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Murashige,Laura ~~~~• ~' ~/~~~~~
From: Marian Wilkins [g-mwilkins@juno.com]
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 10:03 AM
To: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: Resolution 29-09
Attachments: TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF RESOLUTION 29.doc
Attached is testimony for the council meeting on Wed. Jan. 7, 2009. Testimony is on Resolution 29-09.
From: Marian W. Wilkins, 325-6116
73-1410 A Kaloko Dr., Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
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TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF RESOLUTION 29-09
JANUARY 3, 2009
TO: COUNCIL CHAIR, J YOSHIMOTO AND MEMBERS OF THE HAWAII
COUNTY COUNCIL
FROM: MARIAN W. WILKINS
CHAIR, VOTE BY MAIL STUDY, LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF
HAWAII
In 1998 Oregon voters overwhelmingly passed an initiative ballot measure that required
all future elections to be by mail. This measure was spearheaded by the Oregon League
of Women Voters, the Secretary of State and others. Before 1998 Oregon had held two
state elections by mail, but the legislature failed to enact legislation to make such
elections permanent. The reason for this seems to have been that each political group, in
turn, perceived an advantage to the other.
In 1999 our state League studied the issue and the Hawaii County League has taken a
position in support of voting by mail.
Since that time, Oregon has held many state, county and city-wide elections by mail. I
have spoken to officials at the state and county level in Oregon, as well as compliance
officers (they look into allegations of fraud, etc) to find out from them how it was
working. All were enthusiastic. The fear of widespread fraud turned out to be
groundless, as was the fear that there would be outside pressure brought to bear on voters.
Oregon has rules in place and methods to counteract any of the above problems. They
have had time to work out problems and elections run smoothly at all levels of
government.
Of course there were those who were opposed to giving up the tradition of going to a
polling place. But the vote to pass the initiative showed that a great majority of people
understood that, although it was rather sad to give up the ceremony of actually going to a
poll, being able to have the ballot in hand at ones home was a way to enfranchise those
who, for whatever reason, had difficulty voting.
There is the belief that with the advent of permanent absentee voting there will be no
need to vote entirely by mail. It will help, but according to a former Secretary of State of
Oregon, having polling places and large scale absentee voting was the worst of all
possible worlds in terms of logistics and money. The same infrastructure will be needed
for the voting procedure as is needed now. That means all the polling booth
paraphernalia, voting machines, precinct officials, drivers delivering and transporting
ballots and, on and on, will still have to be in place. This does not simplify or save
money, so little is accomplished.
As others will testify, there are many other reasons to have our elections by mail besides
not needing precinct officials or voting machines at each precinct. There would be no
more problems with bad weather; no worrying about getting off work; no hourly time
constraints for voters-they can fill out their ballots at midnight or on holidays; no need
for a baby sitter; no need for transportation; no need to get dressed; and no surprises on
election day, such as, "Good grief, what does that measur8 mean", or "Who in the heck is
that?" A voter can take the time to find out who and what is on the ballot.
This last issue is so important because, in Hawaii, the general public gets almost no
information as to what and who will be on the ballot prior to voting. This problem has
never been solved by our state legislature who must allocate the funds to the state office
of elections to educate the public on election issues. Our legislature has evidently never
considered this to be important enough to spend the money. I know this as a fact because
for all the years I lived on Oahu, the League of Women Voters and other organizations
have lobbied to have this done. So far it hasn't happened.
I feel that everything that can be done to encourage informed voting should be done.
This now can be accomplished by our legislators and council members. Voting by mail as
carried out in Oregon is now within our grasp. And, even better is the fact that it can be
done without a greater expenditure of money.
Several key state legislators already support voting by mail and if our county passes this
resolution it will give momentum to the idea. Our county would then be a state leader in
what is sure to be the wave of the future.
F.Y.O. Multnomah County, Oregon (Portland Metro area) has a short video on how that
county handles the mechanics of voting by mail. It can be accessed by Googleing
Multnomah County Vote by Mail or ' by this address:
http://www.sos.state.onus/electionslvbm/index.html It is well worth watching. As the
saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Thank you,
Marian W. Wilkins
325-6116
73-1410 Kaloko Dr. #A
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740