Resign-to-run rule
needs legal scrutinyThe issue: The state attorney
general should review state
Constitution's resign-to-run clause.PITY Hawaii's attorney general, Earl Anzai, who is being asked by Mazie Hirono to explain the legal ramifications of her candidacy for mayor of Honolulu before her term as lieutenant governor expires. Hirono's plans could set off a chain of events that will severely test a constitutional provision known as the resign-to-run requirement. Anzai may be forced to conclude that the clause is unworkable because of inconsistent starting dates for terms of various offices.
The provision requires that an elected official resign "before being eligible as a candidate for another public office, if the term of the office being sought begins before the end of the term of the office held." It requires Mayor Harris to resign from a four-year mayoral term that is less than half over in order to run for governor.
Russell Blair, a former state senator and recently retired state district judge, maintains that the constitutional provision should require Harris to resign immediately because of his campaign for governor instead of waiting until as late as July 23, the deadline for filing nomination papers. Anzai should include Blair's contention in his attempt to clarify the clause.
The new, abbreviated mayoral term will begin the day after next November's election, which is a month before Hirono's term as lieutenant governor runs its course. That means she must resign from her present job to run for mayor, according to the clause. The line of succession calls for Senate President Robert Bunda to become lieutenant governor as soon as Hirono resigns.
There's the problem. Senate terms begin a month before the end of the lieutenant governor's term. Bunda -- and any other state legislator, for that matter -- would become ineligible to run for a return to the Legislature by accepting the lieutenant governor's job.
The clause, adopted by the 1978 Constitutional Convention, was aimed at then-Mayor Frank Fasi's mid-term gubernatorial bid and probably was intended to apply to future mid-term candidacies for higher office. But that is not what it says.
Nor does the vaguely worded clause say that resignations should occur as soon as the elected official starts campaigning for higher office. Blair contends that was the intention of the convention delegates. However, his argument -- based largely on simplistic excerpts from the convention debate and a definition of "candidate" in the unrelated campaign spending statute -- is not persuasive.
This is what Attorney General Anzai must straighten out and perhaps defend in a court challenge. It is not an enviable role.
Voters were deprived
in Florida electionThe issue: A review of ballots for
the 2000 election shows that Bush won
if counted one way; Gore won
if counted in another.THE significant conclusion to draw from a comprehensive review of Florida ballots in the 2000 presidential election is not who would have won or lost, but that antiquated machines and confusing ballots effectively deprived citizens of having their votes count.
Yet Congress has not passed legislation that sets national standards for voting equipment and policies. Nor has the Bush administration pushed for election reform that would assure voters of the validity of one of their primary privileges in a democracy. Lacking this assurance further magnifies the public's skepticism that casting a ballot makes a difference.
The review of ballots by eight news organizations showed that George Bush still would have won the election by a thin margin had the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a partial manual recount, as rival Al Gore had wanted. The review also found that if Gore had gotten a statewide manual recount of all disputed ballots, he would have won Florida and the presidency. Under other scenarios, Bush would have come out ahead in some and Gore in others.
None of these findings is as meaningful as that in every case, the examination alarmingly returned counts that were even closer than the official one with a margin of error that could exceed a candidate's margin of victory. Further, the review revealed that precincts dominated by minority voters had more than three times the number of rejected ballots as white precincts.
A national commission in August recommended various reforms to improve the nation's voting system, including simplifying absentee voting, setting uniform benchmarks for machine errors and standards for equipment, defining what will constitute a vote on all types of ballots and providing funds for better election administration. The House last week agreed on a bill to overhaul election systems and to provide $2.25 billion to states for new equipment and voter registration and $400 million to replace punch-card systems. However, with the Senate yet to move a measure ahead, legislation appear to be months away from enactment.
Although its attention has been diverted by security and economic issues since September 11, it is vital that Congress act quickly on ballot reform. Whether it be for dog catcher or president, there's too much at stake to allow hanging chads and butterfly ballots to determine an election.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
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