Schoolchildren
back GOP ticket
Hawaii kids favored
Bush, Tanonaka and
Gabbard in online vote
If kids in Hawaii had their way, this state would have chosen President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, 55 percent to 44 percent, and Republicans Mike Gabbard and Dalton Tanonaka would be headed to Congress.
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Among adult voters, U.S. Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case had no trouble hanging on to their seats, but the kid voters would have turned them out of office. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was the only Democrat to prevail in a major race, with 56 percent of the vote to 23 percent for Republican Cam Cavasso, according to student ballots tallied Tuesday night.
The school board election also held surprises. Cec Heftel, the top vote-getter among adults in the six-way Oahu at-large race, came in last among the youngest voters. He might be well known among adults, but the 80-year-old former congressman has been out of the limelight nearly as long as the students participating in the election have been alive.
Attorney Darwin Ching topped the student balloting in the Oahu at-large race for Board of Education, followed by Hawaiian cultural consultant Guy Kaulukukui, although both lost in the adult vote.
In the Honolulu mayoral race, student voters chose the same winner -- Mufi Hannemann -- as the adults, but by a much wider margin. Kids voted 58 percent to 42 percent for Hannemann over Duke Bainum, unlike the razor-thin nearly 50-50 split among adult voters.
Kids Voting Hawaii was supported by Rotary Clubs statewide, Alpha Delta Kappa Women Educators Sorority, Commercial Data Systems, INETS, Apple, IBM, First Hawaiian Bank, AT&T, the State Office of Elections, Hawaii State Department of Education and Hawaii Association of Independent Schools.
