Nonresident military servicemen and nonresident students in Hawaii will not count toward a total state population base from which new legislative districts will be crafted this fall. Panel sets districts’
voter baseAlien and felon counts will
be included when legislative
district lines are redrawnBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comBut included will be aliens, sentenced felons and nonresident military dependents, under the first major action taken by the 2001 Reapportionment Commission.
The nine-member panel agreed yesterday to exclude active-duty military personnel who have claimed state residency elsewhere. There are roughly 37,000 nonresident military personnel in Hawaii, with another 40,000 nonresident military dependents, said Jim Hall, a member of the Oahu Advisory Council to the commission.
The commission also decided nonresident students attending Hawaii colleges and universities should be not counted since these people acknowledge they are not Hawaii citizens.
Federal law requires the commission to use the 2000 census Hawaii population of 1,211,537 people to split the state's two congressional districts.
State law requires a permanent resident population base be used to equally redraw state House and Senate districts, although the commission has leeway on whether to exclude nonresident military and their dependents, nonresident students, aliens and convicted felons.
"This is an important issue," said commissioner David Rae. "I want to make it clear that in terms of subtracting from the census, which is our best base number, we are not excluding somebody's right to vote."
The commission decided against excluding aliens who live in Hawaii, and leaned toward inclusion because of unverified data from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Chairman Wayne Minami said immigration officials provided a figure for the number of aliens in Hawaii who have applied for citizenship, but they expressed a "low confidence level" in its accuracy. Hall said April 1996 estimates from the Immigration Service showed there were about 66,000 legal resident aliens, of which 23,000 qualified to apply for citizenship.
Other commissioners said aliens and children under 18 should be considered in the same light because both populations will eventually be able to vote.
Jean Aoki of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii testified that legal aliens do pay taxes, and as long as they continue to do so, they should be represented in the redistricting process, regardless of whether they can vote.
But former state legislator Fred Rohlfing, who serves on the commission's Maui Advisory Council, urged the panel to exclude aliens because it will mean markedly fewer eligible voters in Central and West Oahu districts -- where he said there are heavy populations of aliens -- as compared with those on the neighbor islands.
"If 'one person, one vote' is to have constitutional validity, it must protect a right uniquely held by citizens -- and it would be a dilution of that right to permit noncitizens (aliens) to share therein," Rohlfing testified.
Meanwhile, reapportionment project officials expect to have their Web site online on Thursday. The site will include information on redistricting at the congressional, legislative and Council levels, reapportionment information, meeting dates and a calendar.
The Web site address is www.hawaiiredistricting.org.