Name in the News: Sandy Ma

Sandy Ma, the new executive director of the nonprofit Common Cause Hawaii, now has a mission of making sure government runs well, and in the public interest. Life in America is all that the 48-year-old attorney has ever known, but her parents certainly knew how tumultuous government can be.

Born in China, Ma’s parents escaped to Taiwan during the Communist revolution, and then soon emigrated, arriving in Atlanta, Ga. She might never have begun a career in law if her parents had their way: They sent her to the Johns Hopkins for her biology bachelor’s (“My parents, good Chinese parents, wanted a doctor,” she quipped).

Instead it was off to the University of Maryland for her J.D., and then an LL.M., a master’s degree, in environmental law. She had a grant to work while in law school at the ACLU of Maryland; she transferred to that civil-liberties organization’s operations in North Carolina and then in Hawaii, where she’s lived ever since.

Ma’s environmental law background prepared her for work on climate-change issues, in the state’s Office of Planning; then, after some time in private practice, in June she returned to public-interest law with the Common Cause post.

Work started after the end of a legislative session that authorized vote-by-mail elections statewide, so that’s a major focus for the next year. Going forward, Ma will be able to shape her own agenda at the agency — including campaign finance reform and publicly funded elections.

“Common Cause Hawaii, we’re really interested in public financing of our elections — just to get less money in politics, so that our elected officials are accountable to the people instead of to special interests,” Ma said.

“We should have more robust and frequent candidate disclosures and tougher penalties for candidates who repeatedly violate campaign finance spending laws.”

Question: Is there evidence that vote-by-mail states get higher voter turnout? Are there any conditions needed to ensure that success?

Answer: Common Cause Hawaii knows that giving voters “more ways and more days” results in higher turnout – and vote-by-mail and early voting are critical parts of that voter engagement model. Currently, three states conduct all elections by mail — Oregon, Washington, and Colorado — and their turnout rates are among the highest in the nation.

A new report from Common Cause and The National Vote at Home Institute shows that vote-at-home states had a median 15 percent higher turnout rate during the 2018 primaries than the remaining polling place states.

Data from the U.S. Elections Project on the 2018 midterms showed that the three vote-at-home states had an average of more than 60% of their voting-eligible population cast ballots, versus under 50% for the remaining states.

Starting with the 2020 primary elections, Hawaii will create more ways and days to vote in hopes of increasing turnout, as well. All statewide elections will be conducted by mail, and voting service centers will be open early to receive personal delivery of mail-in ballots, accommodate voters with special needs, offer same-day registration and voting, and provide other necessary election services.

Q: Some say they’re concerned about the security of the mail-in ballot. Does that worry you?

A: Hawaii has a number of safeguards to protect the security of mail-in ballots. First, because the ballots are paper, the voters’ choices can’t be changed from hackers offshore. Second, each voter’s paper ballot has a unique barcode, so that the voter is ensured to receive the right ballot.

Third, each voter’s completed ballot is inserted in a secrecy envelope or sleeve, and then the envelope or sleeve is enclosed in an identification envelope, which is signed by the voter and mailed. The signature is electronically verified against a sample on file by the Clerk’s Office.

Hawaii also requires manual post-election audits of 10% of precincts for all types of ballots, including mail-in ballots. This audit can catch some types of tampering, but it should be improved. Right now, the audit spot-checks machine function but does not check actual results. We aspire to institute risk limiting audits of Hawaii election contests so that in each race we manually review enough ballots to present strong evidence that the “winner” actually won.

Q: A third area of emphasis seems to be ethics and accountability, with getting rid of “gut-and-replace” being one route. Is there another approach you’d try?

A: Common Cause Hawaii is continuing the legal fight to end “gut and replace” – when the state Legislature passes a bill whose subject has been substantially amended without the required Hawaii constitutionally required three readings. Failure to provide the full, constitutionally mandated process means that the bill does not receive meaningful legislative review or public input. We need transparency in our democratic process.

Common Cause Hawaii and the League of Women Voters of Honolulu filed a lawsuit in 2018 challenging the gut-and-replace practice as violative of state constitutional requirements. We are appealing a Circuit Court decision that sided with the state, and briefings will begin this fall.

In the meantime, we continue to draw attention to this shameful practice. Every year, Common Cause and the League awards a Rusty Scalpel Hawaii Award to call attention to the worst example of gut and replace – you can expect an announcement soon!

… Our members and coalition partners (also) are very interested in seeing laws passed to prohibit Hawaii lawmakers from holding fundraisers during the session, extend the “cooling off” period by which legislators and top executive department employees may become lobbyists after leaving public office, and other ethics reforms.

Q: Do you feel more confident that the 2020 Census can gain an accurate count, in Hawaii in particular? Any sense that intimidation is a factor here?

A: Common Cause Hawaii is extraordinarily concerned about the 2020 Census in Hawaii. The 2020 Census is important because the data determine the number of Hawaii’s Congressional representatives, the number of Hawaii’s Electoral College votes, and what proportion of $600-$900 billion in federal funds Hawaii receives to support our schools, infrastructure, hospitals and more.

There is an erroneous idea that only citizens are paying for our social services and immigrants are a drain our economy. This isn’t true. Immigrants, who are lawfully in this country, and even undocumented people pay federal, state, and local taxes. Thus, all people in the country contribute to and use federal resources, and the census is not the venue for asking the citizenship question.

Hawaii is particularly difficult to obtain an accurate population count, given that we have a large proportion of foreign-born population and large proportion of non-English speaking population. For example, the national average response rate for the 2010 Census was 74% and Hawaii’s average response rate was 68% and the neighbor island response rate was only at about 54%.

Hawaii’s population was estimated to be undercounted by 0.44% in 2010, but the undercount rate is believed to be much larger. For each percent of undercount, Hawaii will lose $37 million a year for 10 years.

Q: What would you consider the greatest threat to robust democracy in Hawaii?

A: The failure to hold power accountable is a threat to a robust democracy. We elect people to public office to serve the public good and not the select few. When public officers abuse their positions of authority for their own gain, this harms democracy. People lose faith in government institutions.

Instead of losing faith in our government institutions and turning away from civic engagement, we must hold power accountable. Common Cause Hawaii’s motto is exactly that.

We are a good government, citizens’ lobby, and government watchdog organization. We are here to improve government functions for the benefit of all and for a robust democracy.