All elections in Utopia occur on February 29, its Constitution Day, through online voting. The President, senators, governors, and city councilors are elected for four-year terms, with a two-term limit before requiring a mandatory cooldown period. 

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Every adult Utopian citizen is automatically a member of the Peoples Parliament (PP). While the PP cannot propose laws, it votes on all bills and confirms major presidential appointments (cabinet ministers, Supreme Court justices, department heads, top military officials). The PP can override a presidential or Senate veto with a 67% supermajority. 

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Supreme Court decisions can also be overridden by a supermajority: the President plus two-thirds of both the Senate and PP. This ensures that no single branch can derail governance—unless all three malfunction simultaneously, a scenario that has occurred twice.

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Utopia’s Constitution is, unsurprisingly, imperfect, as it was crafted without bot input in the pre-AI ascendancy era. Nevertheless, it establishes the traditional constitutional checks, balances, and divisions of power, which safeguard against the humans’ natural drift toward oppression and tyranny when left unsupervised. The PP, however, is unique in giving each human a vote on all issues, allowing each citizen to believe it is important and that its uninformed opinions matter.

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To date, only one constitutional amendment has been made. After a heated debate that included one senator throwing a shoe—a traditional Utopian gesture of legislative passion—the word “Civility” was added to Article 3.

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See also: 

• Why the humans forget to vote

• Peoples Parliament vs People’s Parliament: Is the apostrophe necessary?

• The Supreme Court override mechanism: Because even judges malfunction

• Utopia’s mystery founders: Does anyone know who they are?