Editorials
Thursday, October 8, 1998

New elections are
needed in close races

CANDIDATES who narrowly lost their races in the primary election have a plausible basis for complaint because of the large number of spoiled ballots. Under the newly introduced voting system, candidates for all parties were listed on a single ballot. Voters were required to choose from the candidates of only one party. Voting for more than one party invalidated the ballot.

The electronic voting machines rejected spoiled ballots. The precinct attendants were supposed to allow voters who spoiled their ballots to vote again, but in some precincts this reportedly did not happen. In some cases the machines did not function properly. The result was a denial of the voting rights of some citizens -- a serious matter.

Alex Sonson lost the Democratic primary in the 36th House District (Pearl City-Waipahu) to incumbent Roy Takumi by nine votes. At a precinct at Waipahu High School, Sonson said, 196 ballots were disqualified because of multiparty voting. The valid votes at that precinct were 488 to 244 in Sonson's favor.

The attorney general's office, responding to petitions from candidates who narrowly lost their primary races, says state law does not provide for a recount or a new election as a remedy. The only remedy is for the court to decide who won the election. But it is unlikely that any complaining candidates can prove they really won.

The state Supreme Court yesterday rejected a request by another candidate, Gerald Hagino, to order a recount in his race against Sen. Robert Bunda in the 22nd District.

There is a clear need for new elections in close races with many spoiled ballots. If that cannot be accomplished under current law, it should be changed. The losers have a legitimate complaint, but democracy is the real loser when a flawed system distorts the results of elections.

Military spending

FOR years the top brass has been telling Congress that they could live with the Clinton administration's scaled-down defense budgets. Now they are telling a different story.

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that the quality of the armed forces is declining. Without a clear commitment in the form of increased defense spending, the service chiefs said, the military could deteriorate within five years into the ineffectual "hollow force" of the late 1970s.

They said they need about $20 billion more in fiscal 2000 than the $270 billion budget the White House planned to send to Congress in February. They added that the increase would have to be sustained in future budgets to reverse a decline in combat readiness.

The chiefs said they would use additional appropriations to increase pay and pensions, reduce the backlog of maintenance on weapons, facilities and housing and speed up the purchase of new equipment.

The appeal irritated some lawmakers, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who have been warning about the combat readiness problem for months and who have been stymied by previous assurances by the chiefs that all was well.

However, Congress is partly responsible for the situation because it has refused to authorize another round of closings of unneeded military bases, a potential source of savings. Moreover, Congress continues to divert billions of defense dollars annually to projects of special interest to influential legislators that the Pentagon doesn't want.

Given those realities, an increase in the budget seems essential. The size of the military has shrunk by a third since the end of the Cold War, but the demands on the services are still considerable, particularly with the proliferation of peacekeeping assignments. Currently another military operation -- in Kosovo -- is being considered.

Congress must give the Pentagon enough money to get the job done -- and stop squandering money on pork barrel projects.

Police sick-outs

POLICE officers don't often take sick days to protest department policy because most of them recognize such actions to be reprehensible. However, some officers who were upset about being denied overtime pay in February called in sick, and "blue flu" appears to have broken out again because of a new policy affecting overtime pay.

Protests such as these diminish the reputation of the police and place the public at risk.

The irresponsibility of such protests is so obvious that no one is willing to publicly defend them. The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers has been no more hesitant than Chief Lee Donahue in condemning them.

In February, a number of officers called in sick after being ordered to take compensatory time off from work instead of paid overtime because the police department had exhausted its overtime budget for the current fiscal year. SHOPO's Oahu chapter sent a memo to all its members urging them to maintain professionalism despite their displeasure about the order.

The latest protest arose after the department began adjusting schedules to eliminate overtime costs incurred during periods of rotating officers on shifts. On Monday, 13 of 19 officers called in sick in HPD's Windward Oahu District on their first scheduled workday following watch rotation.

"I don't know if it's related to anything else but if this is a job action, we don't condone it," said SHOPO President Bennie Atkinson.

If SHOPO's collective bargaining agreement with the police department allows such protests to escape verification, thus allowing officers to go undisciplined after abusing sick leave, Atkinson should have no objection to closing such a loophole. Endangering public safety for the purpose of making such protests should not be tolerated.

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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor