election, in order to ensure a peaceful transfer of power." Brandishing his ceremonial sword, he cuts the head off of a statue in your office on his way out.
[Effect] "Use Your Fists" has replaced "Use Your Words" in most pre-schools
[Validity] Must have a military

[Option 2] "Make love, not war!" shouts your Minister of Pacifism, @@RANDOMNAME@@, while making a peace sign. "Do we really want to be seen as tyrannical brutes who use the military to "enforce" election results? How about we don't escalate things, thereby depriving the legislators in question of more ammunition against us? Instead, we let them throw their temper tantrums, and simply start the next legislature without them, giving their seats to the winners of the respective races. Doing that will definitely solve the problem, 100%." @@HE@@ then takes out a marker and scribbles a peace sign on your favorite painting.
[Effect] the nation's official policy is "If I Pretend It's Not There, Maybe It Will Go Away"

[Option 3] "Lies!" yells infamous conspiracy theorist, Giorgio Jones, peeking out from an air vent wearing a tinfoil hat. "The elections were fraudulent! The voting stations were rigged to support a certain candidate! I demand that the cheated legislators be reinstated to their seats, and a formal apology be issued on behalf of the government!" He then takes out a candle and says, "The power of Violet compels you to listen to me!" Security then arrives, pulls him out of the vent, and drags him out of your office. You think you hear him say, "'Tis but a scratch!"
[Effect] the power of Violet compels @@LEADER@@ to do whatever the man in the tinfoil hat says

[Option 4] "Here's an idea," says avid historian @@RANDOMNAME@@, while donning an Ancient Maxtopian helmet. "@@LEADER@@, you should abolish the Legislature and replace it with a Citizen's Assembly, of which every citizen would be a member, just like how the Ancient Maxtopians did it! That way, no one can refuse to concede, because they will automatically have a seat!" @@HE@@ admires the old paintings on your wall and then says, "While it may be hard to get every @@DEMONYM@@ together for the Assembly to meet, the Ancient Maxtopians did it, so surely we can as well!"
[Effect] the most important issues on the agenda for the Citizen's Assembly are tax cuts, tax cuts, and tax cuts.
[Validity] Must not have Proportional Representation

[Option 5] "Honestly, these politicians never cease to amaze me," says your brother, who crept into the room after everybody else left. "This is ridiculous! Those legislators lost their races. Do they accept this? No! It's a wonder they get anything done, all they do is posture! If you just abolished the Legislature, you could do so much more, so much quicker. And maybe, just maybe, you could give me a high-paying government job for helping you out with this?" While talking with you, he takes out a piece of paper covered in legalese, and a pen, which says "World's Best Leader". Your brother says, "Simply sign here, and all your problems will go away."
[Effect] fans of government of the people, by the people, and for the people pine for the good ol' days

This my first draft after I submitted my draft for another issue. I am aware it's pretty long and wordy, so any advice would be appreciated!

[Australian rePublic]

Why did they refuse to conceed

[Wille-Harlia]

Because they believe that there was election tampering, made that clearer in the description. This is based on President Trump's reaction to losing the election.

[Wille-Harlia]

Edited Options 1 and 4 a little bit.

[Fauxia]

Options are kind of on the long side, so I don't think we need 5 of them.

It's a decent topic, but kind of unfocused at the moment. Option 3 seems to be slapping on random jokes that just don't really work (what relates Alex Jones to the Black Knight in Monty Python?)

[Wille-Harlia]

OK. Forgot about this for a bit, I will get the next draft up soon.

[Wille-Harlia]

Edited!

[Authoritaria-Imperia]

I guess it's not that important, but I was kind of hoping to hear from one of the actual "cheated" legislators on the matter; the absence of any speakers like that is felt. Could one perhaps be a replacement for the conspiracy-theorist speaker? Or I suppose the conspiracy theorist could also "coincidentally" be a politician alleging fraud, though that could lend to a very unbalanced Issue…

[Wille-Harlia]

I guess it's not that important, but I was kind of hoping to hear from one of the actual "cheated" legislators on the matter; the absence of any speakers like that is felt. Could one perhaps be a replacement for the conspiracy-theorist speaker? Or I suppose the conspiracy theorist could also "coincidentally" be a politician alleging fraud, though that could lend to a very unbalanced Issue…

Noted, now that I think about it, that makes more sense, I'll edit it accordingly later.

