Apathy In Board Of Ed Elections
Despite two years of budget cuts and the unforgettable Furlough Fridays, public interest in choosing who serves on the Hawaii State Board of Education appears to have dropped off significantly in this primary election.
Voters in the City and County of Honolulu could have cast 621,876 votes — three for every voter who turned out — to help narrow the field in the race to fill Oahu’s three at-large seats. Only 57 percent of those votes were actually cast. That’s 13 percent fewer than both the and primaries, when voters cast 70 percent of all possible votes for those seats.
On Maui1, 60 percent of the 28,839 voters who made it to the polls voted for one of three candidates running for the Maui District seat this year. By comparison, 97 percent of them voted in the mayoral race. There was no primary for that board seat the last time two times it was up for election in 2002 and 2006.
The lackluster participation could be a harbinger of things to come on Nov. 2. Some voters may simply remain disinterested in who governs the public school system. Others may be strategically voting for only their one or two favorite candidates in order to give them an edge. Others might be holding out for their chance to reject the elected board altogether and support one whose members are appointed by the next governor, through a proposed constitutional amendment.
And why bother electing board members who may become obsolete within a few months of taking office?
This election cycle created a conundrum for board of education candidates. Some of them could conceivably win board seats on the same night that voters decide to abolish the elected board. Regardless, there are six board seats to fill in November.
Even if the amendment passes, the newly elected members will serve at least a few months until the new Legislature establishes a process for the governor to appoint board members.
There will be two candidates each for five of the seven open seats on the board:
| District | Primary Election Candidates | General Election Candidates | Number of Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oahu At-Large | 11 | 6 | 3 |
| Windward* | n/a | 2 | 1 |
| Maui | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Central | uncontested race | n/a | 1 |
| Leeward** | n/a | 3 | 1 |
Candidates go straight to the general election.
*Special election will be held in conjunction with the general election.
Because incumbent Eileen Clarke ran uncontested in the Central District, she was elected by default at the end of the candidate filing period and did not appear on the primary ballot. She will take office in December.
The three candidates for the Leeward District seat will go straight into a special election to be held in conjunction with the general election. Breene Harimoto vacated the Leeward seat this summer, halfway into his four-year term, in order to run for Honolulu City Council.
Oahu At-Large
The six Oahu at-large candidates who received the most votes in the primary are:
- Pamela Young (11 percent)
- Kim Coco Iwamoto (9 percent)
- Brian Yamane (6 percent)
- Randall Yee (6 percent)
- Roger Takabayashi (6 percent)
- Melanie Bailey (4 percent)
They will go on to a run-off for three available at-large seats in the Nov. 2 general election.
Surprises of the evening: Bailey’s friend Kathy Bryant-Hunter, who worked with her last year successfully lobbying for a bill that established a required amount of instruction time in public schools, lost her bid for a board seat. She received 4,500 fewer votes than Bailey and did not make the cut for the run-off.
Malcolm Kirkpatrick, who said in an August education forum that he had no intention of preserving the Hawaii Department of Education as an institution, received 2.6 percent of the votes. That’s more votes than Roberta Mayor, whose resume includes a long history of turning around struggling school districts in California as an interim and permanent superintendent. Mayor received only 2.5 percent of the total Oahu At-Large votes.
Windward
Windward District candidates Valzey Freitas and incumbent John Penebacker were the only two to file in their district and were therefore automatically nominated for the general election without appearing on the primary ballot.
Maui
Leona Rocha-Wilson and Ray Hart, who received 29 percent and 15 percent of votes, respectively, will compete for the Maui District seat, which is being vacated by two-term board member Mary Cochran.
Although Cochran decided against running again, she encouraged Leona Rocha-Wilson to enter the race for her seat.
To see a full report of all the candidates who competed in the primary, view the Hawaii Office of Elections . NOTE: Randall Yee dropped out of the race shortly after filing his candidacy papers.
