Question: I have lived in Honolulu forever and have voted in every recent City Council, state and U.S. election and yet I have never received any ballot information about Neighborhood Board elections that I can recall. Where are they getting their voter rolls?
Answer: Voter notifications for Oahu’s neighborhood board elections are drawn from Honolulu County’s list of registered voters who cast a ballot in the most recent state election, as well as from the list of eligible residents who registered directly with Oahu’s Neighborhood Commission Office. However, ballot information is mailed only for contested races, which explains why you and other readers who submitted similar questions were not invited to cast a ballot in online voting that ran from April 25 to May 16: Candidates in your districts were elected unopposed.
More than 200 neighborhood board members won seats without opposition, and some seats went unfilled because no one ran, according to election results posted at 808ne.ws/4l3oYM3, on the commission’s website.
Elections for these volunteer advisory boards are held every two years. You don’t have to have voted to get involved with your neighborhood board. Check the website to find your panel; there are 33 active boards, according to the city.
Also, unlike county, state and federal elections, you don’t have to be a U.S. citizen to vote in neighborhood board elections; legal resident aliens age 18 and older also are eligible.
Numerous readers asked about voter eligibility, having first read about the elections in Kokua Line after they were over. Here are a few key points from the Neighborhood Plan, 808ne.ws/4dEMVqt. See Chapter 17, Neighborhood Board Elections.
>> “Any individual, including military personnel, military family members, and legal resident aliens: (1) Whose primary residence is in the neighborhood district and subdistrict, as applicable; and (2) Who is at least 18 years of age by the third Friday in February of the election year; shall be entitled to register as a voter for the board election.”
>> “An individual officially listed by the city clerk as a registered active voter for the State election in the city as of the third Friday in February of the election year and cast a ballot in the immediately preceding State primary or general election may be declared by the chief elections officer to be registered as a voter for the board election in the neighborhood district and subdistrict the resident is registered in.”
>> “Any other individual qualified to register as a voter for a board election shall register by filing with the commission office a voter registration affidavit on a form provided by the commission office.” The form, at 808ne.ws/3HwTHCo, explains that registering directly to vote in a neighborhood board election “does not constitute registration for any other type of state or county election.”
>> The commission’s chief elections officer is allowed to decide whether to distribute ballot information for uncontested races. Recent practice has been not to do so, since eligible unopposed candidates are automatically elected. With so many uncontested races in the recent election, many eligible voters were not notified.
For contested races, eligible voters received a mailed letter instructing them where to vote online, using a unique PIN and passcode. Those unable to vote online could get a paper ballot. The mailer also contained brief candidate profiles for the specific race.
Created in 1973, Oahu’s neighborhood board system is meant to increase community participation in municipal government. Board members and interested residents attend monthly meetings, where government employees and elected officials also appear.
Mahalo
I wish to express my appreciation for a very considerate young man named Z who assisted me on Wednesday at around 3 a.m. I was lost in Palolo area and needed to go to Palolo Chinese Home to visit my mother, who was in her last days. I went to a service station on Waialae Avenue where I met him pumping gas into his car. I asked him for directions to get to my destination and he offered to escort me there. I took up his offer and he even walked me to the room my mother was staying at. I offered him money for his gas but he refused. He said he was honored to do this service for me. I really felt he was an angel to me on that day because I would have had great difficulty getting to see my mother if it were not for him. Thank you Z! — Uncle in red car
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
