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View Point
CITY Clerk Genny Wong deserves the public's thanks. She is working to ensure the integrity of the elections process by attempting to verify the citizenship status of Oahu's registered voters. Crime not evident
in voter abuseBy matching the city's voter rolls against the state's identification card list -- the only compatible and accessible government database showing individuals' citizenship status -- the City Clerk's Office found at least 543 registered voters whose citizenship status was in question, based on information in the state database.
I met with Wong and Glen Takahashi, assistant elections administrator. We determined the best thing to do was to write to those voter registrants whose citizenship was in question.
We reminded them that they must be U.S. citizens to vote, and asked them to either confirm that they were indeed citizens or ask that their names be removed from the voter rolls.
We took this approach because it appeared that many of the noncitizens who registered did so inadvertently. Either they didn't realize that they had to be U.S. citizens to vote or they didn't know they were registering to vote.
It's understandable how someone could make such a mistake, especially if English is the person's second language.
In addition, we realized that some of the people on the list might have become citizens since they applied for state ID cards. The last thing we wanted to do was to scare newly naturalized citizens away from the polls.
As it turns out, our approach proved to be right. When contacted, many of the registrants on the list confirmed that they had become U.S. citizens. Others said they had not intended to register to vote or didn't realize they weren't eligible. They asked that their names be removed from the voter rolls.
Some politicians and media pundits have criticized us for not launching a full-fledged criminal investigation in this matter. However, neither the City Clerk's Office nor the City Council is set up to prosecute alleged criminal conduct.
OUR job is to ensure the integrity of the voting process. Other agencies are responsible for determining if election laws were violated and whether prosecution is warranted.
These other agencies, including the prosecutor's office and the Attorney General's Office, are able to conduct an investigation to determine how the names of noncitizens got on the voter rolls.
Thus far, however, there is no evidence that anyone acted with criminal intent. Unless and until there is, it is irresponsible for politicians to allege or even hint that some sort of conspiracy is afoot.
Jon Yoshimura is chairman of the Honolulu City Council.