Salvete, amici Romani,
As of this writing, we have three candidates for Curator and three Curatorships to be filled. The Regula requires elections, about which it says:
"To be valid and to have any force whatsoever, any decision by the Comitia must be voted on by at least ten sodales in good standing or by at least one thirtieth of all sodales in good standing (rounded up), whichever is greater." (Article III, Section f)
And, a little later:
"Officers are elected by the Comitia, each officer needing a simple majority of those sodales voting in the election in order to attain his or her office. Each officer holds office for two years and may seek re-election as often as he or she may desire." (Article IV, Section b, Paragraph 1)
That is all the official guidance we have for conducting elections. Everything else we've been doing has been by custom. The second quote says that we only need a simple majority to elect a Curator. The first, however, states that any decision by the Comitia has to have been voted upon by at least a certain number of Sodales in order to have any force. They way we interpreted it last time was that the requirement for a quorum applied to any Comitia decision *except* election of officers. That was never actually put to the test because our last election, in '07, did in fact attract exactly ten votes. I'm wondering if we can do that now.
Bene'st, that's the background. Now the poll question: Shall we conduct elections this year? Or, in the absence of more candidates, shall we simpy allow the ones who have declared themselves to take office without a vote? (Of course, if we suddenly find ourselves with more than seven candidates, we'll have a contest on our hands!)
It's up to the Comitia. And, since this *is* a decision about elections rather than an election itself, the quorum rule will apply.
You may change your vote at any time before the poll closes. I'm giving it one Roman week (8 days).
Talk to us...