The World-Wide Web Virtual Library [Alphabetical || Category Subtree || WWW VL database]

Vincent K. Pollard
Editor, Hawai‘i Politics WWW VL

You have arrived at the Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library! Officially part of the Pacific Studies WWW Virtual Library, this annotated directory serves information and referral needs of students, teachers, journalists, advocates, social scientists, foundations and social service agencies.

Spelling of Hawaiian words in the name of an organization follows the usage of the organization. Occasionally, for example, you may notice what, under different circumstances, would be an omission of the ‘okina (a consonant, for example, between the final two vowels of Hawai‘i) and the kahako to mark long vowels (for example, in the first syllable of Mānoa). Otherwise, please inform the editor if diacritical errors have crept into this project.

If your computer's operating system or browser incompatibility interferes with clickability of hyperlinks above, scroll down to the desired topic.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• For Hawai‘i history, culture, art and science, visit the Hawaiian Collection in Hamilton Library.

• Download a zoomable color topographic map of historic and active volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands, courtesy of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

• Classes in Hawaiian studies and language are taught at Hawai‘inuiākea (School of Hawaiian Knowledge), University of Hawai‘i - Mānoa.

• Also, visit Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language, at the University of Hawai‘i - Hilo. In the UH System, Hawaiian studies classes are also offered on the community college campuses.

• Learn from legends collected in Dennis Kawaharada's clickable map of Traditions of O‘ahu: Stories of an Ancient Island.

• And visit the Bernice P. Bishop Museum (The State Museum of Cultural and Natural History) and the Mānoa Heritage Center.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• For quick reference, consult Significant Dates in the History of Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i History Moments from The Hawaiian Historical Society.

• In 2005, the UH launched a Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law in the Richardson School of Law.

• See the Hawai‘i Gallery at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

• The Strategic Planning and Implementation Group/Research & Evaluation Division of Kamehameha Schools publishes a variety of research on education and other issues affecting Hawaiian youth.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

Using larger ships than earlier, technically adept Polynesian long-distance ocean voyagers, Chinese and Europeans share the stage in comprehensive world history research with these skilled sailors in the Pacific Islands.

A comparative sense of distance aids our appreciation of early Polynesian sailors' nautical achievements.

For example, at least as early as the Six Dynasties period in China (479-589 C.E.), long-distance Polynesian voyagers navigated by the stars, sailing distances as long as and even longer than that between China and Africa — or between Spain and Cuba.

Among their peers, long-distance ocean voyagers from the Marquesas (today's French Polynesia) probably arrived in what is now Hawai‘i no later than the early Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.), that is, at some point between 500 C.E. and 700 C.E. Later, long-distance voyagers from Tahiti also sailed to Hawai‘i.

To reconstruct directional aids used by Polynesian navigators, consult the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Navigating by the Stars." That is excerpted from Rāwiri Taonui, "Canoe Navigation, Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated March 2009.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

In the early 1800s, ships from all over the world visited Hawai‘i. For almost seventy years from the mid-1820s until 1893, the Kingdom of Hawai‘i exchanged representatives and engaged in diplomatic relations with governments in Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific.

In 1843, Great Britain and France agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the then-recently unified Kingdom of Hawai‘i. In addition to that recognition, representatives of the following twenty European, North American, Asian and Pacific governments signed a combined total of twenty-nine or more treaties of mutual recognition, trade and commerce and other international agreements with the Kingdom of Hawai‘i at the dates indicated below:

Western, Central Europe:

• Great Britain, 1836, 1846.

• France, 1839, 1846, 1858.

• Denmark, 1846.

• Hamburg, 1848.

• Bremen, 1854.

• German Empire, 1879, 1880.

• Sweden-Norway (then united), 1855.

• Belgium, 1862.

• Netherlands, 1862.

• Italy, 1863.

• Spain, 1863.

• Swiss Confederation, 1864.

• Portugal, 1882.

• U.S.A.


1826 (commerce).

1842 (recognition of Hawai‘i's independence).

1849 (friendship, commerce, and navigation; ratified, 1850).

1875 (Reciprocity Treaty).

1884 (Supplementary Convention; ratified, 1887).

Eurasia:

• Russia, 1869.

• Japan, 1871, 1886.

• Tahiti,
  (while retaining residual sovereignty as a French "protectorate"), 1853.

• New South Wales
  (later incorporated into Australia), 1874.

• Hong Kong
  (British crown colony), 1884.

• Samoa
  (before occupation, division and colonization by the U.S. and Germany), 1887.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• A "13-cent Blue" Kingdom of Hawaii postage stamp was first printed in 1850 or 1851.

• On 1 January 1882, the Kingdom signed the Treaty of Berne, joining the Universal Postal Union (established as the General Postal Union, 1874) and following its regulations for international mail.

• View postcards issued by the Kingdom in 1882, 1889 and 1892.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• During the last twenty-five years of the nineteenth century, Britain and other European powers, Japan, and the U.S. grabbed territory in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and/or the Pacific with accelerated rapidity.

• On 31 October 1883, Ke Ali‘i Bernice Pauahi Paki Bishop (1831-1884) signed her final will and testament. In Section 13 of the Princess's will, she indicates the funding, intended priorities and administration of the Kamehameha Schools.

• By the early 1890s, descendants of European settlers had fought a series of wars of conquest against Native American tribes in the southwestern part of what is now the United States. Constitutionally weakened and caught in the cross-hairs of this westward trend, the Hawaiian Kingdom was unable to escape the reach of the imperialist net.

• With a wink and a nod from U.S. minister John L. Stevens, the rebel Annexation Club and Committee of Safety benefited from an show of force by a U.S. Marine Corps battalion under his control. Encouraged by U.S. military intervention, the cabal of mostly-Caucasian sugar plantation owners arrested Queen Lili‘uokalani on 17 January 1893.

• Having overthrown the constitutional monarchy, the rebels set up a provisional government. No opposition was expressed by lame-duck President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893).

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• An annexation treaty was signed by President Benjamin Harrison on 14 February 1893 and submitted to the Senate. But no action was taken by the Senate before Harrison's term in office ended on 4 March 1893. Thus, the first annexation treaty was not ratified.

• At that point, Grover Cleveland was inaugurated as President — in the second of two nonconsecutive terms (1893-1897). Cleveland withdrew the first of the two annexation treaties.

• Late in 1893, Cleveland repudiated the overthrow. In his message to Congress on 18 December 1893, he pointed out that Queen Lili‘uokalani (1891-1893) "had been contemplating the proclamation of a new constitution" and that this knowledge was the pretext for the revolt by American "resident aliens." Cleveland emphasized that "the Provisional Government owes its very existence to an armed invasion by the United States." He further criticized the overthrow of "the constitutional ruler of the islands" as "an act of war." Accordingly, President Cleveland refused to support "annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the territory of the United States."

• Despite Grover Cleveland's criticism of the overthrow, his opposition remained circumscribed. Whether unable or perhaps simply unwilling, Cleveland did not redress the balance of forces in favor of the overthrown Hawaiian government. And to that extent, he acquiesced in the overthrow.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The rebels emphasized their desire to be annexed by the United States, the rebels proclaiming their "Republic of Hawaii" on the symbolic American anniversary of 4 July 1894.

• Despite misgivings of individual Members of Congress, most of them ignored Hawaiians' protests. Among protesters were thousands of Hawaiian women. In 1897 and 1898, they signed anti-annexation petitions. A number of other non-aboriginal Hawaiian citizens also signed. On this topic, research by University of Hawai‘i scholars like Noenoe K. Silva is seminal.

