Ballot Master
Ballot Master is an honorary title within the Free Cities Accord that at is base means an "officially appointed individual who may cast my ballot in my absence," something very useful when a sailor or merchant might be away from their home for months at a time. While the title means little by itself, it designates everyone from family heads to some of the most politically powerful individuals in the Accord. No person in the Accord has the job of ballot master, but those maintain the voting power of thousands benefit greatly from the ability to direct politics in the Free Cities according to their own goals.
The complexity of politics in the accord comes from the stipulation that "should a ballot master be themselves unable to attend a vote, they shall appoint their own ballot master to vote in their stead." This creates a pyramid structure of ever increasing power. It is said that the Dreadcaptain is functionally the ballot master of the entire accord.
Appointment
Appointing a personal ballot master only requires nothing more than a statement in writing (and this was enacted only in the last few years to limit corruption). As individual ballot masters amass votes into the thousands, the documents detailing these transactions have become more elaborate and are often marked magically to prevent counterfeiting.
Responsibilities
The ballot master is expected to vote in good faith of those beneath them who do not vote themselves. If a ballot master does not attend a vote, they are expected to give their votes to another ballot master who will be in attendance. In the complex web of ballot masters, appearing at a vote (while legally the right thing) means that one is taking a set of votes away from one's superior ballot master and can have considerable social consequences.
History
The fleets that would one day form the Accord handled important matters as follows: each sailor aboard a ship would have an equal vote in matters pertaining to the ship. These votes were passed to the captain who directed the ship. In cases of multiple ships attempting to reach an agreement, each of the ship's captains would vote. The traditional report of voting was as follows: "I Captain (name), of the (ship), cast the (number) votes of my crew for (option)." Thus each ship in the fleet would have a say, which the largest ship having the largest say. This system forms the basis of political decision in the Accord.
Two important changes were made to the system with the transition to a land based government. First, each fleet would designate a ballot master to remain in Dreadmouth and vote while the ships were at sea. Second, as voting by sheer population would not generally favor the ships, land based organizations were given their own representative ballot masters. What followed naturally, was a complex political hierarchy where a ballot master would secure the official power to vote in the absence of various smaller ballot masters and creating a pyramidal structure of representative democracy.
As the Accord was an ever growing organization recruiting additional members for its own survival, the tradition quickly became that the person who recruited a voting body to the accord became ballot master for their votes. Therefore, the two methods for a ballot master to increase their relative power are to recruit new member to the Accord or to amass sufficient votes to be able to out vote, and thus draw lesser ballot masters away from their rivals. This complex political dance generally occupies the ballot master's time fully, and, typically, avoids outright violence.
Type
Civic, Honorific
Source of Authority
Personal appointment
Related Organizations
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