2000-05-10 Charter Commission Minutes

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Transcript of Meeting of May 10, 2000Page 24 of 62 IRVINE: What if there’s only two running? Why don’t they just go into the General? YUEN: That’s the way Maui does it. HERKES: They will. Mr. Ray, do we want to vote on non-partisan and then vote on how? SANTANGELO: That’s what we’re doing. No, you have to do it this way. RAY: We have to amend it if we are, and then vote on the motion as amended, if it is. YUEN: Let me clarify this. I’m sorry. The way Maui does it is that if there are only two running, you don’t have an election at all in the Primary. They both run off in the General and the winner wins in the General. If there are three or more running, they do have an election in the Primary, but the top two go over into the General. SANTANGELO: Regardless of one getting a majority? YUEN: Regardless of one getting the 50% plus one. The way the City and County does it is the way that was voted on by the Commission the first time through which is that if you get the 50% plus one, no matter how many are running, if you get that in the first, or Primary, election, you don’t have a race in the second election. If nobody gets 50% plus one, then the top two go over into the General Election. RAY: So, does everybody understand the amendment? The amendment is to vote, basically, as Chris just described, as Sue introduced the method that’s in the Maui County Charter. Okay, we’re going to vote. BESS: No, I’m unclear. Can you state what’s in the Maui County Charter again? What’s on the table here. YUEN: And let me just say one more thing. The way I read Maui, I think their Mayor is still a partisan and their Council is non-partisan, just to throw different wrinkle in there. But what I understand the motion to be, like we had done, we were going to go all non-partisan. The amendment is that if there are only two candidates running for a particular office, that those two candidates will not appear in the first election and they will automatically go to the General, and then the winner wins in the General. If there are three or more candidates running for a particular office, they will be voted on in the first election, and the top two will always go on to the General to be run off, no matter how many more votes one gets than the other. SANTANGELO: I’m going to speak against the amendment simply because, again, there’s been an awful lot of discussion about money, and I know the 15%, and Sue, we both know that in a Presidential election, you get a lot more voters. It goes up and down, and it’s really up to the voters to get off their can. And having been through these elections, I know what it’s like to go through a Primary and then a General, and if the solution is there, if there’s a majority winner which is what we haven’t had in a while for a lot of things, in the Primary then let it be and I would vote against this amendment and go for the original as we had it. And that’s simply a friendly suggestion though. RAY: Further discussion? All in favor of the amendment, raise your right hand. HANDS RAISED: Commissioners Herkes, Irvine, Kurozawa. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 05-10-00.html7/1/2011