Absentee ballots for Kalaupapa taken out of bill

The Maui News
Thursday, April 22, 2004

By VALERIE MONSON, Staff Writer

HONOLULU - In one of the more bizarre twists at the state Legislature, a Senate bill that would have made absentee voting easier for the elderly residents of Kalaupapa was gutted by the House Judiciary Committee and replaced with language that would call for the election of the attorney general and insurance commissioner.

Rep. Sol Kaho'ohalahala and Sen. J. Kalani English, who introduced the original measures in their respective chambers, were shocked to see the reworked bill, which was opposed by the full Senate last week. A conference committee will be held today at 2 p.m. in Room 325 of the State Capitol where English hopes the language will be restored to what was first proposed.

"We're going to hold firm and not accept the House version," said English. "The people at Kalaupapa were very upset when we told them what had happened. They feel very slighted."

The radical change is permitted because the title of the bill was a rather broad "relating to voting." That means that any legislation which has anything to do with elections can be inserted into the measure and the intent of the introduced bill scrapped.

A similar change was made to a Senate bill to regulate transportation of military ordnance on Oahu, which was revised by a House committee last month to provide for counties to install traffic cameras to issue citations for speeding and red light violations.

English said that he and Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, chairwoman of the Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee that passed the original measure, will meet with a select group of the House Judiciary Committee which tore the bill apart.

English said he and Hanabusa will not only ask that the Kalaupapa voting procedures be restored, but that the request for constitutional amendments to elect the attorney general and insurance commissioner be deleted.

"I want this bill to go back to its original language," said English. "It's going to be a 'take it or leave it proposition.' "

The bill by Kaho'ohalahala came in response to requests from the Kalaupapa community because of their unique situation. Most of the longtime residents were sent to the peninsula decades ago as young people when they were diagnosed with leprosy and no new patients have been admitted since 1973. Now elderly and fewer in numbers, the community no longer has the manpower to maintain a precinct, but still has an intense interest in voting.

Two elections ago, the precinct was dismantled and residents were allowed to cast mail-in absentee votes after they applied for them. The new law would have mandated that the Maui County Clerk automatically send absentee ballots to all registered voters for each election without residents needing to apply.

Last December, the community voiced their support for permanent legislation on the absentee ballot matter in a meeting with Kaho'ohalahala, state Chief Elections Officer Dwayne Yoshina and Diane Wakamatsu, then deputy Maui County clerk.

Gloria Marks, president of the Kalaupapa Patients Advisory Council, said residents were astonished last week when they heard what had happened.

"Absentee voting in Kalaupapa and electing the attorney general are two completely different subjects," said Marks. "They aren't even close at all. We're kind of confused ourselves."

Kaho'ohalahala was in a meeting and not available for comment.

Yoshina said even if the original language is not restored, absentee voting at Kalaupapa will continue just as residents want.

"In any case, we're going to take care of the residents of Kalaupapa," said Yoshina. "We will do it just as we have done it in the past. We'll send applications and all the necessary information. The significant part of the bill is that Representative Kaho'ohalahala wanted to make it easier for the residents by making absentee ballots permanent."

Yoshina said his office and the Maui County Clerk's Office testified in support of the original bill.

English said he was particularly surprised about the switch calling for the election of the attorney general because Hanabusa usually introduces such a bill which always dies in the House.

A separate House bill that supported the election of the attorney general was heard earlier this session, but the Judiciary Committee recommended two weeks ago that the measure be "held," which tabled it for the rest of the term. On the same day, the committee gutted English's bill relating to Kalaupapa and inserted the contents of the attorney general bill that had been held. Members also included an amendment to elect the insurance commissioner.

From then on, the measure has had mixed success even in the House. When it passed third reading by just 30-21 last week, nearly all of Maui's delegation voted against it. Only Rep. Bob Nakasone supported the new language with Kaho'ohalahala, Brian Blundell, Kika Bukoski, Chris Halford and Joe Souki all opposed.

Rep. Eric Hamakawa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, could not be reached.

English said even if the House agreed to restore the section about voting in Kalaupapa, he would still object to the bill's calling for the election of the attorney general and insurance commissioner through a constitutional amendment.

"That should go by the wayside," said English of the new contents. "If we were going to do something that drastic, we need another vehicle."

Valerie Monson can be reached at vmonson@mauinews.com.

Copyright © 2003 — The Maui News

Return to Sen. English Home Page - KalaniEnglish.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home Bills and Resolutions About Senator English Committees Community Profiles Newsletter Archive News Archive Capitol Web Site Media Photos

Connect with Senator English

OUR DISTRICT