CHC 1979-05-22 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

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most objectively because he neededthe votes in both areas in order to win. The voters of West Hawaii voted for 4 members. of the board and were the constituents of the majority. The concept of fairly meeting the needs of the East and the West through the" at=large elebtion , was continued in the 2nd County Charter under which we now operate. I now vote for 9 councilmen. My vote is effective. However, the effectiveness of the power of my vote is only oneof my goals for the selection of the makeup of the county council . The other goals are fairness and an acceptable differentiation of candidates. . By fairness , I mean both one-man ,one-vote and an equal opportunity for political participation. The one- man, one-vote principle is required by the Constitution. Equal opportunity for political participation is an aspect of fairness that could mean different things to different groups of people. To me, this aspect of fairness is especially relevant to areas with rapidly growing population. The large influx of people upsets the traditional balancesr_of political power. Changes must be made in order to accommodate —the increase in population is some districts , otherwise, the areas of little growth will offer political opportunities at the expense of the newly populated areas. By differentiation of candidates , I mean that the number of councilmen coming up for election at one time be limited in number so that I am able to distinguish the attitude, behavior, and skills of each candidate. To illustrate what I mean by two extreme examples--when voting for one office, I need deC'z-de only between two candidates. I can identify and evaluate each candidate. However, if I were required to vote for a hundred offices, I will be faced with an avalanche of 200 candidates. For example, the election of most of the offices becomes meaningless because I cannot properly identify and evaluate the candidates. Summarizing my criteria for the selection of the system for the election of the county council are. . .first; the effectiveness of my councilmen in the legislativecess. Second. . .firness. Third. . .differentiation of o,andidates. I have already pointed out that now because I am a constituent of all the councilmen, I hadpower over the county legislative process . However, under the present system, a district with a popultion of only a fraction of the population of Kona has one councilman running at-large from his district, whiCle Kona with a much larger population also runs one councilman. I feel this is unfa ir. Also, under the present system, I vote for 9 councilmen. Assuming two candidates to each office, I must keep track of 18 candidates. This isA number much too large for me to differentiate between candidates. I cannot identify -38-