Call for Judgment Archive

So Judge, what say you on this matter of changing proposals?

I never could say no to you...
you may amend your proposal.
His Honorable ericpat.

The context of this call is that John D. did not want to vote for the original wording of Proposal 303. However it was not very clear in the rules if Lisa could change the wording since the vote had already begun. Thus the ruling was over the ability for a proposer to amend their proposal before the vote had been finished.

The Proposal recently proposed by Mr. Zimmerman is not in the proper form as defined by Rule 304, namely, the Voting Period is not at the very end of the Proposal. However in the interest of the Game and Mr. Zimmerman's waning patience, the Proposal should be accepted as being properly formed, this being the first proposal which would need conform to this format and the possibility that the format might be a little vague concerning the placement of the Voting Period.

[The CfJ was retracted, but the Judge answered anyway.]

Yes.

I'd like to call for a Judgement on this. How is it determined whether or not someone got their vote in on time? I would assume that it is determined by whether or not the _Proposer_ gets it before the deadline, but am willing to abide by the Judgement of the Judge.

Forwarded message:
> From: daedalus (Shawn P Zimmerman)
> Subject: Re: Gentle Reminder
> To: daedalus@world.std.com (Shawn P Zimmerman)
> Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 16:08:00 -0500 (EST)
> In-Reply-To: <199611271700.AA12836@world.std.com> from "Shawn P Zimmerman" at Nov 27, 96 12:00:28 pm
> 
> I vote Yes for the proposal, all  NomenRiders, all 
> Bandwagons.  I vote no on the proposed Sneer.
> 
> Shawn
> 

It seems clear to me, that this header shows that the mail was sent at 16:08 EST today (2 December). Thus in time for the end of the voting period.

It is my judgement that this vote be included in the tally of votes.

However, I have one caveat. It is known that mail messages can be faked, even their dates may be tampered with. Thus before the game can continue I insist that anyone who has any doubts to the veracity of this mail header must email me their doubts. If I receive no mail doubting the veracity of this header by midnight tonight (2 December) I will pass my final judgement in the morning.

---

It is the opinion of this court that Mr. Zimmerman's mis-sent vote will be admitted to the tally of votes. Thus his proposal passes. It will become Rule 305.

It is the opinion of this court that if one Voter recieved the vote which is in question and can when asked publicly display said vote, with intact message headers and their veracity is not questioned by any other Voter, then that vote can be counted.

As for what can be done about this situation in the future, well I have some suggestions (To Mssr. Patacchiola and Dunkelberg: these are _only_ suggestions, I cannot make law, and my judgment does not have to be adhered to, I am only using my position as a reason to address the Public).

1. A mailing-list. This might help alleviate the problem.

2. Some sort of official position, whose task would be to collect and tally votes.

3. The use of some unofficial public information storage where all votes would be registered (this we have already, my archive or proposals, bandwagons and NomenRiders have a section of vote results, which I keep as up to date as possible)

4. Officially or Unofficial require a 'ping' type of mail reminding voters of the imminent end of the Voting Period. This might be an official position (see #2) or might be the Proposers job.

"Given the extenuating circumstances of Mr. Bacon's absence he should be placed into Panic Mode and should been considered to have been in Panic Mode at least two minutes before the end of the voting period on Proposal 306".

Either Derek and Glenn participated in the vote or not. If they did, then the turn is over, play may resume. Even if they did not, Derek is clearly unable to participate at this point, and so, to avoid having to trash this game and start a new one, I decree that the turn _is_ over, the NomenRiders/Bandwagons/Proposal all pass or fail as is appropriate.

"The Judge shall decide if the Voting Period shall be extended until Mr. McGuire may enter his vote, or if the Voting Period shall be considered finished as of midnight on Friday 13 Dec. 1996, thus Mr. McGuire will not have voted and thus lose 10 points according to Rule 305. However since Mr. McGuire entered into the debate of the proposal he participated and thus Rule 105 is fulfilled".

Either Derek and Glenn participated in the vote or not. If they did, then the turn is over, play may resume. Even if they did not, Derek is clearly unable to participate at this point, and so, to avoid having to trash this game and start a new one, I decree that the turn _is_ over, the NomenRiders/Bandwagons/Proposal all pass or fail as is appropriate.