Thursday, November 12, 2009

Rules for Realistic Balance Party of Middletown, CT

1. The Voting Membership of the Realistic Balance Party includes electors of the City of Middletown who are members of either the Realistic Balance Party or of the Connecticut For Lieberman Party, and who have not been a member of a major party in the ninety days prior to the date of a given caucus, signing of a petition, or request for email notification .
1.1 Amendments to section 1 require a two-thirds majority of the current Voting Membership, either by petition or at a caucus called under the rules below.
1.2 The Voting Membership of the Realistic Balance Party shall also include anyone who has previously appeared on a ballot on the Realistic Balance Party line.(amended 6/10/10)
1.3 The members of any party providing voting privileges to the voting members of the Realistic Balance Party shall receive, in return, full voting privileges in the Realistic Balance Party for those members who are also electors of the City of Middletown. (amended 6/10/10)
1.4) Members of the Independent Party of Connecticut are granted full voting privileges in the Realistic Balance Party for those members who are also electors of the City of Middletown. (Amended 5/30/11)
1.5) Absentee ballots shall be signed by the absent party elector and signed by another party elector who must attend any caucus at which such ballot is to be cast.(Amended 10/2/2013)
2. Meetings for the purpose of electing officers, amending rules, or nominating candidates shall be preceded by thirty days notice on the official Realistic Balance website (RealisticBalance.blogspot.com), except in the case where a vacancy occurs less than thirty days prior to September 20th.
2.1 Electors in the Voting Membership may request to be placed on an email list that will coincide with the notice placed on the party website.
2.2 Meetings shall be open to the public.
2.3 A minimum of one meeting shall convene each calendar year, not to occur later than Labor Day.
2.4 Meetings can be called by the Chairman of the Party.
2.5 Meetings can be called by a petition of a majority of the voting membership submitted to the Secretary of the Party.

3. The officer of Chairman shall be elected to a two year term.
3.1 The chairman will convene caucuses for party business.
3.2 The chairman will appoint a temporary chairman and temporary secretary to preside over party meetings.
3.3 The chairman will co-sign, along with the secretary, applications for petitioning candidates wishing to run on the party line.

4. The officer of Secretary will be elected to a two year term.
4.1 The Secretary will guarantee the proper communication of party documents to include meeting notices, election of officers, rule changes, and nomination of candidates.
4.2 The secretary will co-sign, along with the chairman, applications for petitioning candidates wishing to run on the party line.

5. Nominations for public office require the endorsement of candidates at a caucus of the Voting Membership.
5.1 Candidates petitioning onto the party line are required to vacate their space on the line after securing it via petition.
5.2 Vacancies shall be filled by a party caucus on thirty days notice - unless such notice should cause the caucus to occur after September 20th.
5.3 Offices where slates of candidates are elected shall be selected through the competition of ordered lists where the number of candidates selected from such lists shall reflect the proportion of votes for such list, and the top-most entries on a list will be selected if support exists for only a fraction of the list.
5.3.1 An example for rule 5.3 would be the case where there are eight common council members being selected, and two slates are nominated, slate A(R1,R2,R3,R4,R5,R6) and slate B(D1,D2,D3,D4), and slate A receives 60% of the vote and slate B receives 40%. 5 slate A members (R1 to R5) would be nominated and 3 slate B members (D1 to D3) would be nominated.

6. Party Rules can be amended by a two-thirds majority at a caucus.