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April 2010

July 2010

Can Hawaii Attain Food Security?
LWV and KITV Present Election Debate (Pearl Johnson)
Big Island Public Finance Campaign Trial (Beppie Shapiro)
Public Access Room: 20 Years of Great Service (JoAnn Maruoka)
Jean Aoki Addresses Hawaii County Meeting (Helen Hemmes)
Happy 90th Anniversary (Piilani Kaopuiki)
LWV-HI Banner Ad: 'Vote Openly on HB 444' (JoAnn Maruoka)
Forum on Supreme Court decision on Campaign Finance (JoAnn Maruoka)
Lessons Learned from Vote Count (Sue Irvine)
The 2010 Legislative Session (JoAnn Maruoka)
Big Island Report (Helen Hemmes)
We're Cleaning Out
Healthcare Bill (Joy Marshall)
Honolulu League Welcomes New Members
Weekly Obtains Rail Final EIS (Pearl Johnson)
Allow citizens to register and vote on same day (Les Ihara)
League Supports Governor's Rail Review (Charles Carole)
Calendar of Events

Lessons Learned from Vote Count

In February, for the first time, the Hawaii Island LWV coordinated an election for a charter school conversion.

Laupahoehoe High and Elementary School is a rural K-12 school on the Big Island, some 30 miles from another high school with 200 students. In 2008 a community organization called Save/Improve Our School (SOS) was formed and in 2009, the US Department of Education awarded a $450,000 grant to SOS to convert LHES to a Public Charter School.

LWV was asked by SOS to run the conversion election. Based on an estimate of 300 possible voters, I estimated our charges would be under $500. My estimate proved to be half of what we should have charged due to 3 factors:

  1. State law on conversions does not make it clear who is eligible to vote. Much time and effort was spent resolving voter eligibility.
  2. The original list of 245 eligible voters from the DOE had many incorrect addresses. This required reporting and re-mailing of ballots.
  3. The pro-charter committee was entirely responsible for the election. To preserve League’s non-partisan reputation, I reviewed their literature concerning the implications of the vote.

On February 10, Margaret Drake, Marianna Scheffer, and I sat for 7 hours running a polling site for the election at the school complex. We verified names on the mail-in votes while we allowed people to vote in person.

The vote was 145 for conversion, 35 against.

Sue Irvine
LWV Hawaii County

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