The Sunshine Blog: Elections Commissioner Gets Kicked Out Of His Own Meeting
Short takes, outtakes, our takes and other stuff you should know about public information, government accountability and ethical leadership in Hawai驶i.
December 20, 2024 · 6 min read
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Robert’s Rules of Disorder: Meetings of the Hawai驶i Elections Commission long ago crossed over from routine and boring agenda-filled assemblies to a theater of the absurd. They continue to be loudly and rudely disrupted by testifiers — and The Blog is sorry to have to break this to you but most of them are self-proclaimed Republicans — who think there’s something fishy about Hawai驶i’s elections. They are most often egged on by Commissioner Ralph Cushnie, who was appointed by the House minority leader (also a Republican).
On Wednesday, the meeting dragged on with more of the same. Testifiers and Cushnie questioned the legitimacy of mail-in voting. Ballot “chain of custody.” Election certification. Whether Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago did this, did that, did not and why not. Local election deniers have been trying to give him the boot for over a year now and, more lately, have been gunning to ax Chair Michael Curtis.
But on Wednesday, it was Cushnie who got the boot. Three hours into Curtis ejected Cushnie from the meeting after the two spent endless minutes arguing over … procedure.
As Cushnie continued to repeat that the chair was violating a rule that guaranteed all members would be allowed to fully participate, Curtis turned to him.
“You’re out of order once. You’re out of order twice,” the chair declared, waving first one and then two fingers at him.
“You’re not allowing anyone to talk,” Cushnie insisted.
“You’re out of the meeting,” Curtis proclaimed. “You’re being ejected from the meeting … for obstructing the agenda.”
Curtis immediately called a five-minute recess to allow Cushnie to remove himself or be removed. The commission staff cut the video but not before one commissioner could be heard to say, “This is ridiculous.”
When the meeting resumed a few minutes later, Cushnie was gone and so was another of the nine commissioners. One of those remaining made a motion to invite Cushnie back in but was outvoted.
To supporters, including some on the commission, Cushnie is bravely waving the flag of “election integrity” in Hawai驶i. But to opponents 鈥 also including some on the commission 鈥 Cushnie is Wreck-It Ralph, unnecessarily prolonging meetings and burdening colleagues, Nago and his staff and the Attorney General’s Office.
And to The Blog? It’s the most entertaining yet sorrowful government forum since the last meeting of the National Assembly of South Korea.
Making up the rules as they go: The Sunshine Blog has often opined that the Hawai驶i Legislature could go a long way toward fixing itself if it would only change its own rules. These are the lengthy missives that specify everything from how committees are to be organized to how bills are to be handled to how lawmakers are supposed to act. The that is about twice as long as .
This year, House leaders have been consulting with their members about possible changes and are expected to form an Advisory Committee on Rules and Procedures in early January to consider proposals to be debated when the Legislature convenes Jan. 15, according to Cathy Lee, director of communications for the House majority (i.e. the Democrats).
Among changes reportedly being looked at are standardizing the release of written testimony ahead of every committee hearing and requiring committee chairs to publicly announce why they are deferring votes on bills, which effectively kills them.
The Blog would go further and take away the power of committee chairs to single-handedly kill bills. Instead, require a full committee vote for a bill to advance or die.
In fact, The Blog has lots of proposals for rule changes, which can be accomplished by simple majority votes in either chamber of the Legislature.
Civic Education, The Sequel: State Rep. Amy Perruso, a former high school social studies teacher, has long championed efforts to bring more civic education to Hawai驶i. Sadly, her efforts have often gone unrewarded.
Undaunted, she tells The Blog she plans to resurrect two proposals in the upcoming legislative session
One would fund the hiring of two full-time civic education specialists to help train Hawai驶i instructors on how to teach the subject. That responsibility currently falls to a single specialist in social studies, a much-broader content area.
A second would push for more instruction in media literacy at a time when misinformation is rampant, sometimes at the highest levels of government.
Perruso says she won驶t be giving one of her other ideas another whirl this session. It would have enabled the Legislature鈥檚 Public Access Room to hire someone to develop an 鈥渙utreach and engagement program鈥 in cooperation with Department of Education and the University of Hawai驶i to help students better understand what goes on at the State Capitol.
Too bad. We would all love to get a better feel for what goes on in the Big Square Building on Beretania.
Freshman error: Tina Grandinetti, a progressive Democrat who won election this fall to represent House District 20 (L膿鈥榓hi, K膩hala, Wai鈥榓lae, Kaimuk墨, Kapahulu), has been penalized $300 by the Hawai驶i Campaign Spending Commission. That’s $100 for not listing the name and address of the candidate who paid for the yard sign 鈥 that is, Grandinetti 鈥 and $100 each for the same violation on two batches of campaign mailers.
The commission, however, dismissed a complaint alleging Grandinetti cited false information on mailers about how, when and where to vote.
The complaints were brought by Steve Libscomb, former chair of the Honolulu County Committee of the Hawai驶i Republican Party.
The freshman representative told the commission Wednesday that she did not dispute the complaints for which she was penalized, and that they were not intentional. She also apologized.
Neal Herbert, the commission chair, thanked Grandinetti for her participation and, on behalf of the commission, congratulated her on her election.
“Welcome to state bureaucracy,” he added with a smile. And a gentle laugh.
Public service announcement: And now a message from Maui County.
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