Hawaii Candidates in the 2008 Elections

Well as November 4th turns into just another day, we find ourselves in a sad state. Hawaii had 691,356 people who registered to vote. There was probably a couple hundred thousand more eligible. Of these almost 700,000 people, only 447,416 of them voted. Probably one half of the eligible population. People were hailing this as a great turn out! The fact that it was the biggest turn out in years, doesn't make it great.

On the Big Island, less then 70,000 people voted in the mayoral race, again probably half of the eligible population.

Our Mayor will have such a huge impact on our future, it is hard for me to respect the decision not to vote in the latest election.

The funny thing is that the people who didn't vote are more then likely the ones that complain the most about the way that the government is. In a democracy we are supposed to use our votes to express our voices, it is sad that so many have lost faith in the system to the point that they don't even vote.

Enough commentary.

In the race for Mayor, County of Hawaii: Billy Kenoi won, with almost 56% of the vote.

Candidate.........Votes..... Percent

KENOI, Billy ......37,362.....55.6%

PILAGO, K. Angel...27,505.....40.9%

In the three remaining county council races, only Dennis Onishi ran away with the victory.

Councilmember, Dist 4

Candidates................Votes......Percent

ONISHI, Dennis (Fresh)....3,646.......64.7%

BACLIG, Andres (Andy).....1,989.......35.3%

Councilmember, Dist 5

Candidates..........Votes.......Percent

NAEOLE, Emily I. .....4,127.......53.31%

SAFARIK, Gary S. .....3,615.......46.69%

Councilmember, Dist 8

Candidate.........Votes.......Percent

GREENWELL, Kelly....3,658.......54.6%

HECHT, Debbie.......3,042.......45.4%

Next we have the Hawaii County Charter Amendments. Remember it took a majority percentage of for of yes votes to win, blanks counted as no.

Hawaii: Windward and Leeward Planning Commissions

......Votes....Percent

YES....38,251....56.91%

NO......22,374......33.29%

BLANK......6,587......9.8%

Hawaii: Initiative and Referendum

......Votes......Percent

YES......32,668......48.6%

NO........22,955......34.15%

BLANK......11,593......17.25%

Hawaii: Office of the Legislative Auditor

......Votes......Percent

YES......28,003......41.66%

NO......27,582......41.03%

BLANK......11,639......17.31%

Hawaii: Civil and Criminal Penalties

......Votes......Percent

YES......36,914......54.92%

NO........20,840......31.01%

BLANK......9,458......14.07%

Hawaii: Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis

......Votes......Percent

YES......35,682......53.1%

NO......25,937......38.6%

BLANK......5,582......8.31%

Finally we have the State Constitution Questions. We will not have a constitutional convention, and the qualifying age to be our governor stays at 35.

We will have the full list of elected officials, their offices and contact information up soon.

This link is a map of the different voting districts on the Big Island, a little hard to understand, but the best I could find for the state offices.

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2008 Hawaii Candidates Blog  
This is the space for opinions. I would like to hear what you guys think about the candidates, and also what issues are important to you. I will probably ...