Comm No 0011.01 - Section 13-1 - Definition of Vacancy - Resign to Run

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As long as an elected County official fulfills his/her duties to the office, there is no reason to force the elected official to vacate that office simply because papers are filed to run for another office which begins after that respective term ends. A County elected official who wishes to run for an elected office that begins after his/her term should be treated equally without regard to the office being sought. However, if a County elected official wishes to run for an office, the term of which begins before the end of his/her current elected office, that seat should be considered vacant at the time one's nomination papers are filed to run for election to a non -coterminous office. C. Hawai'i State Constitution. Hawaii State Constitution Article II, Section 7, states that "Any elected public officer shall resign from that office before being eligible as a candidate for another public office, if the term of the office sought begins before the end of the term of the office held." By letter dated May 16, 1986, Council Member Patsy Mink requested an opinion from the Attorney General of the State of Hawaii as to whether Article 11, Section 7 required her to resign to run for another office, the term of which begins on the first Monday of December 1986 and her present council term ends on January 2, 1987. The Attorney General issued Opinion No. 86-17 on July 11, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as "Opinion") wherein she concluded: "We are of the opinion that section 7, article 11 was never intended to apply to officeholders whose successors would be elected at the same election in which they are candidates for another office." A copy of this Opinion is attached as Exhibit "B". The Attorney General's Opinion cited Standing Committee Report No. 72 and included the following discussion to explain the underlying rationale for the "resign to run" provision in the State constitution: Your Committee believes it would be justified to require a person to resign from office before becoming eligible to run for another public office with an overlapping term. By running for another office, the person is in effect saying that he no longer wishes to fulfill the responsibilities of the office to which he was elected, and accordingly he should resign from that office. The voters should not be saddled with an elected public official who no longer wishes to fulfill the duties of the office to which he was elected and will do so only if he fails to win election to the other office. This is not fair to the voters, who elected him to serve a full term, and is a violation of the public trust.