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Hawaii News

Isle electors join call for CIA report release

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hawaii Democrat and Electoral College elector John Bickel, pictured in his classroom at ‘Iolani High School on Wednesday, plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in Monday’s Electoral College vote. He says the public has the right to know whether Russia interfered with the presidential election.

Hawaii’s four Democratic electors have joined a movement asking for information about possible Russian hacking during the presidential election, calling on President Barack Obama to release a CIA report on the topic.

“The information contained in the report is essential to carrying out our constitutional obligation of casting our vote in an election that is free from tampering from outside entities,” the electors said, according to a statement released late Tuesday by one of Hawaii’s electors, John Bickel.

Bickel told the Associated Press the electors and the public have the right to know whether Russia was meddling with the election.

“I don’t know what’s in those CIA briefs, but I think there may be something that goes into us making our decision,” he added.

The move follows a letter sent Monday by 10 electors requesting information about ongoing investigations on ties between Trump and “Russian government interference in the election.” One Texas Republican who said he will not vote for Trump joined nine Democrats who sent that letter. Since then, dozens more electors from New Hampshire to California have signed the letter.

Aside from Bickel, the Hawaii letter was signed by electors Janice Bond of Lihue, Marie “Dolly” Strazar of Hilo and David Mulinix of Kaneohe.

In interviews with the Associated Press, Bickel, Strazar and Mulinix said they plan to vote for Hillary Clinton. But Bond, who voted for Bernie Sanders in the state’s presidential caucus, did not disclose how she plans to vote.

Clinton won Hawaii, so the state’s electors are required by law to vote for her when they cast their votes Monday. However, the law does not stipulate any penalties if electors do not follow those rules, according to Nedielyn Bueno, spokeswoman for the Office of Elections.

Mulinix, who joined the Democratic Party to help get Sanders elected, said last week he plans to reluctantly vote for Clinton because of the state law requirement. He said he doubted that any movement by electors to send someone other than President-elect Donald Trump to the White House would succeed.

“Republicans are pretty, you know, they are in lockstep. They all go over the cliff together,” Mulinix said. “They don’t break ranks. So I think that Donald Trump is going to be the guy. So anything that any elector does now, it’s going to be a statement.”

Like several other Hawaii electors, Mulinix said he wants to do away with the Electoral College.

“Right now, if all the electors got together and held a conference, and said ‘You know what, we’re going to vote for Donald Duck,’ they can just do that,” Mulinix said. “Completely usurp the will of the people. And that is just so wrong.”

16 responses to “Isle electors join call for CIA report release”

  1. thos says:

    This is so much pretentious BULL – [scatological term redacted] !

    Is there anyone – -ANYONE – – who ACTUALLY thinks the Russians tampered with our VOTING MACHINES???

    Otherwise this is just another cheap stunt by sore grapes losers, a wild throw of the dice, to defeat the will of an electoral majority of voters last month.

    At worst, someone (and Julian Assange says it was NOT the Russians) hacked into Felony-Shrillary’s unprotected email server and passed along a lot of damning emails (that Podesta did in fact write) to Assange’s Wiki Leaks staffers who then made them public.

    In other words it was Felony-Shrillary’s own campaign staffer – – not the Russians or any other “hackers” – -who doomed her shambling, incompetent attempt at a presidential campaign.

    This entire CIA report request nonsense is Kabuki for easily duped, thin skinned sore losers.

    • thos says:

      This is so much pretentious B U L L – [scatological term redacted] !

      Is there anyone – -ANYONE – – who ACTUALLY thinks the Russians tampered with our VOTING MACHINES???

      Otherwise this is just another cheap stunt by sore grapes l o s e r s, a wild throw of the dice, to defeat the will of an electoral majority of voters last month.

      At worst, someone (and Julian Assange says it was NOT the Russians) hacked into Felony-Shrillary’s unprotected email server and passed along a lot of unflattering emails (that Podesta did in fact write) to Assange’s Wiki Leaks staffers who then made them public.

      In other words it was Felony-Shrillary’s own campaign staffer – – not the Russians or any other “hackers” – -who doomed her shambling, incompetent attempt at a presidential campaign.

      This entire CIA report request nonsense is Kabuki for easily d u p e d, thin skinned sore l o s e r s.

    • atilter says:

      and some might say that those emails hacked by by some unknown entity came from one “PODESTA”.

  2. keonimay says:

    Hawai’i is a purely democrat state, and, no elected trace of republican.

    I see no value, with contesting Russia’s involvement with the elections, since Hawai’i only voted for Hillary.

    It seems like an awful waste, of time and money.

  3. ConsiderThis says:

    Aren’t those four in the musical band “Tantrum Time”?

  4. bumba says:

    “Right now, if all the electors got together and held a conference, and said ‘You know what, we’re going to vote for Donald Duck,’ they can just do that,” Mulinix said. “Completely usurp the will of the people. And that is just so wrong.”

    But that’s exactly what the delegates and super delegates did in the primary when they voted for Clinton, and nobody grumbled then. Hypocrites.

  5. peanutgallery says:

    What a fricken moronski.

  6. nalogirl says:

    Why do isle electors need more info? They have cast their vote for Clinton as the majority of voters here elected her, they just want to get on the bandwagon.

  7. wave1 says:

    You electors are so lame, just go back to watching soap operas…

  8. Manoa_Fisherman says:

    Who died and made these idiots think they have any reason to think they have the “authority” to do anything? Their function as “electors” is to fulfill the purely ministerial role of casting their vote as the Democratic Party’s functionaries on Monday. No one in the public voted for them. They were merely “selected” by the Democratic Party to this “job”. Nothing they say means anything and grandstanding just wastes everyone’s time.

  9. st1d says:

    at stein’s request, michigan conducted a recount and uncovered massive voter fraud and vote tampering.

    detroit is just one example:

    95% of the precincts in detroit voted for clinton.
    60% of the precincts were disqualified from being recounted due to “irregularities.”
    37% of the precincts reported more voted ballots than registered voters in the precinct.
    one precinct’s ballot box was discovered to have only 50 voted ballots but reported 306 ballots in its poll book.

    this is what hawaii’s electoral voters should be concerned about.

  10. atilter says:

    and the newspaper would have us readers think that we don’t have a viable and efficient “ZOO”.

  11. lespark says:

    Iolani should fire this elector.

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