On Mon, 2026-04-06 at 17:10 +0100, Katherina Walshe-Grey via agora-
official wrote:
> Janet wrote:
> > I CFJ, barring 4st: "4st's valid ballot on the referendum on
> > Proposal 9261 is to be counted as PRESENT."
> 
> This is CFJ 4132. I assign it to ais523.
> 
> Original CFJ and caller's arguments:
> https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-business/2025-November/054973.html
> https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/agora-business/2025-November/054974.html

I judge CFJ 4132 TRUE.

The rules about future conditionals are clear, so this just seems to be
a matter of wording: should "Endorse the Assessor if it is resolved
after 9269, otherwise PRESENT if it is resolved after 9268, otherwise
AGAINST." (in a context where "it" clearly refers to "the referendum on
proposal 9261") be interpreted, when evaluated at a time when the
referendum on 9261 is not currently being resolved, as "if the
referendum on 9261 *will be* resolved after 9269 [...]" or as "if the
referendum on 9261 *has been* resolved after 9269 [...]"?

In this case, we can't rely on the intended meaning of the vote because
it was clearly intended to be evaluated at the time when the referendum
on 9261 was being resolved, but that's not the time at which the rules
actually evaluate it.

To me, the "will be" meaning is clearer. The word "is" in English, when
referring to an action, normally refers to either an action that is
currently occurring or will happen in the future; although "will be"
can be used to talk about a future action, it is not necessary
(sentences like "I'm submitting a report tomorrow" are perfectly
grammatical), whereas "was" or "has been" is generally grammatically
necessary except when the context establishes a reference point in the
past (sentences like "I'm submitting a report yesterday" are
ungrammatical). It is possible for "is" to refer to a state, e.g.
"ais523 is active", and being "resolved" could plausibly be a state of
a proposal; but this interpretation would be inconsistent with the use
of "after" (that wording would look like "Endorse the Assessor if it
*became* resolved after 9269 [...]").

As such, I don't think "this is talking about past events" is a viable
interpretation; the only two viable options are "this is a future
conditional and was intended to be" and "this is too ambiguous to be
able to resonably determine a truth value from it". Either would
evaluate to PRESENT, and as such the CFJ statement is TRUE.

-- 
ais523
Judge, CFJ 4132

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