• On 4 March 1897, President William McKinley took office. And on 16 June 1897, he signed a (second) annexation treaty. President Sanford Dole of the rebel Republic signed it, and the Senate of that Republic ratified it on 10 September 1897.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• In 1897, Japan's Foreign Minister OKUMA Shigenobu did protest U.S. efforts to annex the rebel republic, suggesting that a plebiscite over annexation be held in Hawai‘i. But Japan did not insistently follow up on that protest. According to Urs Matthias Zachmann, most Japanese politicians and interested Japanese publics had a positive image of the United States (SOURCE: Urs Matthias Zachmann, "China's Role in the Process of Japan's Cultural Self-Identification, 1895-1904," Ph.D. dissertation, Munich University, 2006). As Professor Zachmann also points out, only a few Japanese newspapers opposed American annexation of Hawai‘i. Apparently, Okuma's protest accelerated American interest in annexation.

• In a note written on 14 August 1897, U.S. Secretary of State John Sherman (1897-1898) rebuffed Japan's Minister Toru HOSHI, claiming in Lockean fashion that "in international comity and practice the will of a nation is ascertained through the established and recognized government, and it is only through it that the nation can speak" (SOURCE: Toru HOSHI, quoted in John Basset Moore, A Digest of International Law, vol. 1 [1906], p. 274). However, Hoshi's eagerness to leave Washington, D.C., in June 1898, Zachman argues, surely weakens any claim that he cared much about Hawaiian independence.

• Despite the eagerness of the rebel Republic, annexation advocates in President McKinley's party realized that they would likely fail to elicit support from the required two-thirds supermajority in the U.S. Senate for a treaty of annexation.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• By the summer of 1897, public discussion was shifting to discussion of the merits of a Congressional resolution to take the Hawaiian Islands since it was increasingly obvious that President McKinley would not convince two thirds of the U.S. Senate to ratify a treaty of annexation.

• One year later during the Asian phase of the Spanish-American War (1898), the Congressional Newlands Resolution "To Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States" provided cover for imposing U.S. rule over the Hawaiian Islands. "The annexation of Hawaii.....must be seen as part of [the 1898] spasm of US global expansion"
(SOURCE: Jon M. Van Dyke, "Reconciliation between Korea and Japan," Chinese Journal of International Law, vol. 5, no. 1 [2006], p. 224).

• In case there is any doubt about the international law documentation, none of the following five comprehensive published sources cites an annexation treaty or any other agreement with the rebel Republic in 1898, although each of these volumes does index treaties with the "Hawaiian Islands" into which the United States entered before 1893:

Igor I. Kavass (comp., ed.), United States Treaty Index: 1776-1990 Consolidation.
Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 1991. Vol. 1. Master guide (in numerical order) — TS, EAS and AD Series.

Igor I. Kavass (comp., ed.), United States Treaty Index: 1776-1990 Consolidation.
Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 1991. Vol. 6: Chronological Index, 1776-1967.

Igor I. Kavass (comp., ed.), United States Treaty Index, 1776-1990: Consolidation.
Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 1993. Vol. 12: Geographical Subject Index.

Igor I. Kavass (comp., ed.), United States Treaty Index, 1776-1990: Consolidation.
Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 1995. Vol. 8 [1995 Revision]: Country Index — Abu Dhabi to Luxembourg.

Igor I. Kavass (comp., ed.), United States Treaty Index: 1776-1990 Consolidation.
Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., 1995. Vol. 12 [1995 Revision]: Geographical Subject Index.

• The 1898 Newlands Resolution was a devious substitute for an annexation treaty and as a vehicle for seizing territory. However, asserting that Congressional resolutions¹ generally lack effective force of statutes and other legal instruments will undermine the credibility of the critique. On the contrary, for more than 200 years, the force and focus of resolutions passed by Congress have been quite diverse. According to James Madison's transcript of proceedings at the Federal Convention in 1787, that is what the authors of the U.S. Constitution expected — in some cases, with misgivings.

¹Vincent K. Pollard, "Resolutions, Joint," in Robert E. Dewhirst (ed.), Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2006), pp. 442-443.

• And during 4 December 1899 - 7 June 1900, Congress debated matters affecting the Hawaiian Islands. In the end, Congress passed "An Act to Provide a Government for the Territory of Hawaii." This law is also called the "Organic Act" (Act of April 30, 1900, C 339, 31 Stat 141).

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• McKinley's presidency ended with his assassination in the first year of his second term (1901). Succeeding McKinley, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became President (1901-1909), having later been elected to a term in his own right.

• Shortly after World War I (1914-1918), the League of Nations (1920-1946) was established. Pursuant to Article 22 of the League's Covenant, a Permanent Mandates Commission was appointed. Former colonies of Germany and its wartime allies were "mandated" to Britain, France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand or Japan under the supervision the Permanent Mandates Commission. In the condescending language of the Covenant, the people of those colonies were "not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world." Hawai‘i was not included as a "mandate," trusteeship or protectorate of the League, because the United States was on the winning side in World War I but more importantly because the U.S. refused to join the League.

• Nonetheless, after the establishment of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, Hawai‘i was placed on the UN's list of Non-Self-Governing Trust Territories.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The eHawaii.gov portal links you to State and city/county government agencies and officials.

• Hawai‘i residents may e-mail their concerns to members of the State of Hawai‘i House of Representatives and the Senate.

• Although the State constitution does not yet permit citizen initiative of legislation for a referendum vote, many State legislators will submit "by request" bills written by their constituents.

• Follow Hawaii Legal and Law Links to the State Constitution, laws, regulations and court orders.

• In 2008, Hawai‘i voters decided against holding a Constitutional Convention in 2010.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

The flowchart above depicts the most common alternative pathways whereby a "bill" (a proposed law) originating in the Hawai‘i State House of Representatives becomes a statute, in other words, how it is passed into law by the Hawai‘i State Legislature and signed by the Governor. To make progress and to stay "alive," every bill must pass through three successive so-called "readings" in the House and in the Senate. If a bill fails to move forward to the next step on any pathway shown in the flowchart, it will "die." After a third "reading" in the Hawai‘i Senate, a bill may follow either of two main pathways. Also, if the governor vetoes a bill, it is "dead" for that legislative session unless a 2/3 supermajority in each house subsequently overrides that veto.

• The general procedure outlined above is also followed in the case of bills that are first introduced in the State Senate. In that case, after the bill is acted upon in the Senate, the House of Representatives will consider it.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The Legislative Reference Bureau manages the Hawai‘i Public Access Room for any person who walks in or sends an e-mail, as well as a research library for State Legislators.

• A "bill" is a proposed law. In addition to to providing information on about other developments at the State Capitol at the Public Access Room's website also lets you track the progress of bills as they eventually are enacted into law — or as they fail to overcome obstacles posed by the legislative process.

• 90% of all bills initially fail.

• After a date has been announced for hearings on pending legislation by one or more committees of the Hawai‘i State Legislature, testimony by supporters or opponents of a bill may be submitted in person, by fax or letter, or as e-mail.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• "Law-related education activities for students, teachers and the general public" are offered by the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center of Hawai‘i.

• What is Hawai‘i's "Sunshine Law"? Learn the rules requiring open meetings and the conditions governing secret meetings, according to documents from the Office of Information Practices.

• Identity theft is on the increase in Hawai‘i, according to the Hawai‘i Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Protect your personal information from being stolen.

• Consult Hawaii State and Local Government for the following kinds of information: city guides; Statewide offices; Legislative Branch; Judicial Branch; Executive Branch; boards and commissions; regional; county; city; other resources; and libraries. (Pull down the "Select State" menu.)

• As a back-up resource, try Yahoo's Hawai‘i Index.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• As a result of political changes since the 1840s, the current status of land titles in Hawai‘i is complex. Search land records in four databases at Waihona ‘Aina. Online searches are free, but you must pay a $10.00 fee per record retrieved. University of Hawai‘i students may retrieve a limited number of free copies of land records from Waihona ‘Aina after consulting a reference librarian in the Hawaiian Collection, Hamilton Library.

