CHC 1979-04-03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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However, if you will notice on the second sheet I gave you, and I should like to read this into the record: "Should the Charter Commission decide to divide the island, following is a division based on voter registration. With only three precincts divided to allow for one man , one vote concept. The continuity of interest is also retained as agri- cultural areas or tourist areas are separated except for one district which is the Waimea-Kawaihae area. " Now if you ' ll notice, I call them A, B, C, and so on--and I had several ladies helping me with this so if you see some misspelled words, which I see, don ' t feel 'bad, we don 't really know how to spell Hilo either. If you ' ll notice, we figure the average voter should be 4,417, and we have tried to come to as close to that using the registered voter list. If you can ' t come to any conclusion as far as population then why not use the registered voter' s list. And that divided the island into some very neat pieces of pie. We've done it for you which helps a little bit. The above division roughly gives West Hawaii 3 representatives and East Hawaii six so you still have the majority in Hilo. However, after the census is taken and we go back to No. 1 on the main sheet--after the census is taken in 1980 and that means in 1981 the figures will be available--then the proper division should be taking place. We do not feel that voting for anyone at-large is wise. We would like to refer you to the Honolulu Charter. This is a book that we have just about worn out but it has all the charters in it and I 'm sure you've seen all of them from the different islands. But the Honolulu Charter is the one that has 9 members--single member districts, none at-large. They also have an apportionment commission which is reapportioned every eight years. Now, if you wait until the census is taken in 1980 and the figures are done in 1981 then you have a natural election coming up in 1982 which means you use the 4 districts until then for the 9 districts as we divided them up and then, at that time, you go by what the census tells you. If you' ll look at the Honolulu Charter, the page that we took out of here and xeroxed for you--the reapportionment in years, "every eighth year shall be apportioned" and this is according to the Honolulu Charter. They will meet and select the districts according to all the information and statistics that they have. And it says right here that "No district shall be_ _ so drawn as to unduly favor a person or political faction. __ _ Districts, insofar as practicable, shall be contiguous and compact. " Which we try to do also. "District lines shall , where possible, follow permanent and easily recognized features , and, when practicable, shall coincide with census tract boundaries. " I hopethat you will feel free to keep these for your references. And I also would like to refer you to, at this time, the article from West Hawaii Today which states very simply in the first two paragraphs that people of Kona basically, and we - 3 -