Majority Age

The majority age of the Spire is sixteen years. From that age onward, a citizen may vote, run for office, and engage in civic duties. (Purely IC, with the vote forms themselves there are no character names collected. People may still OOCly vote).

Stewardal Elections

• To stand as a candidate for Steward, one must receive four nominations from eligible citizens.
• Current councilors are automatically eligible, but may withdraw from the running.
• Eligible citizens cast ballots using ranked-choice voting: they rank the candidates in order of preference.
• A separate ballot is held for the Steward role alone.
• If a candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, they win. If not, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to voters’ next choices. This continues until one achieves a majority.
• The winner is instated as Steward.

Councilor Elections

• To run for a council seat, a candidate must secure two nominations from eligible citizens.
• A separate ranked-choice ballot is held for each open council seat. Voters rank the candidates for that particular seat in order of preference.
• Counting follows the same elimination & redistribution method as for Steward elections until a majority is reached.

Tribune Elections

• Any citizen who is a member of the Petitioners’ Forum may stand for Tribune.
• The Tribune is chosen via ranked-choice vote—each candidate is ranked by preference.
• The candidate with the majority after redistribution is elected.
• Terms last two months; no one may serve more than three consecutive terms.

General Voting Safeguards & Procedure

• All elections are administered by the Town Clerk, with oversight by impartial witnesses drawn by lot from the citizenry.
• Ballots are secret and must be collected and counted publicly.
• Results must be announced publicly no more than two days after counting concludes.
• If allegations of coercion, fraud, or improper conduct arise, the Petitioners’ Forum may demand a tribunal review.
• Interference with or obstruction of the count is a dereliction of civic duty, punishable under removal or penalty clauses.

Rationale

Using ranked-choice ballots ensures that the winner more truly reflects the broad preference of the people, not just a plurality. By giving citizens the ability to rank candidates, disputes and vote-splitting are minimized. Each role having its own ballot preserves clarity and fairness in voting.

OOC Clarification

When the elections begin, people will be able to forward their nominations to members of Lore Team via DMs or tickets, that are then logged in a thread. The current election post will be updated with a list of the candidates for each role. At the end of the campaigning week, votes will be done through a Google Form.