Posted on 10/03/2002 6:53:45 PM PDT by Spyder
By Richard Borreca and Craig T. Gima
rborreca@starbulletin.com cgima@starbulletin.com
In an effort to save the estimated $2 million needed for a special election to fill out Rep. Patsy Mink's term, Gov. Ben Cayetano is asking Attorney General Earl Anzai to seek the state Supreme Court's approval to allow the election to be held the same time as the Nov. 5 general election.
However, Cayetano said this morning that it would be difficult to get the court to change a state law.
"The law is against us, but we are asking the court's help in arriving at an equitable solution," he said.
The Governor's actions, however, caught Dwayne Yoshina, chief elections officer, by surprise. Yoshina said this morning that he hadn't heard about the proposed time change.
University of Hawaii constitutional law professor Jon Van Dyke said he believes the state Supreme Court has the power to interpret election law.
He cited the ruling yesterday by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which allows Democrats to put a new name on the ballot for the U. S. Senate even though the deadline to change the ballot had passed.
While New Jersey and Hawaii have different state laws, Van Dyke believes the situations are similar. But the state Supreme Court has to be willing to take up the case, and the ballots need to be printed in time, Van Dyke said.
The state law covering the special election to fill a vacancy for a United States Representative requires a 60-day notice. But it also contains the phrase, "The special election shall be conducted and the results ascertained so far as practicable," which may allow the special election to be held earlier, Van Dyke said.
Meanwhile, state officials are still trying to figure out who can vote in the special election.
Mink was elected two years ago, before district lines were redrawn because of the 2000 census and reapportionment. Since then, parts of her old district, mostly in Waipahu and Mililani Mauka, were put into the congressional district now represented by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.
Mink's 2nd Congressional District covers the neighbor islands and rural Oahu.
The question before state officials is whether they have to use the district lines from the 2000 election or whether they can use the current precincts and voter lists for the Nov. 30 special election.
Yoshina has asked for an opinion from the attorney general. He favors using the post-reapportionment voter rolls because he says they would more accurately reflect the population because the old district will have to be reconstructed on election computers, and because it will be less confusing.
If the state has to use the old district lines, it sets up an awkward situation in which some voters will be able to cast ballots in the special election but will not be able to vote in the district in the Nov. 5 general election or in a Jan. 4 special election, if necessary.
The pre-reapportionment computer records were reprogrammed to reflect current voting lists, so the old district lines would have to be reconstructed, said Glen Takahashi, election administrator for Honolulu. New precincts were created and precinct lines redrawn, he said.
Reconstructing the old district will be "challenging," Yoshina said.
"It's like when the milk is spilled on the table. You can't always get it back," Takahashi said.
Van Dyke believes it should be OK to use the current election lists.
"If the voting population has shifted, I would think you would use the new borders," he said.
Three people have filed papers to run in the Nov. 30 special election: former City Councilman Kekoa Kaapu, Arturo Reyes and Charles Collins.
For what it's worth, I think the idea of a special election at the end of November just to fill her seat until the special, special election in January or whenever they hold it is ridiculous anyway.
We said the same thing before the NJ mess. The after-effects of the NJ decision have already started rippling. I will not be least surprised in the HI courts don't ignore the law as well. Who's to stop them?
Perhaps the governor should invest in a phone call to the SCONJ. They'll tell him how to do it.
The problem I see is the ramifications of the NJ decision - heck, if their election laws can be put aside, then the RATS will try it everywhere. In this case it does seem to make sense but the slippery slope is being slid down pretty quickly just a few days after NJ startedit.
He cited the ruling yesterday by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which allows Democrats to put a new name on the ballot for the U. S. Senate even though the deadline to change the ballot had passed.
And so it begins. SCONJ MUST be reversed as it sets PRECEDENT for every judiciary in the nation to rewrite election law.
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