State chief election
officer reappointedDwayne Yoshina is chosen
despite complaints from
two review panel members
State Chief Election Officer Dwayne Yoshina has been reappointed to a new four-year term by the elections review panel.
The appointment, however, came during a contentious Thursday meeting during which the two Republican members complained that the five-person panel did not look for other candidates, did not advertise and did not follow proper procedures.
Kimo Sutton, a GOP election panel member, said the chairman, former Honolulu City Clerk Pay Pua, should resign because of his handling of the meeting.
"Pua, by his actions, shows his inability to rationally accept the procedures and purposely deceived the people of Hawaii," Sutton said.
Pua defended the decision to go ahead with Yoshina's reappointment, saying the panel did not have the $5,000 needed to advertise for the position. Pua also said Yoshina had trained most of the staff in the Office of Elections and was the most capable.
"Everyone who has experience running an election in Hawaii has either been an employee or an associate of Dwayne," Pua said.
"They don't have the full experience that Dwayne has," Pua added.
Elections panel members are selected by the House and Senate leaders and the governor. Pua is a holdover member from former Gov. Ben Cayetano's administration.
Yoshina, a 22-year veteran with state elections, has already served one four-year term as chief election officer, with a salary of $77,000. Yoshina was unavailable for comment.
Pua added that the state is expected to get up to $12 million in extra federal funds for its elections program, "and we didn't want to jeopardize it by putting Dwayne in a limbo position."
State Sen. Sam Slom (R, Hawaii Kai-Diamond Head) criticized the action, saying Yoshina failed to adopt required administrative rules for his department, despite having been with the Elections Office for more than 20 years.
"The whole idea of advertising is to find out who is out there," Slom said. "At least we should know if there are capable people to take the job."
Pua defended his actions, saying that surveys were sent to community members asking about Yoshina's performance, and the response was "generally favorable."
"We felt we should reappoint him," Pua said.
