Setting the record straight

[EightFingers]

I thought about that too. If Hawaiians were "tricked" or somehow kept from voting obviously that would not be fair.
Anyway to find out if something like that went on back then?

[Guest]

LOL, man I want to go look. but my hot water for the day getting cold and I have to do some actual work.

Hope we turn things around percentage wise in November.

[Midnight Rambler]

The overthrow and annexation were obviously overwhelmingly opposed by Hawaiians, but once it became clear that things weren't going back, many of them backed statehood as the only hope of having a voice. The territorial government continued the oligarchic system where the Big Five ran the islands.

[leilanidude]

"Out of a total population of 600,000 in the islands and 155,000 registered voters, 140,000 votes were cast, the highest turnout ever in Hawaii. The vote showed approval rates of at least 93% by voters on all major islands (see adjacent figure for details). Of the approximately 140,000 votes cast, fewer than 8,000 rejected the Admission Act of 1959.
------
600,000 total pop, how many under voting age? How many ineligible to vote? Sounds like a really high rate of voting and actual approval, in this case.

[Lee M-S]

I recently saw a movie about the time of annexation, "Princess Kaiulani," which said that she negotiated voting rights for all Hawaiian males, at a time when only white males had the vote in America. The movie also said that Hawaiians at the time had a much higher literacy rate than America. Princess Kaiulani died in 1899.



><(((*< ... ><(("< ... ><('< ... >o>

[Eric1600]

Usually when people feel strongly about something they will register and vote.

The numbers show:

* 25.8% voted
* 90.3% registered voters voted
* 94.3% approved

By any accounting this was wildly popular. The only lingering question would be why 74.2% didn't bother to register.

[leilanidude]

The only lingering question would be why 74.2% didn't bother to register.
--
Because you are using the figures wrong. If the total population was 600,000, many of those were children, so they couldn't register to vote, let alone actually vote.

[Eric1600]

quote:

---

Originally posted by leilanidude

The only lingering question would be why 74.2% didn't bother to register.
--
Because you are using the figures wrong. If the total population was 600,000, many of those were children, so they couldn't register to vote, let alone actually vote.

---

I'm not using it wrong. There's no data available to break it down further.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

If the total population was 600,000, many of those were children, so they couldn't register to vote, let alone actually vote.

We can estimate that about 1/3 of the population were children, some additional visitors were military and not residents, as well as others ineligible to vote for various reasons.

140,000 voted
200,000+ couldn't vote (children, etc)
Let's conservatively estimate a total of 200,000 couldn't vote. Of the remaining 260,000 potential voters, if every one of them registered and voted (unlikely) 200,000 of those 260,000 votes would have to be against statehood in order to charge the outcome of the election.

That's a lot of ifs to prove a conspiracy prevented Native Hawaiians from taking part in a fair election. Yes, it's possible, but so is getting hit by lightning at the same moment you're bit by a shark.

- Be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. - Work slowly. - Refer all matters to committees for "further study and consideration. - Hold conferences. - Make travel as inconvenient as possible. - Haggle over precise wordings of communications. - Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and avoid haste. (Excerpts from the WWII OSS Simple Sabotage Manual)

[randomq]

The Hawaiian Kingdom had voting at least back to the mid-1800's. The Hawaiian people were some of the most literate and educated in the world. The notion that they were 'tricked' or didn't understand voting is insulting.

Of course, so is the idea that the 30-50% of eligible citizens voting didn't statistically represent the rest, or that their votes counted less because of their race.