Niihau’s political LIHUE >> The first political snapshot of The Forbidden Island of Niihau in more than 20 years shows residents of Hawaii's most isolated community are much like residents throughout the state -- most of them didn't vote and the ones who did were divided.
picture similar to
the rest of Hawaii
By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThe Sept. 21 primary election marked the first time in at least two decades that Niihauans voted on election day. Nobody is actually sure when the last polling place was set up in Puuwai, the only village on Niihau. Election officials' on-hand records go back to only 1978 and said the last returns from Niihau are buried in the archives.
The island has been owned by members of the Robinson family since 1864. The family closed it to all but invited guests in 1915.
Politicians never go to Niihau to make speeches. There is no television and no newspaper delivery, although some Kauai radio stations can be picked up on Niihau. And since there are no telephones, pollsters never take the political pulse of the tiny island. Niihau residents live in an almost perfect political vacuum.
During all the years there was no polling place on Niihau, residents voted absentee and mailed in their ballots. Each county has a single "precinct" where all absentees votes are combined, making it impossible to tell how residents of Niihau voted.
Bruce Robinson, who owns the island with his brother Keith, said the island's residents always were happy with being absentee voters in the past, and he saw no reason to set up a polling place. But the Robinsons didn't object.
The state paid the Robinsons $1,275 to use the Niihau Ranch helicopter to fly the polling place equipment the 17 miles from Kauai to Niihau and back on Sept. 21. Two Niihau residents trained by the state ran the polling place. They will repeat the process on Nov. 5.
Niihauans voted on the same machines used by everyone else in the state, except their machine was powered by a gasoline generator.
Niihau, with a population of about 160 (much of the population regularly migrates back and forth from Kauai so no count is accurate), has 82 registered voters. Thirty-five voted at the polling place Sept. 21. No one knows how many, if any, absentee votes were mailed in.
The 43 percent turnout was below the 51 percent for Kauai County as a whole, which was the highest in the state.
Of the 35 residents who voted, 22 voted in the Democratic primaries and 13 in the Republican primaries.
In the supposedly nonpartisan Kauai mayoral primary, Democrat Ron Kouchi buried Republican Bryan Baptiste by a vote of 32-3. In Kauai County overall, the two finished in virtually a dead heat with Kouchi only 400 votes behind Baptiste.
In the governor's race, Niihauans of both parties were split.
Niihau Democrats favored Ed Case with 12 votes, while 10 went to Andy Anderson. Mazie Hirono, who won the statewide Democratic primary, did not receive a single vote on Niihau.
The Niihau Republicans gave Linda Lingle seven votes. John Carroll received five and one voter decided to sit out that contest.
Unlike other polling places in Hawaii that remained open until 6 p.m., polls on Niihau were closed at 10 a.m. after poll workers decided everyone who wanted to vote had done so. Deputy County Clerk Ernie Pasion said state law allows for an early closing of polls in remote areas.
