Lex Vedia de ratione suffragiorum (Nova Roma)

The Lex Vedia de Ratione Suffragiorum is hereby enacted in order to provide guidance to the diribitores and custodes, censors, magister aranearius, and presiding magistrates in the conduct of the voting process used by the comitia centuriata, comitia populi tributa, and comitia plebis tributa.

I. The censors shall issue to each citizen a unique voter identification code. This code shall be used to maintain anonymity in the voting process, and to minimize the possibility of vote fraud. In a timely fashion prior to the a vote, the censors shall make available to the diribitores a list of valid voter identification codes and the centuries and/or tribes with which they are associated. The diribitores shall not have access to the names of the citizens associated with particular voter identification codes.

II. In consultation with the diribitores, the magister aranearius shall make available a

cista, a secure web-based form to allow citizens to vote directly through the official Nova Roma web site. This form shall record the voter identification number and desired vote(s) of the individual, and no other information. The information thus collected will either be forwarded to the diribitores as it is gathered, or at the end of the process, at their discretion. This shall constitute the primary means by which citizens will vote, although alternative methods may be enacted by other legislation as required.

III. The voting procedure shall be as follows.

A. When a vote on a particular subject (whether a new law, election, or legal case) is

either desired or required, the appropriate magistrate (as outlined in the constitution) shall call the comitia to order by issuing an edictum for the purpose. This edictum shall be posted as soon as possible in those public fora officially designated for the purpose, including, but not limited to, the aerarium Saturnii and the official email list. This edictum shall present the matter to be voted upon, the date upon which voting may commence, and the date that voting shall end and the result be announced.

• 1.At least three days must pass between the time the edictum is published and the commencement of voting. During this time, those legally empowered to do so may employ their rights of intercessio or nuntiatio.
• 2.At least two market days must pass between the time the voting commences and the date it ends. The magistrate who called the comitia to a vote may specify the exact length of the voting.

B. Once cast, a vote may not be altered, even with the correct voter identification code.

C. Within 24 hours of the deadline for voting, the diribitores shall tally the votes and shall deliver the results to the magistrate who called the comitia to order and his/her collegial magistrate. Only the aggregate votes of the tribes and/or centuries (as appropriate) shall be delivered; the votes of individual citizens shall be secret. The magistrates shall announce the results of the vote within 24 hours of receipt, at least in the same fora as the initial announcement was made.

[In accordance with the Lex Equitia de Vigintisexviris and praetorian edictum, the titles of rogator and curator araneum have been changed in the text to reflect the new duties of the rogatores, who are now registrars of new citizens working under the direction of the censor, and the new, more correct title of the webmaster, magister aranearius. The diribitores and custodes now share the duties formerly assigned to the rogatores; the diribitores count the votes, and the custodes break ties and certify the elections].

[The title of this law has also been changed from "...de Ratione Eligium," for the sake of correct Latin, for the last of these words does not exist in Latin, whereas "suffagiorum" does exist with the correct meaning].

[Aula Tullia Scholastica, interpres linguae Latinae, scriba praetoris et magistri araneari].