News Clips

Results in Hawaii’s first-ever vote by mail election were severely delayed last night by long lines of residents casting votes -- in person. While the goal was for all registered voters to cast their ballots by mail or drop box, traditional, in-person voting was still available on every island, but only at select locations. In fact, there were only eight polling places state-wide that allowed in person voting. There were hours long delays. Sandy Ma, with good governance group Common Cause Hawaii, through much of 2020 had raised a red flag about the small number of voter service centers. "Common Cause has been advocating for additional voter service centers. Certainly eight statewide is not enough," Ma said.

Certainly, vote-by-mail works for voters who have stable, long-standing addresses to which ballots can be mailed. Unfortunately, vote-by-mail does not work equally well for all. Housing-insecure voters, voters needing language assistance and those incarcerated who have not lost their right to vote are just a few of the voters that a mail-in voting system does not adequately reach, according to civil rights organizations such as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and even proponents of mail-in ballots like Vote at Home.

2020 Hawaii Primary Election Results Digging Into The Data 1) Who Voted, Where, and Why? 2) Did Any Races / Issues Drive Turnout? 3) Were There Any Vote By Mail Issues? 4) Other Questions or Concerns? Presenters: Michael Golojuch, Jr. Jared Kuroiwa

This week Common Cause Hawaii, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and ACLU of Hawaii Foundation banded together to raise an alarm about what they describe as unconstitutional “election gaps.” They want the state Office of Elections and county clerks to move toward a solution by Friday, leaving open the prospect of legal action.

Common Cause, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii Foundation and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, through their attorney Jeff Portnoy, in a letter Monday to Attorney General Clare Connors, declare the current number of just eight voter service centers statewide violates the state constitution because it disenfranchises voters in heavily populated urban areas and geographically distant rural areas and doesn’t provide reasonable accommodation to disabled voters.

Before the nation was overwhelmed by the current health crisis, only five states conducted their elections through mail-in voting. Now, concerns over social distancing are causing elections offices across the country to reconsider how best to bring the ballot to the people. Hawaii was among those five states, and while mail-in voting is available for all residents - some are concerned about the lack of statewide Voter Services Centers. Sandy Ma, Common Cause Hawaii Executive Director and Lisa Gibson, group leader for Indivisible Hawaii Statewide Network are interviewed on their concerns. At the website link, scroll down to the 5th Conversation segment to listen to these concerns.