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Think fast: Which Leeward District candidate are you voting for in the Hawaii State Board of Education election this Nov. 2?

You didn’t know there was even a race for that seat, you say? Or that every Oahu voter gets to vote for that district? It seems like most people don’t, and it’s caused the three candidates more than a little frustration. Their names are:

• Maralyn Kurshals
• David O’Neal
• James Arola

They are running in a special election that is going to be held in conjunction with — and on the same ballot as — the General Election. Civil Beat has spoken with all three and is preparing to publish background information about them and their resumes. All Oahu voters cast a ballot for the board of education’s Leeward seat, as well as the Windward and at-large seats, in this election. (Read more about the Board of Education Election 2010.)

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser made no mention of the Leeward District race in about the amendment for an appointed board on Monday:

“Hawaii voters will answer the appointed-board question while also deciding whom to elect to six of the (board of education’s) 14 seats.”

Voters will actually be deciding whom to elect to seven of the board of education’s 13 elected seats if you include the Leeward seat, which Breene Harimoto vacated this summer with two years still remaining in his term. (The 14th seat is occupied by a non-voting student member.)

But the Star-Advertiser isn’t the only outlet that has overlooked “the wicked stepchildren” of this year’s board of education elections, as 43-year-old O’Neal of Waipahu jokingly referred to himself and his two opponents.

“You’re actually the first person that has contacted us to ask any information about us,” he said in a phone call with Civil Beat Monday afternoon, adding that the Star-Advertiser did issue him, Arola and Kurshals a written survey for a voter’s guide.

“Anyone else, we’ve had to chase down.”

He said he suspects most people don’t know about the race because it wasn’t in September’s primary election.

“We were kind of under the radar there,” Kurshals said.

The candidates are suffering not only from a lack of media coverage, but from being overlooked for forums and TV spots, too. (They each have a .

Kurshals didn’t want to name names, but she learned of last week’s candidate forum in Aina Haina two days before it was held, and “only by the grace of one of the (Oahu At-Large) candidates.”

She called the coordinator, who hadn’t even heard of the candidates.

“He said ‘What? You have to be kidding,'” Kurshals said. “He already had everybody’s bio prepared, and their name tags, so he was a little thrown off, but he managed to accommodate us.”

And a broadcast news outlet planning to feature each of the other 10 board of education candidates in its newscast failed to get in touch with the three in the Leeward District. When O’Neal learned of the news spots from a candidate in one of the other districts, he touched base with the outlet and secured a shared spot for him, Kurshals and Arola. The network had not budgeted the resources to give them each their own spot like the other candidates had received.

And O’Neal’s daughter, a student at Kaleiopuu Elementary, brought home a ballot that didn’t have his name on it.

“My daughter’s upset, because here she’s told all her friends that her daddy is running for the board of education, and his name isn’t even on the ballot, so they don’t believe her,” he said, adding that he didn’t know where the Kids Voting Hawaii coordinators had obtained their sample ballot. But the Hawaii lists the Leeward candidates on its sample ballot.

He said it was disconcerting, because many parents probably looked at that sample ballot to help prepare for the election.

The Challenge of A Low-Profile Race

Even filing for the race was confusing, Kurshals said. Because the Leeward race is a special election, the filing date was different than the date for primary race candidates and the filing date for candidates in other special elections.

Candidates could only file within a narrow window of time (Sept. 1 through Sept. 13), and they did not have to obtain the 25 signatures normally required to become a legitimate candidate. But none of that was clear at first, Kurshals explained.

“It’s very difficult to run in this election because it’s not a high-profile race and it’s very difficult to find out information about us,” O’Neal said. “It’s also difficult as a (board of education) candidate, because you don’t have $100,000 to do TV commercials and run a huge campaign.”

Board of education candidates are eligible for a maximum of $50 in public campaign funds. Candidates for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees are eligible for up to $1,500 in public campaign funds.

“It’s kind of weird, and this is one of the areas that has highest need,” Kurshals said of the Leeward area. “It was really kind of frustrating and I think it took a lot of perseverance to get our names filed. We really have to do something to change a lot of that.”