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CHRISTOPHER Jr. YUEN HILO LAGOON CENTRE,SUITE 10$ 101 AUPUNI STREET HILO,HAWAII 96720 ATTORNEY AT LAW TEL.(808)935-4429 February 21, 1990 Hawaii County Charter Commission 101 Aupuni Street, Suite 235 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Re: Special Election for Office of Mayor Dear Charter Commission Members: I was asked to draft language calling for a special election in the event that the mayor is removed by impeachment or recall. In doing this, I had to make a number of more of less arbitrary decisions. All of these can be changed by the Commission, but I have prepared a draft Charter provision so that the Commission will have something concrete to consider, and can also see the various factors that go into a special election. First, there needs to be a determination whether there would be only a special general election, or whether there would be a special primary and a special general election. If there is only a special general election, it is essentially a free-for-all where a candidate with substantially less than a majority of the total vote may be elected. The overall political picture becomes very different: the election is actually more like a non- partisan election. If we opt to have a special primary and a special general election, the time frame becomes somewhat longer because we must allow time for campaigning for two elections, and because the State Constitution requires that there be a gap of no less than forty-five days between any primary and general election. (Art.II, §8 . ) The language I drafted calls for both a primary and a general. Next, we have to decide when we would simply wait until the - next regularly scheduled election rather than call a special election. At some point, the time frame might be so short that it wouldn't make much sense to have a special election. I used 270 days as the cut-off point: there would be a special election only if more than 270 days remained after the removal of the mayor until the next general election. Of course, this is an arbitrary date. We must also determine the time frame between the removal of the mayor and the special primary, the date for the close of filing, and the time frame between the special primary and the special general election. I used 60-75 days from the removal to the primary, 20-30 days from the removal to the close of filing, and 45-60 days between the primary and general elections. EXHIBIT C 817 (3 pages)