MIN CHARTER 2019-01-25 (2018-2020)

Home

Hawaii County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 become more interested. They don't feel like "well, my guy is not going to win, so I am not going to go." So, it really helps with voter turnout. One of the things I have found in doing some reading on this and it made sense once 1 saw, was that they found that the conduct of campaigns have been improved and there is a lot less candidate criticism and negative campaigning if John Smith and Mr. and someone else are running, well, Jones and Smith may not attack each other because they want to get the second preference of the other candidates vote, so much more sticking to the issues rather than just personal attacks which I think is a very helpful thing for our democracy. And again, there have been no real changes and errors at the polls. There aren't a lot of blank votes, there aren't spoiled ballots, so it has worked where it has been used. CHR. ADAMS: Sir, please summarize. MR. WEATHERFORD: I will. First of all I would say it has to reduce the cost okay, because there are fewer elections. You no longer have the special or primary election, and 1 would consider this a very good follow-up from when we introduce non-partisan elections, and finally, as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, I have lived in a Country and done voting as a citizen where this works and it is very good to see how people go about trying to get first and second preferences. It is a way to nudge our democracy, give people a better say, and keep improving the way we work. Thank you very much for your service. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. If I could ask Rose Schilt please to come to the table. Thank you. Elizabeth Weatherford. ELIZABETH WEATHERFORD: Communication No. 15, commenting. MS. WEATHERFORD: Good afternoon. My name is Elizabeth Weatherford and I drove again also from Puna district this morning to come and talk with you. Thank you very much for serving on the Charter Commission everyone. I thank you for your time and your dedication and I do hope that you will look into what I am about to tell you about. This is what James brought up. Communication No. 15, it introduces language to implement rank choice voting on Hawai`i Island for the offices of Mayor, Prosecuting Attorney, and County Council, so that would be 11 offices at this point. Now, I just heard for the second time today, the statement that our franchise is the most important thing we have. Rank choice voting is a fulfillment of franchise. It is a complete way of voting. You have possibly heard of this in other contexts previous to this as instant runoff voting or preferential voting. James and I are familiar with preferential voting. We became familiar with this way of voting because we are dual citizens with Australia and so we have lived and voted in a system that uses this and I will have to say it is not difficult to understand at all. That is one objection that people come up with immediately that "oh, look at all Page 31