• Look up the meaning of ordinary Hawaiian words and crosscheck variant spellings and translations of Hawaiian place names in Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary. This Dictionary also provides links to the Māhele Database and other valuable resources. World Lingo has links to a few additional online Hawaiian dictionaries.

• The State Government, the U.S. Armed Forces and tourism dominate Hawai‘i's economy. In 2000, the small business share of the State's economy was one of the lowest in all 50 States. To find out how tourism, terrorism and teacher shortages affect the economy, consult the State of Hawai‘i Data Book and other documents of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

• 76% of those polled in the "2006 Survey of Residents on Tourism in Hawaii" were opposed building more hotels.

• Compared to the rest of the U.S., average (mean) income of workers in Hawai‘i in 2004 ($36,300.00) was slightly lower than the national average ($37,020.00). That year, seventeen States and the District of Columbia ranked higher. Median income in the U.S. was $28,770.00 in 2004.

• Two years later, while Hawai‘i had "the lowest unemployment rate in the nation," according to Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter Nina Wu, it also had "a higher-than-average rate of individuals holding more than one job" in 2006.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Visit "Soldiers of Solidarity" links to websites of almost fifty Hawai‘i labor unions at XPDNC - Hawaii Labor Links.

• Consult the handy Hawai‘i Profiles from the latest U.S. Census.

• The Hawaiian Data Book (1998, 2002 and 2006 editions) offers recent population, income, housing, land, education, human services, health and crime information and trend data on Kanaka Maoli. That name is increasingly prefered by many native Hawaiians. (To access the earlier editions, pull down the "Media/Publications" menu.)

• The 2008 edition should be available online in August 2009 (a year later) or shortly thereafter.

• See also Native Hawaiian Health and the closely related Hawai‘i Uninsured Project, affiliated with the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs.

• Health and the economy in Hawai‘i also are affected by weather patterns. The basics are explained in geographer Dennis Nullett's module in the Asia-Pacific Digital Library.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• In the 1990s, massive outmigration of local-born people and others totaled 100,000. That number equaled about 10% of the total population before the end of the decade. Limited job opportunities, taxes on working people shockingly higher than the median for the U.S., and the high price of owning or renting a home may continue to drive this trend.

• While Hawai‘i's overall population continues to increase, only two States experienced higher outmigration by local residents than Hawai‘i during 1995-2000.

• Also during the 1990s, local births and immigration (from Asia, the Pacific, and continental U.S.) led a population increase to 1.2 million in 2000. Meanwhile, military personnel and their families may account for as much as one sixth of Hawai‘i residents. On the latter point, scroll down to "More local activism," below.

• Continuing a trend that began in the 1960s, 17.9% of Hawai'i people were born outside the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. That's more than one-sixth of the local population. By way of contrast, only three States have a higher percentage. In 2000, fully one fourth of urban Honolulu residents were born outside the U.S. Only fourteen comparable urban areas in the U.S. have higher percentages of people born outside the U.S.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• According to Census Bureau estimates for 2004, native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders in Hawai‘i declined to 279,651.

• According to a May 1998 projection by University of Hawai‘i Professor of Social Work Jon Matsuoka and his UH colleagues Cathleen Lum and Sonja Ome (later summarized by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin), the continuing outmigration was expected have reduced the local-born proportion of the Hawai‘i population to less than half by 2004.

• Nonetheless, during 2000-2050, the native Hawaiian population in the State of Hawai‘i will likely more than double in size while increasing a bit faster in the continental U.S. during the same period.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

Consulting the following public and private resources and references may be helpful in tracing your family's genealogy in Hawai‘i:

Departments of the State of Hawai‘i:

• Department of Accounting and General Services -- Hawai‘i State Archives.

• Department of Land & Natural Resources - Bureau of Conveyances.
(The Bureau examines, records, indexes, and microfilms over 344,000 Regular System and Land Court documents and maps annually; issues Land Court Certificates of Title; certifies copies of matters of record; and researches UCC requests.)

• Department of Hawaiian Homelands - Applications Branch.

• Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring - Vital Records Section.
(Search for and request copies of birth and death certificates).

• Hawai‘i State Library.

Private, commercial organizations that assist genealogical research:

• Alu Like, Inc.

• Hawaiian Roots.

• Family History Center.

• Genealogy, Family Trees and Family History Records online - Ancestry.com.

Among alternative energy resources are the following:

• Renewables and Unconventional Energy in Hawaii, a report by Warren Bollmeier (with Tom Loudat and Prahlad Kasturi) for the Hawaii Energy Policy Project of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, November 2003.

• "Hawaii Should Ride the Tide of Wave Energy," guest editorial by Cynthia Thielen, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 3 October 2005.

• Renewable energy technologies and policies from the Strategic Industries Division of the Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

• Renewable Hawaii, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO). Dissenting from that corporate perspective, well-informed environmentalists have criticized HECO's advocacy of renewables based on fossil-fuel energy. (It is not clear whether Renewable Hawaii has been folded into another division of HECO — or if it simply has folded altogether! The hyperlink in this paragraph takes the web surfer to Renewable Hawaii's web pages for the period 13 June 2003 - 13 February 2006.)

• A service of Energy Associates, the ClimateCorps encyclopedia is assisting changes to mitigate the effects of global warming and to help save life on earth.

• See also "More local activism," below.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Online Honolulu Star-Bulletin archives date back to 18 March 1996. Accessing them is free. The Star-Bulletin is published by Oahu Publications, Inc. Black Press Ltd. of British Columbia, Canada, acquired the Star-Bulletin in March 2001.

• Oahu Publications also publishes MidWeek "and military newspapers."

• A Gannett chain newspaper, The Honolulu Advertiser provides free coverage only for the most recent eight-week period. Readers must pay an access fee to access articles published more than two months ago. That coverage extends as far back as 1 January 1999.

• According to the About Us section of the Advertiser's website, it also earns revenue from publishing three military newspapers — for the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. (Scroll down to "The Honolulu Advertiser Today" section of that newspaper's web page.) Gannett Pacific, the parent corporation, also publishes other local community-focused newspapers.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Readers of The Garden Island (Kaua‘i) reside mainly on the islands of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau. This newspaper is published by the Kauai Publishing Company which, in turn, is owned by Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa.

• The Hawaii Tribune Herald (Big Island) provides online online archives from August 2004 until the present.

• Also for a fee, visit Hawaii Business Magazine — with archives from July 2000 until the present.

• Search the online archives Pacific Business News (Honolulu) from 1996 to the present. The earlier, hard-copy edition of Pacific Business News began publishing in 1964.

• Share your insights and complaints with other local media critics. Visit and participate in Poinography!

• Malia Zimmerman (co-founder of the Grassroots Institute of Hawaii) has edited the hyperconservative Hawaii Reporter since 2001. Headquartered in Honolulu, this activist pro-business newspaper shares an epistemic community and spiritual mindset with Fox News Network.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• KHON TV, Channel 2 (Formerly, Emmis Communications Corporation; now Montecito Broadcast Group LLC; affiliated with Fox Television Network).

• KITV TV, Channel 4 (Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.; affiliated with ABC). Relay stations: KHVO Channel 13 (Digital Channel 18), Hilo; KMAU Channel 12 (Digital Channel 29), Wailuku; and K51BB Channel 51, Lihue.

• In August 2009, KHNL, KGMB and "K5" announced that they would be combining news operations but not changing ownership while econtinuing the separate channels:

• KHNL TV, Channel 8 (Raycom Media, Inc.; affiliated with NBC).

• KGMB TV, Channel 9 (Emmis Communications Network until early 2007; affiliated with CBS; purchased by Virginia-based MCG Capital Inc. subsidiary HITV Operating Co. Inc.).

