09-21-2008, 07:31 AM
The elections are one area I haven't assimilated to Hawai'i. Holding major elections on Saturday is still foreign to me. I can see how this might have started, say in the plantation days there was no way the plantations would stop work on Tuesday so people could vote. (I am making this up, I don't know why elections are on Saturday.)
Anyhow, I have missed every Saturday election because I'm still programmed to think of Tuesdays as election days. My bad.
I do have a complaint about the approach to voter registration here, only to make it I have to pull out the dreaded "in California they do it this way" phrase. Sorry, I try not to do that. But in California I could not go grocery shopping in an election year without seeing someone outside with a registration table. Here, I have not seen one. I was looking because I moved and need to change my address.
I think there should be more energy put into registration stations, and less into standing by the road holding up signs. I am not going to vote for someone because of sign waving, just not going to do it. Instead, have someone man a table and give out information.
And hold elections on Tuesday with people guaranteed time off to go vote, not on Saturday when people are having BBQ's, beach, golf, mowing the lawn and doing chores, and let's not forget the County Fair.
*off soapbox*
Anyhow, I have missed every Saturday election because I'm still programmed to think of Tuesdays as election days. My bad.
I do have a complaint about the approach to voter registration here, only to make it I have to pull out the dreaded "in California they do it this way" phrase. Sorry, I try not to do that. But in California I could not go grocery shopping in an election year without seeing someone outside with a registration table. Here, I have not seen one. I was looking because I moved and need to change my address.
I think there should be more energy put into registration stations, and less into standing by the road holding up signs. I am not going to vote for someone because of sign waving, just not going to do it. Instead, have someone man a table and give out information.
And hold elections on Tuesday with people guaranteed time off to go vote, not on Saturday when people are having BBQ's, beach, golf, mowing the lawn and doing chores, and let's not forget the County Fair.
*off soapbox*