Don’t blink, you might miss the Hawaii primary election this year.
Don’t blink, you might miss the Hawaii primary election this year.
The election calendar has changed significantly, moving the date from September to Aug. 11, a month popular with many for vacation getaways and out-of-state summer trips. It’s not a time we anticipate for ballot casting. And that may not bode well for voter turnout this year.
Voter turnout is key to establishing a good representative form of government, especially our county government. Yet, while many make a cottage industry of bashing local politicians, the voter turnout has not been great — unless it is a popular presidential election.
Our primary will not decide our president, but it likely will decide some very significant local contests that are nonpartisan, from the mayoral race to many council seats and the county prosecutor. Expect a lot of those county contests to be over in August — unless there is an upset, late-filing spoiler like the oft-rumored and noncommittal former Mayor Harry Kim.
The Hawaii County Charter stipulates “any candidate for mayor, prosecuting attorney, or council receiving a majority of all votes validly cast for candidates for that office, excluding blank and spoiled ballots, shall be deemed elected.”
Two-way races will be sprints this year, including — so far — the mayor’s race. Three way races will likely split the vote, making that 50 percent margin more difficult for candidates to achieve.
Add to this the list of candidates now pending, and you step from a clearly defined set of rules into a fog of confusion.
Candidates, by law, must file for office by 4:30 p.m. June 5. Before that time, there is a wide-open opportunity to pull papers for any number of seats. Witness Rep. Robert Herkes, who, perhaps hedging his bets on the state reapportionment lines, has pulled papers to seek the state 2nd Senatorial District, as well as State House District 5, or former Kona Councilman Kelly Greeenwell, whose selection of State Senatorial District 4 nomination papers is two-fold, one as a Democrat, the other under the Green Party.
According to the state elections office list of applicants, as of May 17, incumbent Billy Kenoi was seeking re-election, but announced challenger Dominic Yagong was absent from the list.
This means many candidates have yet to file nomination papers, not that they are not running, since time remains for filing, a process that entails for county races 15 signatures from residents within the district of the contest, and a filing fee.
Once that June 5 date arrives, it will be a two-month sprint to the primary, or some of these county races, the wire. If you miss the opportunity to vote Aug. 11, likely you miss your chance to vote altogether in these important county contests.
In the 2010 primary elections, there were 100,061 registered voters, yet only 38,999, or 39 percent, cast ballots, fewer than the 41 percent who voted in 2008, or 42 percent turnout in 2006. Declining numbers, regardless how small, are not encouraging and reflect a growing apathy from the electorate. The timing of this year’s primary election promises to skew that number downward, unfortunately.
However, much is at stake in this primary, from the mayor’s office to the makeup of the County Council and the first opportunity to elect a new county prosecutor in decades. It is an important exercise.
The County Council, despite new lines being drawn by the Redistricting Commission in reflection of the latest census figures, will change in character regardless. Yagong, Pete Hoffmann, Brittany Smart and Angel Pilago are gone; that bloc of votes that with Brenda Ford once made up a majority sympathetic to West Hawaii issues and concerns is no more. The Hilo power players, J Yoshimoto, Dennis Onishi and Fred Blas remain, though face the challenge of re-election (as does Ford).
Meanwhile, some candidates from West Hawaii have already noted their desire, should they be elected, to “work with” the East Hawaii council members — an interesting concept, indeed, though not new. However, history and application of that practice have proven it misguided, given the record of former councilman Joe Reynolds, who voted with an East Hawaii majority, golfed and buddied-up with then- Mayor Stephen Yamashiro and left office showing little or no gain for his regional constituents.
Though premature to know who will face whom and what voters should pay keen attention to, it is certain this will be an important election cycle at the primary level for Hawaii County.
Yes, voters will go in larger numbers to vote in the general election as they note their presidential preferences, but if they ignore their primary obligations, important political decisions will be made devoid of their involvement.
Without a vote, they have no voice. Without a voice from voters, politics is a lop-sided affair and things may run off balance — until voters again speak up.
rflickinger@westhawaiitoday.com