Question: What is the rationale behind Election Day being a state and city and county holiday?
Answer: We’re told it’s because state facilities, i.e., public schools, are used as polling sites and/or to encourage people to vote.
But we couldn’t find an official explanation as to why General Election Day was made an official Territorial holiday nearly a century ago — in 1915, when Gov. Lucius E. Pinkham signed Act 20 into law.
A search of the 1915 legislative records at the Legislative Reference Bureau did not turn up any committee reports or discussion on the reason Territorial Rep. M.K. Makekau, of Hawaii island, introduced the bill that became Act 20.
The late Robert Schmitt, Hawaii’s first state statistician and creator of the State of Hawaii Data Book, presented a history of holidays in a 1995 article in the Hawaiian Journal of History.
He said both primary and general election days were designated legal holidays in 1915, but did not attribute a reason.
But Schmitt, also an associate editor of the Journal, did present an interesting history of holidays in Hawaii, noting that the first official list of “national holidays” was adopted by the legislative government in 1896.
The seven holidays listed back then: New Year’s Day, Downfall of the Monarchy Day (Jan. 17), Kamehameha Day (June 11), Birthday of the Hawaii Republic (July 4), Regatta Day (third Saturday in September), Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28) and Christmas Day (Dec. 25).
Over the next century, Schmitt said, the holiday list “was considerably expanded and modified.”
Specifically, three holidays created by the Provisional Government and Republic “met with little enthusiasm among the native Hawaiians and by 1903 were quietly dropped.”
They were Downfall of Monarchy Day, Birthday of the Hawaiian Republic and Flag Raising (Annexation) Day, Aug. 12 (adopted in 1898).
Election Day is not a federal holiday and Hawaii is among only a few states that observe it as a holiday, shutting down state and county offices. The others include Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
New York observes it as a “floating holiday,” which means employees can choose to take the day off, but state offices remain open.
STATE HOLIDAYS
Primary and special election days no longer are observed as holidays. Primary election day, held on Saturdays, was removed as a holiday by the 1965 Legislature.
Currently, in addition to Election Day, official state holidays listed under Section 8-1 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes are New Year’s Day, Jan. 1; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, third Monday in January; Presidents’ Day, third Monday in February; Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day, 26th day in March; Good Friday, Friday preceding Easter; Memorial Day, last Monday in May; King Kamehameha I Day, June 11; Fourth of July; Statehood Day, third Friday in August; Labor Day, first Monday in September, Veterans Day, Nov. 11; Thanksgiving Day, fourth Thursday in November; and Christmas Day,
Dec. 25.
MAHALO
To the awesome security at City Hall, specifically Valentin Sorin and Ronald Kim Jr.: Last month, my family and I were visiting the City Lights display in Honolulu. I lost my keys and only realized my loss when I got home. Exhausted and panic-stricken, I raced back to the City Lights venue. Valentin was the first security personnel I met. He immediately directed me to the City Hall office, calling Ronald, his supervisor, to say we were on our way. He was both courteous and reassuring. Ronald was equally considerate and after verifying that the keys he had indeed belonged to us, handed them over with a bright smile and cheery greeting. Neither would accept any gift from us. Valentin and Ronald truly embodied the Christmas spirit. — Anu Iyer/Puunene
———
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
