Oahu voters choosing to walk into a voting booth and cast their general election ballots early will be treated to a bit of holiday cheer when they enter Honolulu Hale in the coming weeks.
A good number of Christmas garlands, ornaments and other displays were put up Oct. 10, the earliest anyone can remember in the 28-year history of Honolulu City Lights.
Absentee balloting and an early official opening of this year’s Honolulu City Lights display are the reasons for the early festive atmosphere, city spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said.
"It’s just the timing of the election and the fact that Honolulu City Lights is going to come on Dec. 1," McCoy said.
In recent years the official lighting of the wildly popular Honolulu City Lights display and accompanying electric light parade have taken place on the first Saturday in December. Dec. 1, therefore, is the earliest the display would open.
But as busy as Honolulu Hale can be in December, the courtyard at 530 S. King St. is almost as busy in Novembers of even-numbered years because it is the primary location for absentee walk-in voting on Oahu.
McCoy said the office of City Clerk Bernice Mau, who oversees elections on Oahu, asked that no decorating work take place in the building from Oct. 17 to Nov. 9.
As a result, the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, now tasked with putting up Honolulu City Lights with the help of the nonprofit Friends of Honolulu City Lights, decided to install the indoor display in two phases, McCoy said.
Putting up all the displays takes city employees and volunteers up to seven weeks, depending on the weather.
Ornaments, wreaths and other decorations that would not interfere with voting activities went up on the ceilings, pillars and lanai on Oct. 10, McCoy said.
Absentee walk-in voting begins Tuesday and runs through Nov. 3. The general election is Nov. 6.
Former Customer Services Director Carol Costa, whose office used to be in charge of Honolulu City Lights, said the city moved the opening date of festivities to the first Saturday of December about 15 years ago.
It started out opening the same night as the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, but moved to Friday to accommodate families with schoolchildren, Costa said.
But the shutting down of King Street through downtown Honolulu on a Friday afternoon resulted in numerous traffic complaints, so the opening night was moved to Saturday.
Costa, who still helps out as a key volunteer for Friends of Honolulu City Lights, said she would’ve preferred the opening night to have been the second Saturday of December. But the Honolulu Marathon is traditionally held on the second Sunday in December, and many of the city workers and volunteers are involved with both events, she said.