• "K5" — or KFVE — is a Raycom Media Station.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• KMEB TV, Channel 10 (Hawaii Public Television).

• KHET TV, Channel 11 (Hawaii Public Television).

• KWHE TV, Channel 14 (LeSEA Broadcasting Corporation; independent ("the best in Christian inspirational programming in conjunction with the best in family friendly entertainment").

• KIKU TV, Channel 20 (independent).

• KBFD TV, Channel 32 (The Allen Broadcasting Corporation; independent).

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

In addition to commercial network-affiliated and independent television stations, six community access cable TV stations operate in Hawai‘i under the umbrella of ‘Ôlelo Community Television for a variety of civic, educational, cultural and other purposes.

24-hour web streaming and other programming from ‘Ôlelo Channels 49, 52, 53 and 54 is provided by OleloNet:

‘ÔleloNet on Demand

FOCUS 49 Livestream, "sessions of the Hawai‘i State Legislature, neighborhood boards and other local, non-series community-based programs..... and community-produced election-oriented programs."

OAHU 52 Livestream, "community programming ranging from arts and entertainment to sports and recreation."

NATV 53 Livestream, "programming by and about Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and other indigenous cultures."

VIEWS 54 Livestream, "gavel-to-gavel coverage of Neighborhood Board meetings, City Council and [State Legislature] meetings, issue-oriented talk shows and special programs."

Traffic View Livestream

Channel 55, credit and not-for-credit University of Hawai‘i classes.

Channel 56, educational access, Grades K-12.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• From the Hawaii Online Radio Stations website, tune in to live feed from 21 local stations.

• 87 radio stations are searchable by location of their studios and format (genre) of music played. About 90% of these AM and FM radio stations have their own websites. Already by mid-2006, many were broadcasting online.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Hearkening back to an earlier Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement of the 1890s, the Hawaiian Renaissance and the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement of the 1960s and 1970s made noticeable political and cultural gains.

• To a limited degree, the State of Hawai‘i has been officially bilingual since 1978. The Hawai‘i Constitution lists Ka ‘Ôlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian) as one of two "official languages of Hawaii." However, under Article XV, Section 4, use of Hawaiian is required only in sitations mandated by the State Legislature.

• In a diverse, vibrant Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement, activist organizations pursue complementary and competing objectives, including restoration of Hawaiian independence.

• Almost fifty years of naval and aerial bombardment of Kaho‘olawe Island began with the declaration of martial law in December 1941. Public protests, civil disobedience and other inventive forms of contentious politics ensued in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush (1989-1993) ordered Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney to discontinue using Kaho‘olawe as a weapons range.

• In 1993, the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission was created "to have policy and management oversight of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve." On 11 November 2003, the U.S. Navy transferred the Island to the State of Hawai‘i.

• Apparently as a matter of "'intertemporal law'" (SOURCE: Jon M. Van Dyke, cited above, pp. 225-227), in 1993 the 103rd U.S. Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 19 (pub. l. 103-150 [Public Law, 103rd Congress, no. 150]; 107 Stat. 1510 [U.S. Code, Statutes at Large, vol. 107, Session Law 1510]). Known as the "Apology Resolution," it apologizes to native Hawaiians for the U.S. role in overthrowing the Hawaiian Monarchy and was signed by President Bill Clinton.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The 1993 apology did not extend to descendants of non-Hawaiian citizens of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1893. These were primarily Chinese and Portuguese. Excluding them arguably opened the door to creating a racialized category of Hawaiians. Vigorously disputing that characterization, supporters of assert that it is purely political. Nonetheless, the exclusion has also left any measure of justice for Hawaiians open to criticisms in the media and challenges in court by those non-Hawaiians who resist acknowledging any implications of the 1893 Overthrow.

• In 2000, Hawaiians-only voter and candidate eligibility in elections of trustees to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (Article XII, Section 5) was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court's decision catalyzed reflection on goals and tactics by the Sovereignty Movement.

• In 2000 and subsequently, nine or more increasingly weaker versions of the Akaka Bill were introduced in Congress. In some respects, the version introduced in 2009 reversed this trend. Sponsored by Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawai‘i, the bill's short title is the "Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act." If and when this bill becomes law, the Polynesian Kanaka Maoli may acquire a political status analogous to Native American tribes, although Hawai‘i is not part of North America.

• In 2006 and for the first time, a watered-down version of the Akaka Bill was debated on the floor of the full Senate. Because a motion for "cloture" (to end debate) failed, the Akaka Bill failed to move forward to an up-or-down vote. In 2009 or 2010, passage may become a reality.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Legislation like the Akaka Bill may eventually lead to a degree of improved political or economic status for some Native Hawaiians. But if a future U.S. Government-approved self-determination process is narrowly linked to a racialized definition of "Hawaiian" like the 50% blood quantum, it is likely to continue setting Hawaiians against one another.

• As of March 2007, according to Attorney Mililani Trask, Native Hawaiian organizations were not allowed to testify concerning the second and later versions of the Akaka Bill (SOURCE: "Kanaka Maoli, the US and International Law: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 9 March 2007).

• Also, advocates of an independent Hawai‘i and others wonder if the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) will merely reinvent itself if the "Recognition Bill" becomes law. In that scenario, will the new government (a reinvented OHA?) settle too hastily for too little in Crown lands and government lands or in cash payments to a tiny minority of Hawaiians?

• "At least 50 acres of ceded land" are occupied by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, according to Nai‘a Watson in "Restitution for Mānoa ceded lands" (Ka Leo O Hawai‘i, 11 December 2006). On the UH - Mānoa campus, government and Crown lands are shaded green on a map published by the Territory of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources in May 1943. Click on any section of the map to enlarge it. (That file may require twenty seconds to open up.)

• Details on the 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case ("State of Hawaii vs. Office of Hawaiian Affairs") are available from the Kupu‘āina Coalition.

• View videos of speeches by Native Hawaiian activists engaged in a counterdemonstration on the fiftieth anniversary of Statehood (or "Fakehood") in 2009. Footage from related, earlier demonstrations are linked to the same YouTube website.

• Findlaw's Indian and Native People's Law provides related materials.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Perspectives on Hawaiian Sovereignty differing from OHA's views are sponsored by the Pacific Asia Council of Indigenous Peoples and Cyber Wave, Inc.

• According to scholars J. Kêhaulani Kauanui, Noenoe K. Silva, Jodi Byrd and Jon Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio, misconceptions about Federal Court decisions on Kamehameha School's current all-Hawaiian admissions policy should not be conflated with fundamental Hawaiian sovereignty issues or used to stampede uninformed support for the Akaka Bill.

• Centered on the Hawaiian Journal of Law and Politics, advocates of a "deoccupation" perspective argue that Hawai‘i should never have been placed on the United Nations Trusteeship list in the first place. Conversely, the "decolonization" perspective gives greater emphasis to empirical, historical behavior of governments and social movements.

• J. Kêhaulani Kauanui's article "The Multiplicity of Hawaiian Sovereignty Claims and the Struggle for Meaningful Autonomy," Comparative American Studies, vol. 3, no. 3 (2005), pp. 283-299, distinguishes between "deoccupation" and "decolonization" perspectives.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Meanwhile, Umi Perkins quotes Jonathan K. Osorio on the belief systems embraced by the two competing perspectives: "'One side [i.e., the deoccupationist perspective] places faith in the rituals of law; the other [i.e., the decolonization perspective] believes in the importance of ancestry and ethnic distinction'." In stylized fashion, Perkins contrasts the two competing views of "Hawaiian Land and Sovereignty" (SOURCE: Umi Perkins, "Teaching Land and Sovereignty—A Revised View," Hawaiian Journal of Law & Politics, vol. 2 (Summer 2006), p. 106).

