Elections

Quad takes the vacated Senate seat on a countback that never reached a quota

The second countback of the 172nd election walked its threshold from five down to one before electing anybody. /u/344truth, an independent, finished on 1.2096 to Ashley's 0.8659 and fills the seat left by ARCHIVIST.

Quad has taken the Senate seat vacated by ARCHIVIST, elected on the second countback of the 172nd Senatorial Election without any candidate reaching a quota.

The independent, standing as /u/344truth, led at every stage of the count and finished on 1.2096 to Ashley’s 0.8659.

The threshold walked down to one

A countback re-runs the original ballots to fill a single vacancy. This one could not find a winner at the threshold it started on, so the programme lowered it: five to four, four to three, three to two, two to one.

At one it stopped, with the line “No candidate has a quota and the threshold is already at 1” — and elected the leader on the sheet anyway. The seat was filled by the highest tally rather than by anyone clearing a bar.

Quad’s tally rose only twice in that walk, from 1.0 to 1.2096. What moved was everyone else: Ashley went from zero to 0.8659 as thresholds fell, and Tirado, of the Civil Liberties Party, climbed from zero to 0.7513 without ever catching up.

The final sheet

Thirteen names carried over from the original election. The tallies, as printed by the programme:

Candidate Party Final
/u/344truth (Quad) Independent 1.2096 — elected
Ashley/bruhmon0412 Independent 0.8659
Tirado/trolledfloppa Civil Liberties Party 0.7513
/u/u_sqlite (sqknight) Solidarity Party 0.6563
pizzaeater1222 Independent 0.6563
Div19/divide19 Independent 0.6563
/u/ObviousNeutron Independent 0.6563
/u/Silly_Solution3840 (Aran) Revolutionary Organization for Social Equality 0.4193
/u/TweakerKitten Fucking Best Party 0.4193
/u/Zepz367 Senatus Populusque Romanum 0.2096
/u/TechSupport631 Independent 0.0000
/u/EchidnaEmpty4280 Independent 0.0000
/u/Panzzrr Independent 0.0000

The full programme output is published: 172nd Senatorial Election Countback #2.

“The system works”

The count is the first vacancy filled under Threshold Equal Approval since the electorate declined to replace it. The Get alts out of the Senate Amendment, which would have swapped TEA for a closed party-list D’Hondt system, was rejected on 29.82% Aye last week.

Justice Ivy Cactus, watching the output land, offered the verdict: “The system works people.”

Quad was also the account whose posts in Government Announcements prompted questions about channel roles this week. No ticket was issued and no case was filed.