Short Report: Term Extension Poll

The current electoral system on SimDemocracy involves 2-week terms for the Senate and presidency, with elections on alternating weeks. Even without random by-elections, Minecraft Governor elections, and more, there is (at minimum) one election every week, with as many as 40 candidates on the ballot. 

While this level of participation is certainly a sign of a healthy system, many people have expressed concern over voter fatigue and overworking Syndicality, our Elections Supervisor. Those fears are not unfounded; the number of voters participating in each election has been steadily decreasing and Syndicality has begun looking for help, especially after the 135th Senate had two by-elections in just as many days after the main election.

Many have also complained about the constant campaigning necessary in the current system which leads to users being inundated with ads.

To remedy those issues, some have suggestions extending the terms for those positions from 2 weeks to 4, putting us on a 2-week alternating schedule that allows for more time to set up ballots and some downtime from campaigning.

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To see how popular such a system would be, we administered a sponsored poll that separately asked respondents whether they would support a 4-week term for the presidency and Senate.

The results were surprising; while support for extending the presidential term was nearly equal to opposition to the plan, a slight majority of respondents (52.8%) are against the extension. 

in contrast, the public is somewhat more against extending senators' terms to 4 weeks, with 59% of respondents expressing opposition.

Both results show that SimDem is pretty neatly divided on the issue of extending these terms and it may come down to campaigning for either side to tip the scales.