• Grounded partly in legal formalism, the law-focused "deoccupation" perspective has strengths and limitations. While it highlights imperial double standards, it also underrates the fact that most international law treatises published in the 1880s and 1890s increasingly favored intervention and military action as a way of settling bilateral disputes (Charles W. Kegley, Jr., and Gregory A. Raymond, After Iraq: The Imperiled American Imperium (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) Figure 6.1.)

• In most "decolonization" perspectives, rule by foreigners is sometimes seen as one point in a long march to self-rule. Some adherents of the "decolonization" perspective also differ with "deoccupationists" on their goals, that is, many of the former do not seek independence for Hawai‘i. Despite differences in analysis and emphasis, "deoccupation" and "decolonization" perspectives arguably share common ground with system-focused anti-imperialist perspectives.

• Contrasting the competing knowledge claims by adherents of the three standpoints is a necessary beginning. But one may extend and deepen the analysis epistemologically by teasing out the elective affinities — potential connections — among them. While the injustice of the Overthrow and Annexation is criticized by all three perspectives, each does so from a different standpoint.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Self-referentially, each perspective emphasizes those definitions of historically and theoretically contested concepts like "colonialism," "sovereignty," "law," "joint resolution" and/or "imperialism" that strengthen advocacy of its preferred political solution. In this debate, unfortunately, sometimes it is difficult to resist the temptation to marginalize — instead of engaging — competing definitions likely to undermine one's agenda.

• In a sense, the three approaches differ from one another in the level of analysis of Hawai‘i's history that each finds most compelling. And to some extent, this is a difference of political generations. Despite important differences, advocates of each of the three standpoints keep public attention on the injustice of the Overthrow and Annexation in an ongoing educational debate.

• Access and follow up on links in the "More local activism" section below.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• In the 27 June 1959 referendum, voters in the Territory of Hawai‘i chose between continued "territorial" status and Statehood. A 94% majority voted for Statehood. (See Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statments of the President, January 1 to December 31, 1959 [Washington, D.C.: Federal Register Division, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1960; dist., U.S. Government Printing Office], Document #184, pp. 588-589.)

•After the 1959 referendum, the United Nations General Assembly voted to remove Hawai‘i from the list of Non-Self-Governing Trust Territories.

• However, the narrow range of choices offered to Hawai‘i referendum voters has subsequently exposed the 1959 referendum to criticism. In particular, "Free association" and "independence" were not among the alternatives on the ballot in Hawai‘i in 1959. Indeed, at the time, the United Nations had not yet recommended or required that they be included among choices on the ballot.

• At the end of 1960, however, nonbinding United Nations' recommendations changed. In December of that year, the UN General Assembly issued Resolution 1541. This is also known as the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples." Principles VII-IX of Resolution 1541 recommended that future plebiscites in Non-Self-Governing Trust Territories include all three alternatives to colonialism.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• In recent years, critics of the 1959 referendum have asserted or implied that the 1960 UN recommendation implied retroactivity, that is, that it applied to cases arising before passage of Resolution 1541. While that criticism may have been communicated to delegations in the United Nations General Assembly and to UN agencies, the General Assembly has not yet reversed its 1959 vote to delist Hawai‘i.

• Nonetheless, the criticism suggests a useful counterfactual hypothesis. It deepens our understanding of how events of 1959 and 1960 turned out as they did. In 1959, the deck was stacked against independence advocates. If, perhaps, more former colonies had been admitted to the United Nations earlier than 1959, perhaps Resolution 1541 — or something like it — would have passed earlier and perhaps the Hawai‘i referendum would have included the independence option.

• In contradistinction, independence has been a choice in referenda held in territories under U.S. control as early as eight years after the 1959 Hawai‘i referendum. For example, independence was a ballot option in four referenda held in Puerto Rico in 1967, 1981, 1993 and 1998.

• Anticipating whether to commemorate, protest or forget the fiftieth anniversary in 2009, these issues continue to be debated. Testimony taken by the House Committee on Culture and Tourism on 22 March 2007 is one of many examples. (See Treena Shapiro's article in The Honolulu Advertiser, 22 March 2007.)

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Hawai‘i's four counties are the principal local governments. Unlike almost everywhere else in the United States, a "city" and a "county" in Hawai‘i are one and the same political-geographic unit, for example, the City and County of Honolulu are identical.

• Elected from small areas of each county since the 1970s, Neighborhood Boards highlight problems and bring them to the attention of other governmental bodies. On O‘ahu, meetings of the Neighborhood Boards are often cablecast on ‘Ôlelo Community Television. To learn more about Neighborhood Boards on O‘ahu, visit the City and County of Honolulu's Neighborhood Commission Office.

• As late as 2006, all Hawai‘i public schools were administered as a single Statewide school district by the Department of Education. This district, in turn, is subdivided into seven "administrative school districts." If ranked by the number of students, the Statewide district is larger than the average U.S. school district.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Whether challengers or incumbents, candidates for governor and lieutenant-governor run as a pair.

• Other than three nondepartmental members of the Board of Education and three at-large trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the governor and lieutenant-governor are the only officials elected by the entire Statewide electorate. By State Constitution and by statute, other top-level Executive Branch officials are appointed by the governor. As a result, governmental centralization is relatively high in Hawai‘i, even if the comparison is adjusted to compensate for the larger populations of most States.

• Institutional roots of centralization may be compatible with administrative practices of the Hawaiian Monarchy, the rebel Republic and the plantationist Territorial Government. However, elitist reform preferences in the late 1940s and early 1950s had a more immediate influence on the outcome, according to a public administration scholar consulted by Pollard.

• Since 1959, six governors have led the executive branch of Hawai‘i government.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Usually meeting just four and a half months during January-May each year, by default the part-time nature of the State Legislature accentuates the power of the Executive Branch.

• Constitutional amendments passed by both houses of the State Legislature and subsequently ratified by Hawai‘i voters are more common than amendments proposed at and passed by constitutional conventions (and which still must be ratified by the voters).

• In either case, however, the voters do not have the last word. Another method is judicial nullification — by the State of Hawai‘i Supreme Court and, more rarely, the U.S. Supreme Court. (For the single example of the latter, see the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement.) In 1979, the Supreme Court of Hawai‘i voided several native Hawaiian-related amendments that had been ratified by the voters on 7 November 1978. In recent years, unrelated amendments have also been voided on procedural grounds by the Supreme Court of Hawai‘i.

• On 7 November 2006, two amendments to the State Constitution passed by Hawai‘ voters limited the governor's powers, including in making appointments to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawai‘i System.

• To do archival research about activities of former Hawai‘i legislators (representatives and senators) in the U.S. Congress, visit the Hawai‘i Congressional Papers.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The first Republican governor in forty years was elected in 2002. She was also the first female governor to be elected in Hawai‘i. The Republican Party did not control either house of the State Legislature during Lingle's tenure as governor.

• During Governor "Ben" Cayetano's two terms in office (1994-2002), State Legislatures rarely overturned his veto. Since then, Republican Governor Linda Lingle has faced a Democratic Party-controlled State Legislature, and the trend appears to have weakened. "The state Legislature wrapped up business for 2005 by overriding 12 vetoes" (Richard Borreca, "Legislature Overturns a Dozen Lingle Vetoes, Tying a Record," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 13 July 2005). In contrast, all of Lingle's vetoes were sustained during and after the 2006 Session of the State Legislature.