[Wille-Harlia]

Updated.

[Electrum]

I think that even now, the issue is still very long. Cut down on text that doesn't contribute to the narrative or add humour. Like the description can do with just the first sentence.

Premise - "numerous coincidental occurrences" - what are they? Without this, the issue just seems unfocused, I can't really tell what the issue is, or if these coincidences are something we should be concerned about or not. Is the issue about people refusing to concede their seats, or electronic counting or what?

Option 1 - Where are these legislators anyways? They wouldn't be at the legislature refusing to concede their seat, as they can simply be barred from entering Parliament whenever the transition occurs. Sending in the military to affect a peaceful transfer of power would be something that should be done if the head of state was not conceding, not some members of parliament. And of course, you can't put that in an issue since we always assume @@LEADER@@ is always the leader.

Option 3 - It's not immediately clear what action the government is taking, if any. Is he asking for a rerun? Or for the election to be called in their favour? It's also not clear if they're a governing or opposing MP. But then this just raises a whole other can of worms on what ideology the leader's party is.

Option 4 - Going from people complaining about the integrity of the election to basically abolishing elections is a big step. I think you could instead have an option to just go back to good old fashioned hand counting. That to me seems like the obvious solution to "we don't trust the electronic counting process".

Effect lines - Can you reword these so they don't have commas in them? The last one doesn't really make sense since that's what all leaders/ministers do in real life, not just in autocracies but also in democracies. Public service is there to implement the wishes of the executive. The number of ministries isn't going to change just because you abolished elections, you'd just be replacing the head decision maker to only be the leader, and even then, autocratic countries usually have cabinets anyways.

[Wille-Harlia]

I think that even now, the issue is still very long. Cut down on text that doesn't contribute to the narrative or add humour. Like the description can do with just the first sentence.

Premise - "numerous coincidental occurrences" - what are they? Without this, the issue just seems unfocused, I can't really tell what the issue is, or if these coincidences are something we should be concerned about or not. Is the issue about people refusing to concede their seats, or electronic counting or what?

Option 1 - Where are these legislators anyways? They wouldn't be at the legislature refusing to concede their seat, as they can simply be barred from entering Parliament whenever the transition occurs. Sending in the military to affect a peaceful transfer of power would be something that should be done if the head of state was not conceding, not some members of parliament. And of course, you can't put that in an issue since we always assume @@LEADER@@ is always the leader.

Option 3 - It's not immediately clear what action the government is taking, if any. Is he asking for a rerun? Or for the election to be called in their favour? It's also not clear if they're a governing or opposing MP. But then this just raises a whole other can of worms on what ideology the leader's party is.

Option 4 - Going from people complaining about the integrity of the election to basically abolishing elections is a big step. I think you could instead have an option to just go back to good old fashioned hand counting. That to me seems like the obvious solution to "we don't trust the electronic counting process".

Effect lines - Can you reword these so they don't have commas in them? The last one doesn't really make sense since that's what all leaders/ministers do in real life, not just in autocracies but also in democracies. Public service is there to implement the wishes of the executive. The number of ministries isn't going to change just because you abolished elections, you'd just be replacing the head decision maker to only be the leader, and even then, autocratic countries usually have cabinets anyways.

Edited, thank you for the feedback.

[Terrabod]

Hi there! I have a couple of comments on this draft.

[Description] After the most recent elections, certain members of the @@DEMONYM@@ Legislature have refused to concede their seats after they lost their respective races, making up baseless accusations such as made-up discrepancies in the electronic voting machines to use as proof of tampering with the elections. Attempting to resolve this as quickly as possible, an emergency meeting has been called in your office.

The first sentence here is a whopper, and the second sentence is clichéd. I would cut the first sentence into two and get rid of the second sentence:

"After the most recent election, certain outgoing members of the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Legislature have refused to concede their seats. These politicians have made numerous baseless accusations, including discrepancies in the electronic voting system, to support their claims of electoral fraud."

