Letters | 10-1-14

Hawaii’s government will change only with attrition

Hawaii’s government will change only with attrition

The Sept. 27 letter from Frank Dickinson, “Hawaii voters need to wake up,” is the dilemma many of us wonder about when we get the same old boys back in office and hear the same old complaints from the voters.

My reply — stated here in West Hawaii Today often — is it’s the old plantation attitude of “my father voted so and so, and his father voted so and so …” ad nauseam. The only way it’s going to change, I’m sorry to say, is through attrition.

Spot on, Frank. I hope you and I live long enough to see a real change for the better.

Dennis Lawson

Kalaoa

Use voter registration records to verify exemption entitlement

I agree with Margaret Wille’s position questioning the solid waste incinerator plan. That plan is so riddled with problems and so obviously unsuitable for the long term we should all reject it.

What I don’t understand is Ms. Wille’s very pressing need for residents of this island to file taxes here to establish residency and claim exemptions. It seems unfair to seniors and other groups who need those exemptions and have nothing to file at the state level. If you want to expose fraudulent county property tax exemptions, surely there are other ways.

What about voter registration records? I live here. I am registered to vote here. I vote here. By so doing I affirm that I am a resident here. Why isn’t that enough? Why more paperwork and expense and another layer of bureaucracy?

For those who don’t want to vote, as I understand it, you can register and still choose not to vote. But if you did choose to vote and suddenly everyone eligible to vote actually did vote, we might see real democracy in action for the first time. I wonder if our political system would be able to handle that.

What is the problem with using voter registration records?

S. Kaye

Waikoloa