Politics

An amendment passes at last, and another fails by one vote

The Our Constitution is a Mess Amendment is ratified on 73.53%, ending a run of five straight rejections. Article 2 of the Charters Should Be Simple Amendment finished on 22 of the 23 it needed.

An amendment has passed. After five consecutive constitutional amendments were put to SimDemocracy’s electorate and refused, the Our Constitution is a Mess Amendment has been ratified on 73.53% of 34 valid votes.

Two others on the same ballot failed, and one of them failed by a single vote.

Amendment Aye Nay Share Outcome
Our Constitution is a Mess 25 9 73.53% Ratified
Article 2, Charters Should Be Simple 22 12 64.71% Rejected by 1 vote
MORE free speech 16 18 47.06% Rejected by 7

One vote

Constitutional amendments need two-thirds. Two-thirds of 34 is 22.67, so 23 votes carry an amendment.

Article 2 of the Charters Should Be Simple Amendment got 22.

It is the closest any amendment has come in this run. The Deputy Speaker Switcharoo Amendment missed by two a fortnight ago; this missed by one.

The other two

The Our Constitution is a Mess Amendment cleared the bar with two votes to spare, and is the first amendment ratified since this paper began counting.

The MORE free speech Amendment was the only one of the three that a majority actively opposed — 18 against to 16 for. It is worth noting what it was asking for, given the week the courts have had: the Supreme Court has twice in a fortnight held that speech falling foul of a platform’s terms of service enjoys no constitutional protection at all, because those terms are higher law than the Constitution. An amendment widening free expression would not have touched that.

Every figure above is counted on the same denominator, 34, with no abstentions recorded on any of the three questions.