Comments on Voters Registration

Susan: The population of the Big Island is 162,971 as of 2004. According to Census estimates, 26.1 are under the age of 18. So the adjusted vote count is 162,971(.739) = 120,436. Nationally, about 3 percent of the population is "mentally retarded," with one of the consequences that they normally don't vote. If we adjust 120,436 accordingly, we come out with 116,823. Wikipedia claims the estimated population of Hawaii is 1.27 million, with a resident pop of 1 million, or 78 percent. Honolulu certainly has more military and college kids than the Big Island, so for the sake of discussion, let's cut the 22 percent non resident adjustment in half to 11 percent. Now let's adjust 116,823 by 89 percent and we get 103,972. For the sake of argument, let's round the number to 100,000 to account for those who are too feeble, unstable or refuse to vote becasue of religious beliefs. That leaves essentally 12 percent of the population that is not registered, as opposed to about 30 percent of the people who registered but didn't vote. So I would suggest that registration is not as important as getting people to the polls to vote. How? I propose that we pay $10 to everyone who votes, which would mean about $1 million at most, a lot of money, but certainly a drop in the bucket when compared to a $317 million budget. If that is unacceptable, how about a $25 state tax credit for those who vote. We should also have mobile voting vans going to such places as the resorts and shopping centers to get those who would otherwise not go to the polls. Bobby



Susan: Please remember that in 2004 all your County officials were elected in the Primary in September. No one voted for County officials in November. You must urge people to vote in the primary if they wish to make a difference in County politics. November is too late unless there's a run-off. Your flyer is mis-leading.

Pete Hoffmann

Aloha Susan:You might remind people that it is important to vote during the primary -many things can be decided before the actual election. Paul Kaminski