Neighborhood Board Elections Begin Friday
Oahu residents will choose among more than 500 candidates to sit on 36 boards representing the island’s neighborhoods.
It’s voting season again.
Starting Friday, Oahu residents will be able to vote for their neighborhood board representatives using a secret passcode sent to them in the mail. Oahu has 36 neighborhood boards, and over 500 candidates are running in this year’s election for seats on them.
The elections will run from April 26 to May 17.
What’s a neighborhood board? Civil Beat put together a video last year explaining that.
Former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi created the board system in 1973 in an effort to increase community engagement. Vehicle safety checks and moped registration have been among the measures proposed by the boards, according to a press release.
The boards can also be springboards for political careers. Rep. Dale Kobayashi of Manoa chaired his neighborhood board, as did Sen. Kurt Fevella and his opponent in last year’s general election, former state Rep. Matt LoPresti.
