4,900 people vote About 4,900 voters cast early ballots for Saturday's special election to fill the remaining weeks of the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink's current term.
early in election
Union endorsementsBy Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com
"We're coming off a very high absentee turnout election season, so these numbers are a lot lower than you'd think," said Rex Quidilla, state Office of Elections spokesman.
At the end of absentee walk-in voting for the special election, a little more than 2,600 people voted on the Big Island, 720 on Maui, 1,180 on Kauai and 350 on Oahu.
Absentee walk-in voting for the Jan. 4 special election, which will determine who will serve for the next two years in Congress, begins Dec. 19 and runs until Jan. 2.
Quidilla said absentee voting is not indicative of what Saturday's turnout will be, but election officials are expecting light business.
One congressional candidate says the low numbers indicate the need for an absentee walk-in polling place somewhere in the 2nd Congressional District on Oahu.
The district includes all the neighbor islands and nonurban Oahu, including Leeward and Windward Oahu and the North Shore. But the absentee voting polling place was outside the district, at Honolulu Hale downtown.
"So you can see pretty clearly that the voters on Oahu chose to vote absentee walk-in much less than voters in the rest of the state, and I don't think it had anything to do with the lack of interest in the race," said Democratic candidate Ed Case, a former state representative and gubernatorial candidate.
The 2nd Congressional District seat became vacant after Mink died Sept. 28. Her current term expires in January.
Case expressed concerns to election officials last week about the lack of an absentee polling place in the district.
"I do think that supports my concern that the lack of an absentee walk-in location in the 2nd District on Oahu is affecting absentee walk-ins. I don't think there's another explanation for that."
He said he is also urging a site for Molokai, which normally has a high absentee turnout but has no walk-in absentee polling place.
Quidilla said officials will look at putting an absentee polling place in the 2nd District on Oahu for the Jan. 4 special election.
"We didn't have one because we didn't have a site available," Quidilla said. "The site (at Windward Mall) that was previously available for the primary and general election is not available for Nov. 30."
The Office of Elections and the City Clerk's Office are looking for alternate sites. "If we can't get it square in the congressional District 2, maybe closer to it, like at Pearlridge," Quidilla said.
Case, who is running in both special elections, praised election officials for looking into his request.
"In fairness to the Office of Elections, they are trying to do a good job in this election under some difficult circumstances," Case said.
Election officials originally estimated the cost for each special election to be $2 million, but, after some cost-cutting, they said the cost will likely be around $1.4 million.
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Carpenters back Matsunaga;
Teamsters support HanabusaTwo more unions made endorsements yesterday in the race to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, who died Sept. 28.
The Hawaii Carpenters Union endorsed former state Sen. Matt Matsunaga yesterday, while the Hawaii Teamsters, Local 996, threw support to state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa.
Their endorsements came on the same day that the Hawaii State AFL-CIO endorsed Matsunaga.
The candidate who wins the Jan. 4 special election will serve the full two-year term that became available when Mink posthumously won the general election Nov. 5.
Star-Bulletin staff
State Office of Elections
