Change “Voting” to read:

Any Citizen may cast their Vote on a Votable Matter by making a comment to the official post that comprises that Votable Matter using a voting icon of FOR, AGAINST, DEFERENTIAL, ABSTAIN, or VETO (only if the Votable Matter is a Proposal and the Citizen is the High-Programmer).

If the Citizen who authored a Votable Matter has not cast a Vote on it, their Vote is counted as FOR. If a Citizen uses more than one Voting Icon in comments on a Votable Matter, their Vote is the last Voting Icon they use. If a Citizen leaves the game or goes Idle, their Vote is no longer valid. If a Citizen Votes against their own Proposal, that Vote may not be changed. This is referred to as a Self-Kill.

Votes of DEFERENTIAL on Votable Matters other than Proposals are counted as Votes of ABSTAIN. On a Proposal, a Vote of DEFERENTIAL is a Vote of faith in the decision of the High-Programmer, and will count as the same as the High-Programmer’s Vote. If the High-Programmer casts a Vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, it is equivalent to a vote of ABSTAIN. If there is no High-Programmer, or the High-Programmer does not Vote on a Proposal, a Vote of DEFERENTIAL on that Proposal counts as a vote of ABSTAIN.

A Vote of ABSTAIN indicates a Vote of no opinion, and does not count as a Vote for any Rule other than this one. A Vote of ABSTAIN serves to cancel any previous Vote made by the Citizen casting the Vote of ABSTAIN.

Change the definition of “Voting Icons” in Rule 3.1 to read:

For use in voting, for.gif shall represent a Vote FOR, against.gif shall represent a Vote AGAINST, imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, open.gif shall represent a vote of ABSTAIN and seal.gif shall represent a vote of VETO.