Office of Elections

Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down one of its first major decisions of this term, striking down Arizona’s measure requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration....

to ensure Democrats are elected at the primary stage by ONLY their fellow Democrats....

The GAO’s 2010 report concludes that the benefits supposedly derived from taxpayer financed campaigns do not occur...

The Democratic Party of Hawaii will file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to seek an injunction against the state of Hawaii over its primary election laws....

UPDATE: SB286 Approved with Amendments Thursday March 14, House Committee on Judiciary...

• Texas – 50.1%
• Oklahoma – 49.6%
• West Virginia – 46.8%
• Hawaii – 44.1%

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Shelby County (AL) v. Holder, the case raising the question of Section 5’s constitutionality....

We are testifying in strong support of S.B. 286, which amends Hawaii Revised Statutes § 25-2 to define “permanent resident” for purposes of state reapportionment and redistricting as any person counted as a “usual resident” of Hawaii by the U.S. Census....

Defines "permanent resident" for legislative reapportionment as any individual counted as a usual resident in the last preceding U.S. census within the State of Hawaii....

It certainly is heartwarming that Desiline Victor, the 102-year-old voter whom President Obama recognized in his State of the Union speech, continues to vote and take part in our democratic process....

...cases of voting fraud are more likely to be through absentee ballots, The New York Times reported last fall, citing comment from some election officials. Compared to in-person voting, an absentee ballot also is more likely to be rejected....

...Colleen Hanabusa underperformed Obama by the most of any incumbent in the nation....

Highest rate of nonvoting due to registration or absentee ballot problems: Hawaii was the only state with an increase in the rate of registration and absentee voting problems of more than 1 percent between 2008-2010.

Attention Hawaii: Can this 'hybrid model' be trusted with Vote-by-Mail?

What would happen if voting by mail became compulsory? ... We answer that question in this paper....

The case involved a challenge to the charter's requirement that a candidate for public office be a resident of the district in which she intends to run for at least 90 days ....

The lawsuit claims the methodology and rules that were adopted and used did not comply with proper rulemaking....

Was Cronin sabotaged by Yoshina and Nago’s cronies in order to make way for Nago? In retrospect, the campaign against Cronin bears all the hallmarks of the campaign against Jamae Kawauchi.

Full Printout...GOP Legislative Caucus to be 1-S, 7-H

"We are not going to volunteer as long as (fired elections workers) are not reinstated or treated fairly...." -- April 18, 2012

How far will Nago go for Dwayne Yoshina's girlfriend?

Akaka’s lawsuit seeks a recount of the ballots cast, or alternatively a re-run of the primary election for her district.

... elections require the cooperation of the state and the counties working together and not pointing fingers at each other ....

...there's significant evidence that there was a different dynamic going on, and one that didn't follow the sort of liberal/conservative dimension that we tend to focus on....

Will bureaucrats undermine public confidence in elections 'for a good time'? Read on ....

...strange results with RCV such as "Raising a candidate's rank on one's ballot does not always increase that candidate's chance of winning and in fact may decrease a candidate's chance to win"

Driving the compact is the memory of the 2000 presidential election, in which George W. Bush won the slimmest of electoral-vote majorities even though Al Gore gained a plurality of popular votes. But that election itself suggests a fatal flaw in the proposal....

Today, the Honolulu City Council unanimously adopted Resolution 11-116 which urges the Hawaii State Legislature to defer action on House Bill No. 638, HD1 SD1 which would force the City & County of Honolulu along with the County of Hawaii to implement a new type of voting procedure during special elections called ‘instant runoff voting’ or ‘ranked choice voting’

"I'm not sure I would want to be in first place going into the election" 

It is my understanding that there is a move in Honolulu to introduce IRV/RCV (ranked choice voting). I would suggest the Council not adopt IRV elections as it does not have the results intended. It will not result in a majority victor. There are many problems with ranked choice voting. At one time, I was a supporter of ranked choice voting but no more.

I was born and raised on the Island and still have many relatives on the Island. As someone from Honolulu, I would not want to subject them to instant runoff voting.

Last week Hawai`i Free Press took a look at the experience of Burlington, VT voters who eventually voted to repeal Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).  Today we are sharing a voting analysis by investigative reporter Lance Williams of CaliforniaWatch who evaluates a 21-candidate San Francisco Supervisorial election very similar to the one won by Tom Berg. 

Because voters in the Dec 29 special election for Honolulu County Council Dist 1 elected a Republican, Tom Berg; the billion dollar Progressives at Civil Beat have concluded that the system of elections must be changed, “to prevent such an election in the future.”

“People of House District 28th should know who the ‘residents’ filing these petty complaints are.  Lynne Matusow is an Oahu County Democratic Party official who has developed a habit of filing complaints against Mr. Chang to distract the campaign away from Karl Rhoads’ record of raising taxes and hurting small business.  Anthony Chang is a former staffer at the Democratic Party who was paid to do one of the dirtiest jobs in politics-- follow opposing candidates around with a video camera.  These people are not concerned residents and this is not an honest complaint.

Hawaii Democratic convention delegates meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village May 29 approved a resolution calling for closed Democratic primaries.

Hawaii State law now mandates that political parties’ primaries be open to any voter who wishes to participate.  But many Progressive Democrats feel that their ideological soul mates are having a tough time winning Democratic Primary races due to voting by non-Democrats.

Any move away from Hawaii’s current open primary system would require party line registration, causing tens of thousands of new voters to become enrolled members of both Democratic and Republican parties. 

Nago told our interviewer he was unable to provide an estimate of how many ballots have been received by his office so far.  But in a separate story today, KHON reported: "According to the office of elections, fewer than one fifth of the ballots have been sent back in by voters.  Just 60,000 so far out of the 317,000 issued."

...VBM concerns have been heightened by a number of disputed elections and documented cases of absentee ballot fraud....

After years of pretending to be concerned about Hawaii's worst-in-the-nation voter participation, today the Honolulu Star-Bulletin has shown its true colors.

In an editorial titled "Religion risky for GOP", SB editors condemn a church-based statewide voter registration drive.  They complain bitterly that, "...the goal is to convince 80 percent of Christian churchgoers to register to vote and then persuade 80 percent of those who register to vote...."

This contrasts sharply with the Star-Bulletin July 21, 2009 which cried, "Hawaii dead last in voter turnout." 

Hawaii County Republicans, meeting Saturday at Waimea have proposed changes to the way that State Republicans select their candidates.  The proposals are contained in two resolutions adopted unanimously by the 50 delegates present after extensive discussion.  One calls for a shift to a Presidential Caucus System for Hawaii Republicans who now select their Presidential delegates at the State Party convention.  The other resolution urges the State Convention vote to shift Republicans from an Open Primary system to a Modified-Closed Primary System and then file a federal suit against the State to overturn provisions of the Hawaii State Constitution which require the open primary system.

This background file includes news articles, and letters to the editor by leading Democrats, regarding a possible shift to a closed primary system.  Also included US Supreme Court rulings on two relevant cases.