Bill: Pending Approval Ratings Act

[bharatj]

Approval Ratings Act

The Parliament of Stratham enacts:

Section 1. Short Title

(1) This Act is the Approval Ratings Act.

Section 2. Commencement

(1) Provision(s) shall come into effect upon passage.

(2) In the month of this bill passing, the Department of State has until the 20th to collect data and until the 25th to present the data to the people. Future months must follow the deadlines mandated by the bill.

Section 3. Purpose and Reasoning

(1) To clarify the process and guidelines the Department of State should use when collecting approval ratings for government officials.

Section 4. Government Officials

(1) The government officials that must be included in approval ratings polls include the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Department Ministers, Members of Parliament, and Judges.

1. Approval ratings may include additional government officers, but a polling to assess approval for the roles above must occur at least once a month.

Section 5. Process

(1) The process for collecting approval ratings must follow the listed parameters:

1. The polls must be accessible either in-game, on the discord, or both.
2. All necessary positions, along with the names of the players who occupy those positions must be listed on the poll to better inform players on who they are rating.
3. If it is not possible to list the names of office holders in the poll itself, names and roles must be provided in the announcement for the poll.
4. There must be a disapproval rating, an approval rating, and a neutral rating. There may be additional ratings that lean toward approval or disapproval, such as a rating scale from 1-5.
5. Approval ratings must be collected at least once per month with a minimum of 2 weeks time between approval rating polls. Approval ratings for the same government officials can be collected a maximum of 2 times per month.
6. Approval rating polls must be made available by the 15th of each month at latest (with the exception of the circumstance outlined by Section 2(2)).
7. Approval rating polling results must be made public by the 20th of each month at latest (with the exception of the circumstance outlined by Section 2(2)).
8. Results must be publicized on discord and on the Government Reports section of the forums.
9. Results must include the polling results (ex: actual approval rating in % or average approval for a candidate) and the number of respondents. Responses may not be edited or in any way modified other than for easier presentation when publicized (i.e. respondent number cannot be changed nor can the actual approval ratings).
10. Only those that are eligible to vote as outlined by the constitution may be reported as valid respondents to approval ratings polls, thus there should be validation of polling results.
11. Identifying polling data must be kept private and only aggregate and non-identifying results may be publicized. No government officials, other than those in the Department of State that handle the data, may access identifying polling data unless a warrant is granted by the courts for a valid cause.
12. The government may take no action against any citizens that respond to polls unless those responses break rules or laws. If rules are broken, then staff may request the identity of a poll respondent without the need for a warrant. If laws are broken, the government must go through the process of obtaining a warrant before the identity of a respondent can be revealed.

Authored by bharatj