I think @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ is correct (not @@DEMONYM@@) but I'm not an expert with demonyms and demonym adjectives haha.

[Option 1] "There is a straightforward solution to this problem," says your Chief Election Administrator, @@RANDOMNAME@@, while wiping the sweat off @@HIS@@ brow. "if those legislators are claiming other nations hacked the electronic voting machines, we should simply do away with the machines and go back to good old counting by hand. That should shut them up, and anything else they make up will be outlandish enough to easily debunk." On @@HIS@@ way out, @@HE@@ drops a stack of papers on your desk.

What does the last sentence add? Are you suggesting that the Chief Election Administrator is making Leader count votes by hand? That isn't particularly clear. At the moment it reads like the Chief Election Administrator is just handing out paperwork.

[Option 2] "That would be way too much effort!" bellows your Minister of Efficiency, @@RANDOMNAME@@, as @@HE@@ walks to your desk in a perfectly straight line. "If we get rid of the electronic counting machines, and count by hand, that would lead to an even greater potential for error! Besides, these legislators know that they lost and are merely making things up to excuse their failure(?)! We must not accommodate their demands; we should merely start the next legislature, and ignore them!" @@HE@@ then takes the shortest path possible out of your office by jumping over a chair.

Uhh... what does this speaker want you to do? Ignore the problem and continue as you were before? I think this is a classic Dismiss Button option, and by that I mean it does the same thing as pressing the dismiss button. Remember that every option must lead to action on the part of Leader - you either need to change what this speaker wants you to do or cut it from your draft.

[Option 3] "This is outrageous!" yells one of the legislators in question, @@RANDOMNAME@@, a member of the Opposition, while @@HE@@ gets up from @@HIS@@ chair and marches towards you. "You all are talking about the best way to ignore my completely legitimate complaints, meanwhile you do nothing to resolve the fact that I have been cheated out of my seat! The electronic counting machines were rigged against me, and the voters were bribed too! I, on behalf of myself and my comrades (is this a reference to the speaker's ideology? "Colleagues" would maybe be better), demand a rerun of the elections - but only after the machines have been fixed! That way, we can see what the people really want, and if we still lose then so be it." @@HE@@ bows to you obsequiously, and then leaves the room.
[Effect] saying "it was rigged" is a sure-fire way to get a redo on anything important

You can storm out of a room, but you can't really storm towards someone. That's why I changed it to "marches", but you might be able to find a better word to describe that action.

Regarding the "I, on behalf of myself and my colleagues" - we know the speaker is speaking on behalf of himself because he's there in your office, well, speaking on behalf of himself. It's perfectly fine to have him say he's speaking on behalf of his colleagues though.

I don't think the last sentence adds anything so it might be worth removing.

This is just me, but I'd prefer this speaker to be more like "That way, we can see what the people really want - and by that I mean we'll win by a landslide." A bit more of a lean, mean, "we should have one" machine if you know what I mean by that. You'd have to make some small adjustments throughout this speaker's text if you wanted to do that.

[Option 4] "Honestly, these politicians never cease to amaze me," says your brother, who crept into the room after everybody else left. "This is ridiculous! Those legislators lost their races. Do they accept this? No! It's a wonder they get anything done, all they do is posture! What you need to do, my dear sibling is to publicly denounce these legislators, while saying that conspiracy has no place in this great nation. Then, start the Legislature without them. That way, you can uphold the results, without changing voting methods, while still doing something." He gives you an awkward hug and then leaves.
[Effect] objecting to anything the government does while serving it can cause sudden unemployment

If you want to make this a crazy "let's have an autocracy instead" option it needs work. It's really not clear what your brother wants in the current version. I would maybe have a Dominic Cummings-type senior advisor who was standing in the shadows of your office all along but only emerges when the others leave. Then the advisor would say something like:

"Legislators refusing to accept they lost, other legislators refusing to accept the legislators refusing to accept they lost; this is all so confusing! Problems like this take up too much of your valuable time, meaning you spend less time solving the problems of the nation. Tell you what, let's just not bother with these 'legislators' at all - it'll be much more efficient if you make all the decisions instead."

Whew, that's a lot to take in. I hope you find some of it useful!