Voting mess
Voting mess
The Democratic caucus in Pahoa for the Puna subdivision of Leilani Estates was the worst disaster I’ve witnessed in 45 years of voting!
My husband and I are Democrats who voted in the 2012 elections. I verified my information and updated my voter ID because of a new Hawaii driver’s license and affirmed existing Democratic Party affiliation.
The site gave me the location and time to cast my vote. We arrived at the site at noon. There were more than 1,000 people in multiple lines stretching three blocks, then merging into a chaotic mass of milling lines.
The location of residence was dependent on which line the voters were supposed to join. Mass confusion ensued because there were five major residential developments, then multiple categories sorted alphabetically by last name for each residential locale.
Workers were overwhelmed as voters were checked against a printed sheet verifying name and residence location.
My name was not on the paper list when we finally made it to the correct line at 2 p.m. However, it was verified on the computer device of the campaign worker.
I had to re-sign a form verifying party to be issued a chit to vote. I am disabled and was denied a place to sit and told I needed to go back to the end of the line to await a voting chit.
The person in charge of my alpha designation refused to accommodate me in spite of pleas from the worker who was assisting me. I was in too much pain to wait another 1 1/2 hours to vote!
JoAnn Kalinowski
Pahoa
We can do it
In Brazil, they are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes to stop the spread of the Zika virus.
This same method was used to stop the Asian carp infestation in Australia.
The daughter-less gene was introduced into the population so all carp born were male. It took awhile, but eventually the population crashed and the infestation came under control.
We can do the same thing in Hawaii by introducing the daughter-less gene into the mongoose population, the coqui frog population and others. We have that ability, we have that science and it has been proven effective and safe.
So, what stops us from doing it? Ask your political representative.
Think of all of the birds that could come back that the mongoose has decimated. It’s the 21st century. We can use what we know to combat problems that are carried over from the 20th century.
Michael F Marlin
Pahoa