13.1.5 Referendums and Elections

Elections
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An ELECTION in Starmourn takes place when someone who does not hold a particular position (such as city leader, dynasty leader) decides that they want to challenge someone currently in that position (or seeks to fill a vacancy in that position). The person challenged must be in the same organization (faction, dynasty, clan) to the person doing the challenging. The command to challenge another player's position is <ORG> CONTEST (such as FACTION CONTEST, DYNASTY CONTEST, CLAN CONTEST).

Depending on what organization you are in, contesting varies in scope or may not be available at all. For example, in the Song Dominion you may challenge for the position of Lord Commander directly. In Celestine, you may contest for a Guardian Seat but you may not challenge for Guardian Prime directly. In Scatterhome you may not contest for a leadership position, since there are no de-facto leaders (you may create a call to action though, requesting to be promoted to an administrative position. See HELP INFLUENCE or HELP CALLS).

To interact with an on-going election, use the <ORG> ELECTION command (such as FACTION ELECTION, DYNASTY ELECTION, CLAN ELECTION). For example, in a clan, these are the available commands:

CLAN ELECTION LIST                      List all elections you can vote in.
CLAN ELECTION <#> SHOW                  Show details of the election.
CLAN ELECTION <#> VOTE FOR <x>          Cast your vote.
CLAN ELECTION <#> RESULTS               View the ongoing results.
CLAN ELECTION <#> VOTERS                See who voted for what.

Referendums
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An <ORG> REFERENDUM differs from an election only in that it is not about a particular position of power. Just like in real life, referendums deal with getting the populace's opinion on a certain topic. Referendums may be called by those with the 'referendums' power in an organization. The command to interact with referendums is <ORG> REFERENDUM (Such as FACTION REFERENDUM, DYNASTY REFERENDUM, CLAN REFERENDUM). For example, in a clan, these are the available commands:

CLAN REFERENDUM LIST                    List all referendums you can vote in.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> SHOW                Show details of the referendum.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> VOTE FOR <x>        Cast your vote.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> RESULTS             View the ongoing results.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> VOTERS              See who voted for what.
Manipulation
------------
CLAN REFERENDUM CREATE                  View the ongoing results.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> TITLE <x>           Change the title of the referendum.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> DESCRIPTION <x>     Change the description of the referendum.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> ADD <x>             Add a choice to the referendum.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> REMOVE <x>          Remove a choice from the referendum.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> OPEN                Open the referendum for voting.
CLAN REFERENDUM <#> CLOSE               Close the referendum.


There are two shortcut commands, ELECTIONS and REFERENDUMS, that will list all elections and referendums that you currently have access to, regardless of organization. To interact with them, however, you will need to use the appropriate <ORG> syntax

Public Referendums
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Public referendums may be called by admin to garner the opinion of the whole playerbase about something. That may be for voting on a contest, feedback on an event, which thing we should work on next, among other things. 

To view any current public referendums the command is REFERENDUMS, and they're marked as PUBLIC.

Voting on public referendums is an OOC act, unless for some reason we state otherwise. 


Notes on publicly voted contests
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If you are voting on a contest via referendum, then the whole contest is deemed entirely OOC (usually because your character did not enter, you did). e.g. Your RP reasons for having a shop are probably not that you won a contest - if they are, it wasn't ~this~ contest, because this contest does not exist IC.

We ALL want contests to be fair and based on merit, not on popularity. So attempting to circumvent or twist these rules is very poor showmanship.

Therefore...
- Any mention of the contest in IC settings is inappropriate.
- Any solicitation for votes for your entry may result in a 10% reduction in 
  your score or even disqualification from the contest, depending on the 
  situation.
- If solicited to vote a certain way please ISSUE it, or contact an admin, and 
  remember that nobody will know which way you voted - so it's on you to vote 
  genuinely, rather than tactically.
- Remember in all things, always, that everyone here is here to have fun. 
  Everyone has put themselves out there to enter and face a public vote, and if 
  it were a popularity contest we would call it such (and we would never do 
  that).