Hawaiian voter registration ending

Today is the scheduled last day to register to vote in next month’s Na‘i Aupuni election of delegates to the Native Hawaiian constitutional convention set to begin in February.

The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, having certified the Kana‘iolowalu roll at the end of July, has now pushed the number of enrollees eligible to vote in the election to 99,217 from 95,690, the commission reported Wednesday.

Clyde Namuo, the commission’s executive director, said that while today is advertised as the last day to sign up, the official roll isn’t scheduled to be certified until Monday, so more names could be added Friday.

A U.S. District Court hearing on a preliminary injunction seeking to block the “race-based” and “viewpoint-based” election with more than 200 candidates is scheduled for Tuesday.

A lawsuit filed by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and others argues that the election violates the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act by using race and political qualifications to determine voter eligibility.

Monday’s motion asks the court to put the election on hold until after a decision is reached.

As it stands now, ballots for the election will be sent to certified voters Nov. 1, with voting scheduled to end Nov. 30. The results of the election will be announced Dec. 1.

Organizers are describing the election as a historic event that may lead to re-establishing a Hawaiian government.

“Hawaiians have not had this type of consensus-building structure since the overthrow,” says the website of Na‘i Aupuni, the volunteer group overseeing the process. “Hawaiians should seize this opportunity to start the process of deciding how they want to move forward in unity.”

But not everyone’s on board. A group of supporters of Hawaiian independence have been waging a social media and grass-roots campaign to undermine the effort.

They have been circulating a “Protest Na‘i Aupuni” petition and have been urging people to remove their names from the Kana‘iolo- walu roll.

A meeting was held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on Friday to rally people against the Na‘i effort, and another was scheduled Wednesday night at UH-Hilo.

At Friday’s “Halawai Aloha ‘Aina” meeting, attendees were told that the state-initiated self-governance initiative is a flawed and rushed process that failed to win a consensus of the Hawaiian people.

Attendees were told Na‘i Aupuni is not about self-determination for the Hawaiian people. Rather, it is a scam to create a puppet nation to undercut the independence movement and permanently relinquish Hawaiian cultural and political rights to sovereignty and more than 1.8 million acres of national lands in a universal settlement.

The effort, they said, would seal the fate of the Hawaiian people as a landless, powerless nation that will forever be under the thumb of the United States.

During the meeting, attendees brainstormed ways to undermine the effort.

Walter Ritte, the longtime Hawaiian activist from Molokai who qualified as a Na‘i Aupuni candidate, said Wednesday he’s had a change of heart and intends to quit the race. He said he plans to urge like-minded candidates to do so as well.

Ritte said he originally hoped to push for independence within the convention. But now it appears he is wasting his time, he said, because there’s a predetermined outcome for federal recognition.

“The whole process is really bad,” he said. “It’s better not to give credibility to the process by participating.”

Lanakila Mangauil, the Mauna Kea “protector” who surprised many by declaring his candidacy, told his supporters on Facebook that he thinks Na‘i Aupuni is less than “pono” (righteous or correct) and that, if elected, he plans to work to postpone the process.

“This is not something that can be rushed,” he said. “This is something that needs to be clear and (have) understanding.”

Robin Danner, the newly elected chairman of the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homeland Assembly, said it’s wrong for opponents of Na‘i Aupuni to say the process will undermine anyone’s pursuit of sovereignty.

“There simply is zero legal precedence for that, federally or internationally. It may sound provocative, ‘do this and you won’t be able to do that,’ but it’s just hyperbole,” she said in an email.

On whether the process is rushed, Danner, one of the five Native Hawaiian Roll commissioners, said many Hawaiians don’t feel that way at all.

“We are ready to move out of just slogans, move out of rallies, and up to the governance table to exercise our decision-making through a native government, albeit for the Native Hawaiians that want to be apart of it,” she said.

To register, Hawaiians go to either the Office of Hawaiian Affairs website at oha.org/registry or to the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission website kanaiolowalu.org. Information about the election process can be found at Na‘i Aupuni’s website at naiaupuni.org or by emailing naiaupuni@election-america.com.

Those wishing to check whether they are certified to vote, or to reconfirm postal and email information, can complete a form on the Kana‘iolowalu website at the address above or call 973-0099.