High court rejects
By Rod Thompson
complaint relating to
irradiation vote
Star-BulletinHILO -- The state Supreme Court has rejected a complaint by 42 Big Island voters who were opposed to food irradiation and sought to overturn last November's vote in favor of permitting an irradiator on the island.
State and county officials supported irradiation to kill insects in fruit, but an anti-irradiation group gathered more than 7,300 signatures to put an initiative measure on the ballot.
The county has an ordinance against nuclear materials.
It exempts, though, commercial facilities such as an irradiator. The initiative sought to remove that exemption, but it failed at the ballot box by 473 votes.
Among the objections to the election, attorney Lanny Sinkin and others alleged improper opposition to the initiative by state and county officials, some using public funds, and unclear wording on the ballot.
Sinkin said voters could be confused because they had to vote for the initiative in order to vote against irradiation.
The Supreme Court responded that county election officials received an opinion from the attorney general's office which said the law does not allow any explanation on the ballot.
The opponents knew the ballot wording well in advance but failed to make a legal challenge to it before the election, the court said.
The court quoted a decision in another case which said, "Efficient use of public resources demand that we not allow persons to gamble on the outcome of the election contest (and) then challenge it when dissatisfied with the results."
Regarding alleged misconduct by officials, including Mayor Stephen Yamashiro, the court said only one was an election official and there was no evidence of fraud.
The court also said procedures do not allow it to review the alleged misuse of county money by officials.
Sinkin and others have a separate complaint pending with the state Campaign Spending Commission about Yamashiro's use of his campaign funds against the initiative.
Opponent Naomi Cohen said even if the commission finds Yamashiro did wrong, it cannot change the results of the election, which she said is unfair.
