ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com
BY NANCY COOK LAUER | WEST HAWAII TODAY
HILO — The Hawaii Supreme Court wants the state Reapportionment Commission to get out of court and get back to work, according to a tersely worded order filed Friday.
The order makes a fourth state senator for Hawaii Island an almost certainty, Reapportionment Commission Chairwoman Victoria Marks told West Hawaii Today on Monday.
Marks said she’s heard people from around the state ask that the commission not change their particular state House or Senate district as the maps are redrawn.
“There are changes in the numbers, so it’s inevitable the lines are going to move,” Marks said.
It’s unlikely the new lines will be drawn by the Feb. 1 beginning of the campaign process, when candidates can pull nomination papers, Marks said. That process continues until 4:30 p.m. June 5.
The commission and the state chief election officer had requested “reconsideration and/or clarification,” following a Jan. 6 opinion telling the commission it must remove nonpermanent military and students before allocating the number of state senators and representatives to each island unit. The court denied the request.
“… it appears that the lack of complete information about the non-permanent status and location of Hawaii’s non-residents is no basis for disregarding the express mandate of the Hawaii Constitution, article IV, section 4, that only permanent residents be counted in the population base for the purpose of reapportionment,” said the order, signed by all five justices.
The ruling followed lawsuits from Sen. Malama Solomon, the Democrat currently representing District 1, members of the Hawaii County Democratic Party and Kailua-Kona attorney Michael Matsukawa, who said he filed on behalf of Big Island residents.
At the same time the Supreme Court told the commission to get to work, it also told the commission it needs to do the best it can with the information it has available.
“(The Jan. 6 opinion) advises the commission that apportionment under Article IV section 6 requires the commission to ‘make an honest and good faith effort to construct districts as nearly of equal population as is practicable. … mathematical exactness or precision (is not a) constitutional requirement,'” the latest order says.
Marks takes that to mean the commission may be able to use computer modeling or estimates if it doesn’t have the full information about how many nonresident military, dependents and students are in each area. The plaintiffs say that number totals 121,494 out of a state population of 1.36 million.
Marks said the military will likely provide new numbers by Thursday, and the University of Hawaii is also trying to determine how any students are not state residents. The commission plans to meet Monday to work on new maps. The maps will then be the focus of two more commission meeting before they’re adopted.
ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com