Primary Assembly
The Primary Assembly is a legislative body under the Illuminatian government's Ultrabureau of the Legislative (UBL). The Primary Assembly is the lower legislative body of the legislative ultrabureau's tricameral legislature. The other continent-wide legislative houses include the Ancillary Assembly—the upper house relative to the Primary Assembly, and the Paramount Assembly—which is parallel to the other two houses. Additionally, specific municipalities are represented by Tertiary assemblies.
The Illuminatian Primary Assembly is composed of representatives who are democratically elected by a direct popular vote from geographically-defined electoral districts, very similar to most representative legislative bodies of early Earth. The Primary Assembly has multimember districts, with voters electing three members per representative district using ranked choice voting.
The multimember nature of electoral districts for the Primary Assembly allows for a highly proportional and balanced representation of constituents by a diverse roster of political candidates and elected representatives. The result is a more representative, less polarized legislative body compared to many of the historical political systems of Earth. Generally, this system provides for representation by multiple political parties in each geographic Primary Assembly district. Representatives are free to express support for multiple major and minor political parties, and the political parties as a result can afford to be less polarized toward extreme political viewpoints and less antagonistic toward one another.
The Primary Assembly is the largest of the three legislative bodies based on membership and is one of two bodies of the legislature in which the majority of members are accountable to a constituency from a defined local geographic area.
All Primary Assembly electoral districts in Illuminatia represent an equal number of constituents. Each district is centered on a primary population center, with the outer boundaries of the districts in sparsely-populated areas varying slightly from election to election based on new projected population numbers provided by the Office of Demography. Automated processes for defining district boundaries prioritize the numerical equity of district populations to guarantee equal representation and also prioritize the geographic compactness of the electoral district to ensure an absence of gerrymandering. Thanks to the intelligent nature of the Polling and Balloting Network, electoral districts can be defined with granular borders precise to the individual constituent level. Locations where the selection of electoral district boundaries might form irregularly-shaped borders are handled, when necessary, with randomizing algorithms, which place individuals in adjacent electoral districts on an even and uniform basis. The general geographic shape of most Primary Assembly electoral districts tend to resemble circles or hexagons.
Primary Assembly representatives, like all elected representatives in the Illuminatian government, are unpaid. They receive no salary for their role as representatives. However, they do receive full reimbursement for expenses incurred in the representation of their constituencies—including travel to Voston—as well as communication expenses.
Legislative process
- See article: Legislative process
Illuminatia's Primary Assembly is one of two possible entry points for legislation into the Ultrabureau of the Legislative's (UBL's) lawmaking process. The other legislative house through which legislation may originate is the Paramount Assembly. Legislation proposed by the Primary Assembly must be approved there by a majority vote or other agreed-upon level of majority before being passed on to the Ancillary Assembly—the upper house of the UBL.
Alternatively, legislation can be introduced in and passed unilaterally in the Paramount Assembly without approval of either the Primary or Ancillary assemblies, but only with a supermajority vote in Paramount Assembly exceeding 75%. Failing that, legislation may also pass from the Paramount Assembly with a lesser majority or plurality vote, but can only be approved with a supermajority vote in either the Primary or Ancillary assemblies.
After final approval by the legislative bodies of the UBL using any of the aforementioned channels, accepted legislation is traditionally forwarded to the Ultrabureau of the Executive (UBE) for final approval by Illuminatia's chief executive(s). Legislation approved via the appropriate UBL legislative processes but rejected by the Executive can instead be overcome with approval, jointly, in both the Ultrabureau of the Judiciary and the Ultrabureau of Control. This legislative process elegantly illustrates the effectiveness of both a tricameral legislature as well as the checks and balances afforded by a four-branch government.