• On 7 November 2006, Governor Lingle was reelected to a second (and final) four-year term. Excluding five line-item vetoes (and one line-item veto override in 2008), the following summary of Lingle's vetoes and legislative veto overrides for her first seven years in office:

2009: 57 vetoes, 38 overrides

*2008: 53 vetoes, 17 overrides

2007: 42 vetoes, 19 overrides

2006: 32 vetoes, 0 overrides

2005: 28 vetoes, 12 overrides

2004: 38 vetoes, 7 overrides

2003: 50 vetoes, 6 overrides

• The Center for Voting and Democracy comments on obstacles to democracy in Hawai‘i, although it does not report gender-related issues.

• Look up the latest Hawai‘i vote totals, as well as from previous State and local elections (1992 - present).

• Visit Jeff Cohen's "how-to" web page on Hawaii Elections, Hawaii Candidates and Politics.

• Where are Democrats and Republicans get their money in Hawai‘i? (Use the pull-down menu to select "Hawai‘i.")

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• A Green Hawai‘i, written by Green Party of Hawai‘i co-founder the late Ira Rohter, envisions ending the growth juggernaut with a framework for a sustainable future.

• At the county level, Green Party of Hawai‘i members have been elected to a number of positions. (Note: Hyperlink in previous sentence is not always activated.) Taking a longterm perspective, Greens favor nonviolent, decentralized and environmentally-friendly social change.

• The Green Party's ballot status has been precarious but persistent ever since it first qualified in 1992. In 1998 and 2002, the Green Party of Hawai‘i did not endorse candidates for governor. In 2006, Jim Brewer and Renee Ing of the Green Party of Hawai‘i solicited sufficient signatures to qualify for ballot placement as candidates for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor on the November ballot. And they placed third with 2% of the vote in a field of four candidates. (The Libertarian Party of Hawai‘i placed last.)

• The Green Party of Hawai‘i is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. The Green Party of Hawai‘i had national Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente on the ballot in 2008. In 2008, the Green Party and three other "minor" political parties received a combined total of 1.5% of the votes cast for president in Hawai‘i. Voter turnout was 65.9% of registered voters Ÿ and lower percentage of all potentially eligible voting-age adults.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Organized in February 2000, the Aloha ‘Âina Party advocated Kanaka Maoli alternatives to Democratic and Republican Party policies and ran two candidates in State elections that year. However, the Aloha ‘Âina Party has not endorsed candidates since then.

• Ikaika Hussey is founder and convenor of MANA — Movement for Aloha No Ka ‘Âina: An Independence Party.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• In the State of Hawai‘i, registering to vote is easy.

• Do you wish to vote absentee? To vote early, click to get your application for an absentee ballot. To do so, one no longer has to pretend you'll be out-of-State on Election Day!

• Over 133,000 voters voted by absentee ballot in the 2004 general election. And an estimated 30% of votes were expected to be cast by absentee ballot before the 23 September 2006 primary election, according to Johnny Brannon ("Absentee ballots stretch election day," The Honolulu Advertiser, 24 July 2006, p. 1).

• Indeed, "the number of absentee voters has been rising every election since 1992, and the number of people who vote on election day has been declining," according to Craig Gima ("Walk-in and mail-in votes hit a record 95,000," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 22 September 2006).

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Whether you voted for the winner, the loser or simply withheld your vote from all the unqualified candidates, simply having registered to vote gives elected politicians an added incentive to consider your complaints more carefully. In letters and e-mails to these officials, remind them by stating: "I am a registered voter."

• Unlike Maine, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Idaho, the State of Hawai‘i does not yet have "same-day" voter registration on Election Day.

• In addition to those six "same-day" registration States, North Dakota does not require registration in order to vote. Those seven states reported increases in voter turnout during the late 1990s compared to many other states. Meanwhile, they experienced no more voter fraud than in states with greater restrictions on voter registration. So, why the increase in voter turnout in "same-day" registration? "The reason isn't so much convenience but the late surge in interest as Election Day approaches," according to "Time to support same-day voter registration," Iowa City Press-Citizen, 30 November 2004. When will "same-day" voting come to low-turnout Hawai‘i?

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Unlike presidential elections in Mexico, the Philippines, Korea or France, presidential elections in the U.S. are not administered nationally. Instead of a single election guided by a single set of rules, 51 separate presidential elections are conducted on Election Day — in Hawai‘i, 49 other States, and the District of Columbia.

• During the presidential elections in 1960, 1964 and 1968, the State of Hawai‘i was allocated 3 Electoral Votes. Since 1972, Hawai‘i's allocation increased to 4 Electoral Votes. After the next three decennial censuses (1980, 1990, 2000), the allocation has remained the same (4 Electoral Votes).

• In all thirteen presidential elections from 1960 through 2008, Hawai‘i's Electoral Votes never tipped the balance one way or the other for winners or losers. Unsurprisingly, Republican and Democratic Party presidential candidates rarely campaign in Hawai‘i.

• Even if the losing candidate with the second-highest Hawai‘i popular vote total had received a majority or plurality of Hawai‘i's vote in any of eight presidential elections when the national winner also won Hawai‘i's votes (1960, 1964, 1972, 1976, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2008), subtracting Hawai‘i's Electoral Votes from the winner's total still would not have led to his defeat.

• In the close 1960 Presidential Election, the Hawai‘i Electoral Vote first was reported to the Electoral College (before the deadline) for Richard M. Nixon. But after a recount, Hawai‘i's Electoral Votes were reported to the U.S. House of Representatives as favoring John F. Kennedy. As the incumbent Vice President (until 20 January 1961), Nixon presided over the Senate. Anomalously at Nixon's discretion, the revised total was accepted, even though it was not the total reported by the Electoral College. But the change made no difference — with or without Hawai‘i's 3 Electoral Votes, Kennedy could have defeated Nixon.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Except for 1972 and 1984 when incumbent Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, respectively, were candidates, Democrats have won Hawai‘i's Electoral Votes in ten of twelve Presidential Elections, that is, from 1960 to 2004. Incumbent Presidents Gerald Ford (1976), George H. W. Bush (1992), and George W. Bush (2004) failed to win a majority or even a plurality of Hawai‘i's popular vote. Hawai‘i's average share of the vote for Democratic Party presidential candidates has always exceeded the Party's national average. Indeed, since 1944, only 2 Democrats — Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and Jimmy Carter in 1976 — gained more than 50% of the popular vote in the U.S.

• President George W. Bush is the first Republican President to have been re-elected without also gaining Hawai‘i's Electoral votes.

• Unlike the United States, in semi-presidential France, a candidate for president must get more than 50% of the popular vote in the general election to avoid having to compete in a run-off election with the other top-vote-getting candidate.

• Many representative democracies do not concentrate the power of the chief executive in a president. And even among presidential systems, no presidential system outside the United States uses an electoral college to choose its chief executive. Indeed, the only other government of any kind using an electoral college today is the theocratic Holy See. That city-state is better known as Vatican City. Elected by the College of Cardinals, the Pope is its head of state — and leader of the Roman Catholic religion.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Under the original election system that gave the vice presidency to the runner-up presidential candidate, the Electoral College deadlocked in 1800 with an equal number of votes for president going to two candidates from the same party! After 34 inconclusive ballots, Congress elected a President and Vice President. Until the 12th Amendment to the Constitution (1804), the president and vice president were elected separately and might be from different political parties. And in 1824, the Electoral College failed again to give a majority to any candidate. In that case, Congress voted to elect a president (John Quincy Adams) who received fewer popular votes and fewer Electoral Votes than the first-place candidate in the General Election (Andrew Jackson).

• And in the disputed 2000 Presidential Election, a similar impasse almost reoccurred.

• If no presidential candidate receives a majority of Electoral Votes, Congress elects the President and Vice President. If that parliamentary alternative occurs again, each State's delegation — including the Hawai‘i delegation — in the U.S. House of Representatives will have exactly one vote to cast in electing the U.S. President. In other words, if a majority of Representatives agree on one candidate — an evenly split delegation would cast no vote. And if the presidential election is thrown to Congress, the Senate elects the vice president.

