ACLU Files Election Challenge on Behalf of Puna

[Rob Tucker]

It's like spot zoning or building codes. The county will care when and if it chooses to.

[Tink]

Election fraud will have somebody big take notice, and the Building Department will be quite surprised when they get a grand jury indictment for the way the conduct business similar to the ones they caught on the mainland. Malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance are big no no's to them. Busted up butte counties ole boy network, and quite a few other rural counties. Just a matter of time.

Community begins with Aloha

[pahoated]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mendo
Top challenger Roy Lozano's neighbors in Pohoiki were blocked in on election day, as were the huge numbers of voters in Nanawale, where challenger Madie Green has long been active.

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Because of the timing of the storm, before those two precincts were closed, Ilagan and Lozano were in a runoff, 40% to 27%. Greene and Naole were already out of any runoff. After the delayed votes, Ilagan had 54% and Lozano had 19%. While your claim that Pohoiki and Nanawale would have made a difference, the reality is those precincts have very low voter turnout anyway. Puna does not have a high percentage voter turnout, the total in the district voting for a council member is less than 1,000. This is from a district that is claiming 45,000 population total. Your assumption errs in believing there was some hidden swaying number of voters in the two delayed precincts. Evidence points to this not being the case. Not that Ilagan should have been allowed to breeze through, but the numbers were just not there.


"We come in peace!" - First thing said by missionaries and extraterrestrials

[PauHana]

It is equally if not more likely that Emily would have done better than Ray Lozano except for the storm. She is from that area of Puna and has always done well there relative to other precincts in previous elections. Much of her extended Ohana is from below the tree fall, so if they could have made it up the hill they may well have upset the current assumption about Lozano being # 2 (no pun intended) .

She has been helping a lot of people there for twice as long as Greggor has been alive and twice as long as Ray has been in Hawaii adjusting people. Reguardless of all her supposed faults a lot of people still like her very much.

Finally; Lozano's voters were highly motivated,(see below) so his percentage of supporters voting was much higher than the normal average where only apathy kept people from the polls.

I am especially disgusted by the hypocrisy of their disdain for the rights of voters when they thought the wind was blowing their favor, but which later turned to righteous indignation when the wind changed. (see below)

QUOTE:
Posted - 08/13/2014
"Actually we have a county counselor's race to be decided too, and proponents of one of the candidates has been accosting people who are lined up to take showers at the pool and other aid stations to urge them to vote for their candidate because "Illagan's people can't get out to vote." When it happened to me I thought it was just a one time thing with an over enthusiastic supporter but it has happened to other people as well. I don't know if the candidate knows his supporters are so gleeful over people's misfortune, but it left a really bad taste in my mouth."

Carol

[missydog1]

Great points, PauHana.
I share your disgust that they were quick to push the advantage but then it didn't work out for them so they try to call foul.

Hanabusa also chased a perceived opportunity to get some votes she wouldn't have gotten without Iselle messing things up. I mean, if she had originally been favored to win Puna, then I could see her point in asking for fair process, but she was never favored. Instead she tried to win in the follow up election by courting new votes -- through positioning herself as the champion of the area's voting rights.

I still think that all the voters got shafted by the poor decision.
People unable to vote got shafted.
People who voted as intended with no knowledge of the outcome got shafted when other voters got to decide the race after the tally was published.

No one vote should count more than another in our system. There should not be firm knowledge that your vote is part of a small pool that could cause an upset. There should not be talk of negotiating special favors for the area in return for switching after the tallies are released.

That's why I'm against a revote for all of Puna. First, Puna does not comprise all the voters affected seriously by the storm. Second, that only creates a somewhat larger pool of voters who can form a coalition to negotiate their votes for favors.

Everyone should revote the races that were affected, or no one. Throw out all the prior votes on those races and start over, or let it be. JMHO.

[leilanidude]

I cannot even remember if Hanabusa bothered to come to Puna in the past. My thought was that she only cared when it was really going to matter. (Kinda the same way with no-show Faye Hanohano who never came around her own district when she was in office)
Good riddance to both of them and Abercrombie too.

[missydog1]

Agree, and I voted for Abercrombie the first time -- but not this time.

[opihikao]

Update: (*Snipped - More at link)


FYI:

JUST IN: The state supreme court has rejected a lawsuit on behalf of voters in Puna who say they were denied their right to vote because conditions after Tropical Storm Iselle made it impossible for them to leave their homes.

#8234;


ETA:
Hawaii News Now reports @ 10:00pm (Mileka Lincoln Report Live from Pahoa): ACLU will not appeal decision. Done. Pau.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/26398...y-election