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Mr. Ted T. Suzuki -2- February 3, 1976 Before we proceed with our- opinion on the issue, we make the following.two observations : (1) Residency does not necessarily begin when an individual becomes a registered voter of this County, but rather is based on his intentions of making the County of Hawaii his domicile. Therefore, although he became a registered voter on April 11 , 1975 , you must nonetheless determine when he intended to become a resident of this County or to make this County his domicile. (2) Our second observation is that although we have already held the Charter provision to be unconstitutional and, therefore, unenforceable , it may altogether be possible to remove the elector requirement from the Charter and still retain the residency requirement. It is for that reason that we find it necessary at this point to examine the 3-year residency durational requirement, although by reaffirming our earlier decision we have already held that the 2-year resident-elector requirement is unconstitutional and unenforceable. The 3-year residency requirement for the offices of Mayor and Councilman was held to be uncoi.stitutional by the Supreme • Court of Colorado. Cowan v. City of Aspen, 509 P. 2d 1269 (1973) . The right to vote , as well as the right to be a candidate, has been determined by the courts to be a fundamental right which neither the state nor the county could abridge unless they can show that it is necessary to promote a compelling state interest . In the eyes of the court, the reason must be real, clear and compelling. Otherwise, the abridgement of any constitutional right which is determined to be a fundamental right is considered to be unreasonably discriminatory and, therefore , in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U. S . Constitution. In the Cowan case noted above , supra , the Colorado Municipal Election Code established a one-year residency requirement. The Charter of Aspen , however; established a 3-year residency requirement for the offices of Mayor and Councilman. The court, in invalidating the charter provision, noted that since the code permitted a onejyear residency requirement, the municipality would be hard-pressed to justify a 3-year requirement. A federal court of appeals also found a 2-year residency durational requirement to be unconstitutional. Green v. McKeon, 468 F. 2d 883 (1972) . In that case, the city argued that the 2-year requirement is necessary because every candidate for city office needs to be familiar with the local form of government and local problems . The court,