Voters should support rail transit’s completion

THE ISSUE Opponents of the rail transit system have failed to collect enough signatures to place their proposal on November's ballot.

Opponents of a rail mass transit failed to sign up enough voters on a petition to place on the ballot their proposal to stop it. Instead, voters will have an opportunity to vote in favor of the "steel wheel on steel rail" system planned by the city, which they have endorsed in recent polls and should do so again at the polls in November.

The Stop Rail Now organization members gathered signatures of their petition and applied a convoluted reading of the City Charter for ordinance initiatives provision on required names. The group gathered more than 35,000 legitimate signatures, but that came far short of the more than 49,000 required.

The Charter requires that such petitions need at least 10 percent of the number of voters registered in the last mayoral election or, in cases of special elections, 15 percent of the number of votes actually cast for mayor. Stop Right Now read that as meaning 10 percent of the number of registered voters in the last election would be sufficient. Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto recognized that revisionism as nonsense, as did the state Supreme Court.

The City Council, recognizing the sentiment for putting the issue to voters, agreed last month to put a measure on the ballot asking if the steel-on-steel system should be built from Kapolei to Ala Moana. A telephone survey taken for the Star-Bulletin and KITV by SMS Research showed that 60 percent of Oahu residents favor continuing development of the rail transit system.

Much of the opposition to the rail system is based on misinformation, and the city should make an effort to correct faulty assertions during the weeks ahead.