Public Address | Cafe | Legal Beagle: Pandemic Preparedness and the New Zealand general election

Neil

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 19:10:15 +1300

Why I mention this is with acute mental inpatient settings there is no way social distancing can be enforced, let alone effective infection isolation. If someone is positive then it will spread very quickly to patients, who often have physical issues, and staff who go back home after work.

That…

Neil

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 11:00:42 +1300

Acute mental inpatient units currently have no credible plans for isolating Covid19 positive patients.

Unless this is sorted out very quickly inpatient units will act as sources of cross infection.

There’s been some discussion of mental heath issues but overlooked are the most acutely unwell and vulnerable.

Staff of these…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 10:31:06 +1300

Like you, I'd assume the Transport agency (in partnership with the Health dept)
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/commercial-driving/taxis-shuttles-buses-and-other-passenger-services/running-a-passenger-service/
But they seem to have closed down – the link goes here:
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/about-us/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-services-update/
which says on-line services are still viable

Other online services remain available.
Transport Agency 'Contact us' page
Due to the COVID-19 alert level…

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 11:41:12 +1300

Why is a supposedly impartial chief political reporter like Jessica Mutch-Mckay politicising her ‘live interview’ with the PM?
see:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/one-news-at-6pm/episodes/s2020-e77
at 12:38 she starts by saying the package has been criticised (after coverage of people saying it was good) and then ends by saying people criticise that it wasn’t fast…

Andrew Geddis

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:22:19 +1300

There won't be a "snap" election (i.e. one held before Sept 19) – that would bring the election date forward into the period when Covid-19 is most likely to be here. If anything, there will be a delay to the election date, which Ardern would negotiate with Bridges and others…

Andrew Geddis

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:19:50 +1300

You are misinformed, and appear to be mixing up the Senate with the House. 1/3rd of the Senate is elected every 2 years. But the entire House is elected every two years. See here: https://ballotpedia.org/California%27s_12th_Congressional_District_election,_2020

Michael Homer

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 21:58:23 +1300

The entire House is up for election every two years; a third of the Senate is up for election every two years. Nothing is half-each-time. She’s out as described.

Chuck Grassley, the President pro Tempore of the Senate, is still there until 2022 and would act as president in this…

simon g

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 19:04:37 +1300

Thanks Graeme (and Andrew).

Going in the opposite direction, it would seem less likely now that the PM would call a snap election. I'm sure she has no plans to, but things can change ... NZF could unravel, Shane Jones could push his luck too far, etc.

But all kinds…

Moz

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 18:54:38 +1300

Pelosi’s term will have ended 17 days before Trump’s

I am informed that Pelosi is not up for election this year, they do that half-each-time thing. So she'll still be in place.

Moz

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 15:04:29 +1300

The current system seems vulnerable to denial of service attacks/ballot stuffing, and a credential leak or hack would be a disaster. If we ran the whole election that way the temptation for someone to do the latter would increase significantly... the saving thing right now is that hardly anyone uses…

Jarno van der Linden

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 14:23:17 +1300

As off-by-one errors are part of my profession, how does the three year term deal with leap years? Is it just a matter of adding three to the year? Could a someone mischievous make the 29th of February in a leap year as the date of return of the writ?…

Michael Homer

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 13:46:29 +1300

Presumably there will still be a President pro Tempore of the Senate next in line, whose term will not have expired (but who isn't Nancy Pelosi and is 87 years old, though they could elect someone else in the gap).

Andrew Geddis

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 13:36:10 +1300

Depends what we mean by"electronic voting". If it's the sort currently used for overseas voters – download a ballot, print it, fill it out, scan it back in and send electronically to the Electoral Commission – then there's no real security concerns (or, none that are any greater than the…

Andrew Geddis

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 13:33:11 +1300

This is broadly true, but for the bit about the presidency devolving to Nancy Pelosi on 20 January.

Because, the Constitution also says that:
Art 1: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States", and
Art 20: "The…

Moz

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 12:30:46 +1300

IMO widespread electronic voting could only reasonably produce a caretaker government just because it's so grossly insecure that even a landslide win wouldn't be convincing evidence of the intention of the voters. You might as well use a telephone poll of 100 voters per electorate and save the theatrics.

Moz

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 12:25:28 +1300

Trump tries postponing this year’s elections

That would require a bill passed by both houses and signed by the president (and almost definitely also requiring the assent of their supreme court just because someone is bound to sue).

The US Constitution says the terms of the President and Vice President…

Ian Dalziel

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 11:31:43 +1300

Andrew Geddis

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 08:29:08 +1300

“Yes, there are rules (also updated last week) about what to do if there is an ‘unforeseen or unavoidable disruption’ to an election. They’re mostly designed to deal with short-term, or localised disruptions (think earthquake or particularly bad weather), and only once an election has been called, but they could…

Public Address

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 08:29:08 +1300

Discussion from blog post.