• In the close 2000 Presidential Election, the final electoral vote count was 271-266-1. The one abstention was by a Gore Elector from the District of Columbia — to protest denial of full voting representation in Congress for D.C. If the winning Electoral Vote margin had been any closer in 2000, perhaps Hawai‘i's four Electoral Votes would have equaled or exceeded the victor's margin — for the first time ever.

• After the 2010 Census of Population, the U.S. Congress will reallocate Electoral Votes among the fifty States. If population growth in Hawai‘i will have kept pace with the average for the United States, then Hawai‘i's allocation will continue as four Electoral Votes. (Already denied full voting representation in the U.S. Congress, the District of Columbia is allocated a constitutionally fixed and racially discriminatory total of three Electoral Votes.)

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Ballot access discrimination by Hawai‘i State law often deprives Hawai‘i voters of presidential candidate choices available in many other States. For example, the 2004 Hawai‘i presidential ballot listed four candidates in 2004 while Iowa voters chose from among eight.

• During 1980-2000, the combined Hawai‘i vote for "third party" presidential candidates ranged as high as 14% — one of every seven votes — in 1992. However, that percentage lagged at least one third below the national average in 1992 where the Reform Party candidate Ross Perot alone received almost 20% of the popular vote for president. In Hawai‘i, the "third party" percentage fell to 6% in 2000, then slipping further to 0.75% in 2004.

• As elsewhere in the U.S., the percentage of voting-age persons in Hawai‘i who vote in U.S. presidential elections is generally lower than in the early 1960s. And as elsewhere in the United States, older voters typically vote in greater numbers than younger people.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Maine and Nebraska are small States offering one of several election alternatives. Those two States allocate their Electoral Votes proportionately, that is, roughly according to popular votes received by the candidate — two Electoral Votes to the Statewide popular vote winner and the rest by Congressional District. Although a close contest in one Congressional District in Maine in 2000 almost cost George W. Bush a single Electoral Vote, the Maine/Nebraska formula has not yet allocated either of those States' Electoral Votes differently from the results of the statewide winner-take-all formula used in the rest of the United States.

• Even the Florida fiasco in the 2000 Presidential Election didn't lead civil rights organizations to reconsider the value of their earlier lobbying against abolition of the Electoral College in the 1970s. See the video "Bush's Brain" (TLA Releasing, 2004). Also, see the book chapter "Empirically Evaluating the Electoral College" by Andrew Gelman, Jonathan N. Katz and Gary King, in Ann N. Crigler, Marion R. Just and Edward J. McCaffery (eds.), Rethinking the Vote: The Politics and Prospects of American Electoral Reform (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

• In 2004, a referendum by Colorado voters rejected another model. A proposed amendment to their State's Constitution would have allocated Colorado's Electoral Votes proportionally, that is, according to how many popular votes were received by the candidates. If future political sentiment in Hawai‘i shifts in favor of this method or some other alternative method of allocating the State's Electoral Votes and depending on the specifics, approval by State legislators or by a State constitutional convention — and local voters — will likely be needed.

• In 2007, Senate Bill 1956 could have overriden the wishes of a majority of Hawai‘i voters in subsequent presidential elections. Under that proposed legislation, the State of Hawai‘i's electoral votes would be voted for the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes nationally. Although S.B. 1956 was vetoed, the Senate voted to override while the House of Representatives did not.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• On the Leeward side of O‘ahu, Nani ‘O Wai‘anae means "Beautiful Wai‘anae." Serving Nanakuli, Maili, Wai‘anae and Makaha, this organization is "committed to creating a localized/community-based educational awareness and hands-on program to address the environmental issues unique to our coastal community."

• The Defend Oahu Coalition is campaigning to protect the ocean, land and people from Kawela Bay to Kuilima Point.

• Animal Rights Hawaii is a network of organizations dedicated to protecting nonhuman species (archived website).

• Archiving its publications back to 1990, Environment Hawai‘i claims to be "the single most important source of news on environmental issues in the 50th state."

• The Nature Conservancy has offices on four of the Hawaiian Islands — O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i and Moloka‘i. The Nature Conservancy supports projects elsewhere in Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, Central America, North America and South America.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Na Kama Hele -- Hawai‘i works to make Hawai‘i streets friendlier to people traveling on foot, on bikes or in wheelchairs.

• The Hawaii Conservation Alliance consists of "twelve government, education and non-profit organizations that are strongly committed to environmental conservation in the Hawaiian Islands through land management, scholarly research and financial incentives."

• In April 2008, the Stop Rail Now coalition was initiated to give Honolulu voters a chance to vote on transportation options in a referendum. Unfortunately, the coalition framed public transportation issues in a parochial fashion. In the end, its petition was judged defective on technical grounds. The number of voters signing the petition apparently was large enough to stimulate a competing transportation referendum question on the 4 November 2008 ballot. (It passed.)

• Among other guiding principles of Hui Nalu o Hawai‘i (or Hui Nalu Canoe Club) is "preserving Hawaiian traditions as they relate to the ocean, the family and the community."

• The solar-powered buoy Hokumoanalani ("Heavenly Ocean Star") Whalesong Project transmits whale tunes from an underwater microphone off Mau'i's Honolua Coast. Each year, whales sing here from late December until May.

• Contact Henry Curtis, president of the environmental group Life of the Land.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The Association of Women Bodyboarders teaches surfing and sponsors surfing contests. It also mentors teenage women at risk of dropping out of school.

• Stride Hawai‘i ("Successful Transitions in Diverse Environments") seeks Mentors for people with disabilities.

• To eliminate abuse at the hands of spouses and partners and to prevent other underreported sex crimes in Hawai‘i, request advice and referrals from the following community networks and organizations:

GirlFest.

Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline (Hawaii).

Women's Center, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (HSCADV).

• On 4 April 2005, the Rape Free Zone Coalition was established "in response to rapes occurring on and around the UH campus."

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• The Hawai‘i State PTSA (the Hawaii Congress of Parents, Teachers & Students) is "Hawai‘i's oldest and largest volunteer child advocacy organization." Focused on education of Hawai‘i's children, the PTSA welcomes parents, teachers and other concerned adults as members.

• The Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation (HOSEF) promotes computer recycling, computer donations, computer education (at five increasingly challenging levels!) for elementary school keiki, computer rebuilding, and free distribution of sustainable computers in the Hawai‘i community and the schools. "All software, from the Linux operating system to the applications, are open source and freely available." HOSEF is a "volunteer driven" 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

• The Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs is said to be the "first independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy institute devoted to fact-based research, issues education and community collaboration" in Hawai‘i.

• Common Cause - Hawai‘i wants to clean up local politics.

• Addressing drug abuse, the Community Alliance on Prisons asks, "Should Hawai‘i be criminalizing a public health problem?"

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• "University scientists shouldn't perform classified research," according to UH Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Karl Kim.

• The Stop UARC! archives: This coalition generated documents and early warnings about classified military research at the UH (8 April 2005 - 10 December 2007).

• For links to other documents reflecting several views on secret military research at the University of Hawai‘i - Mānoa, visit the UH's Initiatives & Issues - UARC (6 May 2005 - 7 June 2007).

• The Honolulu-based Center for Global Nonkilling encourages alternatives to the violence-accepting behavior of lethal politics and America-centric international relations theory.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Crown lands (public lands) held by the Hawaiian monarchy until the Overthrow in 1893 are occupied by U.S. military installations and training areas. The continuing occupation concerns Hawaiian activists, environmentalists, and organizations like the American Friends Service Committee - Hawai‘i (AFSC-Hawai‘i).

• A likeminded project is DMZ Hawai‘i.

