Welcome to Hawai’i’s one-of-a-kind elections

LIHU’E – Hawai’i is the only state in the union where, in some elections,

members of one certain race are allowed to vote and be candidates.

Those

elections – for the board of trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) –

are voted on at-large by Native Hawaiians across the state, though about half

of the seats have certain island residency requirements.

Hawai’i is also

the only state where voters elect a statewide Board of Education.

In

Education Board elections, outer island voters cast ballots for candidates

living on and representing all the outer islands – Kaua’i, Maui and the Big

Island. Often, voters don’t know much if anything about candidates from the

other islands. For instance, in 1998, Kaua’i voters helped put Maui resident

Michael Victorino in a board seat, despite in most cases knowing very little

about him.

Hawaii may also be the only place in the world with “canoe

districts” – legislative House and Senate districts which span more than one

island.

Kaua’i has two such districts -the 6th Senate district, comprising

parts of east Maui and north Kaua’i (with more voters in the Maui portion of

the district), and the House 12th District, also made up of portions of east

Maui and parts of north and east Kaua’i, with more voters in the Kaua’i

portions of the district.

Welcome to the quirky world of Hawai’i

elections.

The OHA elections become even more idiosyncratic this year, as

all registered voters will be allowed to vote for OHA candidates as a result of

a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowing only Native Hawaiians to vote in

OHA elections was unconstitutional.

What had been grassroots, low-key

campaigning largely within one ethnic group during OHA elections every

even-numbered year since 1980 will this year become a statewide free-for-all,

with Native Hawaiian candidates wooing votes from all races all across the

state.

What is known is that four OHA trustees terms are up the day of the

general election Nov. 7: Kaua’i and Ni’ihau Trustee Donald Cataluna, vice

chairwoman and Moloka’i and Lana’i Trustee Collette Y. Pi’ipi’i Machado,

at-large Trustee Haunani Apoliona, and Big Island Trustee Hannah Kihalani

Springer.

Cataluna, appointed to finish the term of the late trustee Rev.

Moses K. Keale, has not indicated whether he will run to fill the seat for a

full, four-year term.

Of the others up for re-election, only Springer has

taken out nomination papers. By contrast, 10 people have taken out papers for

Apoliona’s at-large seat with no island residency requirement, though none have

filed.

The filing deadline for OHA candidates is Sept. 8 for the general

election contests.

Not known is whether all nine trustees will have to seek

re-election as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rice vs.

Cayetano.

Harold “Freddy” Rice is a Big Island rancher. He wanted to vote

in an OHA election but was denied because he has no Native Hawaiian

blood.

He challenged the constitutionality of an election paid for by

public funds which excluded certain segments of registered voters based on

race.

The nation’s highest court ruled in his favor, and now OHA and the

state attorney general have asked the Hawai’i Supreme Court to clarify the

ruling to determine if the nine seated trustees were unconstitutionally

elected, and so should all be made to run for office this year.

The five

other trustees’ terms expire in 2002.

A multi-ethnic group has petitioned

the state Supreme Court to allow not only all registered voters to vote in OHA

elections, but to allow all registered voters to be OHA candidates.

H.

William Burgess, an attorney for the petitioners, maintains all nine trustees

should be made to run for office this year, as the elections in which the OHA

trustees won their seats were illegal as determined in Rice vs.

Cayetano.

Case law holds that the voting right and the right of any

individual to be a candidate are intertwined, Burgess argues.

Burgess also

claims OHA itself may not be constitutional.

“The laws we cite show the

court has an obligation to determine whether measures that establish OHA and

OHA itself pass strict scrutiny and are valid under the constitution of the

United States,” he said.

OHA was formed by the 1978 Constitutional

Convention to manage the assets of a trust set up to benefit Native Hawaiians,

using revenues from land holdings and investments for those benefits. The

trust is estimated to be worth around $380 million.

There are already some

interesting trends developing in races around the state.

In the Education

Board races, four Kaua’ians have taken out papers to run for the island’s seat,

but only two have filed: Incumbent Dr. Mitsugi Nakashima, the board chairman,

and another candidate who has held a board seat before, Sherwood Hara.

On

the Big Island, three people have taken out papers to run for the seat now held

by Herbert S. Watanabe of Hilo, though only the incumbent has filed

papers.

Also on the Big Island, 16 people have taken out papers and seven

have filed to run for mayor. Stephen K. Yamashiro is the incumbent, and he has

yet to take out papers.

To date, some 19 candidates have taken out papers

to seek an O’ahu board seat held by Alexander Brodie. Eight, including Brodie,

have filed papers, making them official candidates.

The deadline to file

papers for the Primary Election is next Tuesday. The primary will be on Sept.

23.

So far, seven people-including incumbent Democratic Sen. Dan Akaka-have

filed papers to run for the one U.S. Senate seat from Hawaii up for grabs this

year.

Three people so far have filed to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep.

Patsy Mink (who has also filed) in the district that includes rural O’ahu and

the outer islands.

Staff writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at

245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net