Oahu voters cast nearly 47,000 ballots in elections for 28 organized neighborhood boards last month, according to unofficial results from the Neighbor- hood Commission today.
All told, there were 541 candidates running for 414 available seats in the city’s first islandwide mail-back election.
Those elected will be sworn in May 15 at a 7:30 p.m. ceremony in the Honolulu Hale courtyard.
Confirmation of the unofficial tally will be made by the League of Women Voters after a 10-day challenge period. The league’s tabulation of the voters began April 21.
This year’s record turnout — 46,899 ballots completed and returned in postage-paid envelopes in time for the April 20 deadline — more than triples the number of votes counted in the last neighborhood board elections.
In the May 12, 1979, election, only 13,000 votes were cast at polling places around Oahu.
The number of ballots cast this year, though record-breaking, falls far short of the total 294,000 ballots that were mailed out to registered voters and other Oahu residents in March.
More than 26,600 ballots were returned by the post office as undeliverable.
But the most obvious reason for the lack of response was the lack of candidates in 70 of the subdistrict races.
And, despite an extension in the nomination period, some subdistrict races went without a single candidate. Those vacancies will be filled by the boards after the newly elected members take office.
Neighborhood boards advise the city on a variety of neighborhood and islandwide issues. Members are elected for two years and serve without pay.
The biggest races were for at-large seats in Hawaii Kai and Kaneohe.
State planner David D. Stegmaier led Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Roy L. Benham, University of Hawaii professor Augustine Furumoto and Honolulu Symphony general manager Robert Sandla to victory in a nine-man race for four at-large seats on the Hawaii Kai board.
Nina Bogetto, business director of the YWCA, was Oahu’s biggest vote-getter, winning 2,060 votes in an uncontested Kaneohe at-large race.
Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar
