Comm No 0056 - Testimony - League of Women Voters

Home

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS® of Hawaii County Empowering Voters and Defending Democracy! To: The Hawai'i County Charter Commission: Chair Shipman Adams and Vice -Chair Zelko-Schlueter Commissioners Bergin, Galimba, Hamano, Hopkins, Leithead Todd, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, and Springer Jon Henricks, Hawaii County Clerk From: Rosemarie Muller, President, League of Women Voters of Hawai'i County Date: November 26, 2019 Aloha Honorable Charter Commissioners: We congratulate you on approaching completion of the Charter Commission process. Each of you took time out of your busy lives to represent the people of Hawai'i County in this important endeavor. We thank you for your service. During one of your last meetings, there was a short discussion about combining proposed amendments to reduce "voter fatigue." You have proposed 21 amendments. We recommend that each amendment be presented as its own ballot measure and that ballot measures NOT be combined. Only three amendments can reasonably be considered "housekeeping" measures: CA1, CA5 and CA25. The rest of the amendments include substantive material. The Charter Commission of 2010 set a precedent with each of its seventeen amendments standing as a separate ballot measure. That Commission did not combine amendments. However, it might be helpful to reorganize the order of the amendments so that those dealing with the same Charter section or topic would be together. We strongly support the policy that each proposed amendment to the Charter should be a separate ballot measure because: 1. Each proposed amendment is on one issue and is important in its own right. 2. The League of Women Voters will be writing objective pros and cons for each ballot issue to educate voters so they can make informed decisions. Writing clear pros and cons for combined issues would present an enormous challenge. 3. The result of combining the amendments that emerged from the Commission's work may lead to voter confusion, which is a far more serious matter than voter fatigue. In November 2020, for the first time, voter fatigue should not be a problem since vote by mail will allow all voters the ability to consider their ballot choices at leisure and to gather information . Our second recommendation is that you publish the proposed ballot language at least several weeks ahead of your public meetings. We trust that you will make the ballot language widely available and launch a strong publicity campaign to advertise the meetings. PH: 808-933-8683 • P.O. Box 665 Hilo, HI 96721 • P.O. Box 4478, Kona, HI 96745 • htIps.i(rnylwv orgihawaiiihawalf-county Comm. No. 56