OK of final voting maps expected Feb. 29

The state Reapportionment Commission expects to finalize new political boundaries for state House and Senate offices by the end of the month.

The latest proposed maps — which could change after public comments are received — would give Hawaii island a fourth Senate seat and place six pairs of incumbents in the same districts, setting up head-to-head matchups of sitting lawmakers.

New maps were presented and accepted Wednesday by the state Reapportionment Commission, which will solicit public comment at meetings next week. Maps had to be hastily redrawn after the state Supreme Court on Jan. 4 tossed out the district boundaries approved last year.

Once public comments are considered, any appropriate changes would be made and the final proposal unveiled Feb. 27, with plans to formally adopt new district lines Feb. 29.

Dylan Nonaka, a commissioner who also served on the body’s technical committee that drew up the new maps, said he expects to hear criticism of the plan from community members.

"Everybody in their specific area is going to have an issue with something that is not exactly the way they would like it," Nonaka said. "I would’ve liked a lot more time to work on these maps. Given the constraints of the election … we had to move quite quickly."

Hawaii’s primary election was moved up to Aug. 11 this year, from September. Candidates have through June 5 to file nomination papers, and many have had to wait for the new maps to be approved.

The Reapportionment Commission is formed every 10 years to allocate legislative seats and redraw district boundaries to reflect changes in the population.

Commissioners last year drew up maps based on a population that included so-called "nonpermanent" residents: members of the military, their dependents and students who live in Hawaii but claim legal residency elsewhere.

Hawaii island constituents sued, claiming the inclusion of the nonpermanent residents distorted the base population, keeping a larger population around military installations on Oahu, and negating population gains on their island that they said should have resulted in the gain of a state Senate seat.

The Supreme Court agreed, saying the commission did not do enough to eliminate nonpermanent residents.

After the ruling, the commission received more accurate data from the military and state universities enabling it to remove about 108,000 nonpermanent residents.

The removal of those residents from the population base results in a Senate seat moving to Hawaii island from Oahu and greater shifts among Oahu House districts. Proposed districts for Maui and Kauai were virtually unchanged.

Moving a Senate seat to the Big Island shifts the boundaries of the remaining 17 districts on Oahu. As a result, two senators wound up in the same district: Carol Fukunaga and Brian Taniguchi.

"Running against a colleague — it’s going to be tough," said Taniguchi (D, Moiliili-Manoa). "Certainly Sen. Fukunaga has a lot of support in her current district. We’re just going to have to work hard."

Fukunaga (D, Lower Makiki-Punchbowl) said she also plans to seek re-election.

"I plan to run, and I’m certain that Sen. Taniguchi plans to run, so we’ll just kind of have to see where we all go from there," Fukunaga said. "I think there’s still a range of alternatives that we can take a look at."

Theirs is the only district matching two incumbent senators. The other five head-to-head matchups are in the House.

The new proposal puts at risk three of the eight House Republicans, who now would be forced into races with incumbent Democrats.

"I’m not happy about it, obviously," said state Republican Party Chairman David Chang. "We have such a minority in the House that we need to keep every seat that we’ve got right now."

Prospective candidates for state office have been waiting for the final plan to be approved. The filing period opened Feb. 1, but chief election officer Scott Nago said his office cannot begin processing candidate applications until the districts are approved.

Nago and county clerks from all islands have asked the commission to get them the new plan by Feb. 29, so they can begin drawing up precinct boundaries, assigning voters to those precincts and informing them of their polling places.

Any delay beyond Feb. 29 has the potential of creating "unnecessary risk" in the Office of Elections’ ability to securely and properly carry out the Aug. 11 primary election, they said.

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