Voting in Hawai'i: an interesting experience

After having watched Colin receive his absentee ballot extremely late a few years ago, very early on I applied for my Absentee Ballot from Hawai'i, and it arrived this past Friday. Voting Absentee really takes away all the allure of going to the polling station and enacting your civic duty; a plus is really getting to enjoy the language and amendments being proposed. There are two items that particularly stand out to me, the first being the number of federal presidential options presented for a state with the lowest representation in the country, worth only 2 votes in the Electoral College.

(C) Baldwin, Chuck for President
Castle Darrell L. for Vice President

(L) Barr, Bob for President
Root, Wayne A. for Vice President

(R) McCain, John for President
Palin, Sarah for Vice President

(G) McKinney, Cynthia for President
Clemente, Rosa for Vice President

(I) Nader, Ralph for President
Gonzalez, Matt for Vice President

(D) Obama, Barack for President
Biden Joe for Vice President

This is the exact order and language in which they appear. Where did they get this ordering from? Is it based on the party? Why does the Republican nominee sit between the Libertarian and Green nominees? I am surprised the Libertarians and Independents could even get on the ticket in Hawai'i. Anyway, these questions undoubtedly will be left unanswered, but the real coal lies in the column headed, "Proposed Amendment by Initiative to the Hawaii County Code," without a doubt the longest issue listed on the entire ballot, whose language is as follows:

Proposal: The proposal would add an article to the Hawai‘i County Code titled and to be known as the “Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance”. The proposed article would direct law enforcement officials of the County of Hawai‘i to treat the “adult personal use” of Cannabis as its lowest law enforcement priority and prohibit the county from accepting or expending funds for the marijuana eradication program and for enforcing potential offenses for the adult personal use of Cannabis. It requires the Hawai‘i County Council to work with the Chief of Police to establish procedures for the acceptance of grievances for those who believe the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority provisions have been violated by local law enforcement and requires that the County Clerk send a letter on an annual basis to federal and state legislators requesting that State and Federal laws pertaining to private and personal adult use of Cannabis be repealed.

Present Provision: The Hawai‘i County Code does not contain laws relating to Cannabis or the priorities of local law enforcement.

Ballot Question 1: Should the Hawai‘i County Code be amended to add a new article that would be titled and known as the “Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance”, which would (1) direct the county to make law enforcement related to Cannabis (marijuana) offenses, when the Cannabis is only intended for adult personal use, their lowest law enforcement priority; (2) define “adult personal use” to include the use of Cannabis on private property only by persons twenty one years of age or older; (3) prevent county law enforcement officials from accepting deputization or commissions from a federal law enforcement agency for purposes of investigating, citing, or arresting citizens or searching or seizing their property if doing so is inconsistent with the lowest law enforcement priority of Cannabis ordinance; (4) prohibit the Hawai‘i County Council from authorizing the acceptance of or issuing funding to be used to investigate, cite, arrest, prosecute, search or seize property from adults when doing so would be inconsistent with the lowest law enforcement priority for Cannabis policy; (5) and direct the County Council not to support the acceptance of any funds for the marijuana eradication program?


Well, just you put that in your pipe and smoke it.