• U.S. military bombing of sacred lands at the convergence of Makua Valley and two other valleys in O‘ahu inspired an art exhibit during March-April 2007. (Scroll down after clicking link.)

• Learn about issues, meetings and online discussions with the Hawaii Hazard Mitigation Forum

• For events during the period leading up to December 2001, Island Cousins' Network remains a valuable documentary of local and transnational campaigns to remove dangers caused by military exercises, military facilities and military personnel in Hawai‘i and elsewhere.

• Voter Owned Elections is an effort to remove the money from money politics in Hawai‘i.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

More than 1,000 supporters of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada
in over 30 cities and towns took part in a National Day of Action
to Stand Up with Lt. Watada on 27 June 2006.
© 2006 "ThankYou Lt. Ehren Watada" website.

• Reflecting a major political and cultural shift, on 20 July 2006 the national office of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) supported Mr. Watada's right "to express his personal views on an issue he finds legally questionable and morally repugnant."

• And on 27 July 2006, the Hawai‘i chapter of the Japanese-American Citizens League (JACL) went further, participating in a press conference with local human rights and antiwar organizations. In the face of local controversy over Lt. Watada's refusal to obey direct military orders, a closely divided JACL Chapter executive board publicly reiterated its support for his refusal. Earlier, the Berkeley, California, chapter of JACL voted to support Lt. Watada. And on Christmas Day 2006, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin selected Lt. Watada as one of ten people in Hawai‘i who "made a difference" during the previous twelve months.

Seattle supporters of Hawai‘i-born Ehren Watada demonstrate
against the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq War [2008?].
Photo credit: Unknown.

• On 19 December 2006, Lt. Watada spoke for thirty-eight minutes presentation to a packed auditorium at the Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu. A transcript of Watada's presentation and a downloadable plug-in for videotaped excerpts are available online. On 25 September 2009, the Army announced that Ehren Watada would be allowed to resign "under other than honorable conditions."

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Claims of public acquiescence in U.S. foreign policy adventures are challenged by an antiwar movement in militarized Hawai‘i and elsewhere. The Hawai‘i Chapter of Iraq Veterans Agaisnt the War (IVAW) continues a tradition of military resistance to unjust wars. IVAW is "a group of veterans who have served since September 11th, 2001, including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. We are committed to saving lives and and ending the violence in Iraq by an immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces.....We welcome all active duty, national guard, reservists, and recent veterans into our ranks."

• Formed in November 2002, Military Families Speak Out consists of parents, siblings and other relatives of soldiers, sailors and pilots from Hawai‘i and elsewhere.

• Kalilikane Revolutionary Media is distributing its film "Empty Streets." This is the story of a Marine Corps veteran who returned from the Iraq War. In Kalilikane's "Tactical Solutions" statement, they say, "Hawaii-based developers, artists, producers, and the like come together to under one umbrella- Kalilikane (Jealous man - Native Hawaiian). We are revolutionary media."

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

• Young Okinawans of Hawaii is "a cultural group which was started over 25 years ago when young Uchinanchu from Hawaii visited Okinawa on a study tour."

• See the "Hawai‘i" section of the Chinese Cultures Abroad WWW Virtual Library for information by and about Chinese ethnic heritage organizations in Hawai‘i.

• Find valuable links on political issues of interest in the Hawaii Politics Directory.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

Vincent K. Pollard is the content manager and editor of the Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library. Thus far, Pollard has written the following encyclopedia articles on Hawai‘i politics:

"Hawai‘i," Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia, Melvin E. Page, General Editor, and Penny M. Sonnenberg (editor) (New York: East River Books for ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2003), vol. 1, p. 253.

"Hawai‘i," Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450, ed., Thomas Benjamin, MacMillan Reference USA (Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale/Macmillan/Thomson, 2007), pp. 546-548.

"Hawaiian Islands," United States at War, Spanish-American/Philippine-American War, ed., Spencer C. Tucker, Military History Series (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009), pp. 274-275.

TOP OF THIS SECTION
Top of Hawai‘i politics.

Also, Pollard is the principal author of Hawai‘i Youth at Risk? Conceptual Challenges in Communicating a Statewide Mentoring Initiative (Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, for the Hawai‘i Mentoring Inventory, 1999).

Funding source: Hawai‘i Tobacco Prevention & Control Trust Fund. Abstracted by Resources in Education (ERIC Document Reproduction Service), No. ED 443 035 [CG029989], 2000). Click here to read or download a free copy (3.5 MB) from ERIC's Document Repository Center. Also, microfiche copies may be purchased from ERIC

Cited in Eric Baizer, "General Articles and Books," Mentoring At-Risk Youth: General Articles and Books (updated, 26 November 2002).

"Hawai‘i Youth at Risk? Futures of Mentoring," a related 2-hour TV program; co-produced with Olelo Community Television's Oren Tsutsumi. See University Relations, "UH faculty members, community leaders discuss mentoring challenges on ‘Olelo Community Television," public service announcement, 6 October 2000.

Pollard's media availability on local political issues includes interviews, invited op-ed essays, and letters to the editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Ka Leo O Hawai‘i, Hawaii Filipino Chronicle, Kapi‘o News Press, the Honolulu Weekly, and the Associated Press. See his CV for other publications.

In testimony submitted to the Committee on Culture and Tourism, House of Representatives, Hawai‘i State Legislature on 21 March 2007, Pollard advocated amending SB1438/HB1352 "A Bill for an Act Establishing a Commission to Plan for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Hawaii Statehood."

An excerpt of that testimony is quoted in Treena Shapiro, "Statehood Celebration Advances," The Honolulu Advertiser, 22 March 2007, pp. 1 and 5.

This testimony is also quoted in Mark Niesse, "Hawaiians to Protest Offensive 'Statehood' Celebration, " Associated Press, 26 March 2007.

An earlier form of the "Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library" first appeared as a subsection of Vincent Pollard's Asia, U.S., Hawai‘i, global politics project in 1999.

On 10 July 2005, the "Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library" became an official subsection of the Polynesia WWW Virtual Library in the larger Pacific Studies WWW Virtual Library.

Since 18 August 2005, this website has also been part of the Hawaiian Islands Guide.

Since 1 November 2005, the Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library has been linked to Island Law's Island Jurisdictions Index. That resource is maintained by Attorney Dan MacMeekin of Washington, D.C. (Scroll down to the "Sources and other useful websites" section.)

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

For scholarly usefulness, this website received the highest of five possible ratings ("Essential") from The Pacific Studies WWW Monitor [Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, National Institute for Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University], vol. 6, no. 2 [whole no. 29 ] (July-December 2005), 10 July 2005.

The "Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library" is also noted in the following publications:

Comparative Democratization Section Newsletter [Comparative Democratization Section, American Political Science Association], vol. 3, no. 3 (November 2005), section 5;

and

"Notables," The Political Science Educator [Undergraduate Education Section, American Political Science Association], vol. 10, no. (December 2005), p. 5.

Also, consider Hawai‘i-related content on the following seven web pages:

Scholarships.

Multiple futures.

Searching online.

Cartoons, movies.

Internet credibility.

Violence reduction.

Globalizations, international law, organization.

Top of Hawai‘i politics.

Last modified, 4 January 2010.

© 1999-2010, Vincent K. Pollard.
Copyright extends to all linked pages written by the author.

It is prohibited to include this website's content in passworded or fee-for-service electronic databases. If your website uses "no-frames" html web pages, linking is allowed.

HTML is coded in a UNIX-based Pico editor.
Contribute to high-quality, accessible Internet research by reporting dead links.

SUGGESTED CITATION: Pollard, Vincent K. (ed.). 1999-2008. "Hawai‘i Politics WWW Virtual Library," http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pollard/Hawaii.html

TOP OF THIS PAGE.