Case Title: Burdick v. Takushi

Citation: 776 P.2d 824

Docket Number: 

State: hawaii

Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

Date: 1989-07-21T00:00:00Z

Document:
776 P.2d 824 (1989) Alan B. BURDICK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Morris TAKUSHI, Director of Elections, State of Hawaii, John Waihee, Lieutenant Governor, State of Hawaii, Defendants-Appellees. No. 13157. Supreme Court of Hawaii. July 21, 1989. *825 Mary Blaine Johnston, Wailuku, Maui, for plaintiff-appellant. Steven S. Michaels, Dept. of the Atty. Gen., (Charlene M. Aina, with him, on the brief), Deputies Atty., Honolulu, for defendants-appellees. Before LUM, C.J., and NAKAMURA, PADGETT, HAYASHI and WAKATSUKI, JJ. PADGETT, Justice. Three questions have been certified to us by the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. The questions and our answers are as follows. (1) Does the Constitution of the State of Hawaii require Hawaii's election officials to permit the casting of write-in votes and require Hawaii's election officials to count and publish write-in votes? Answer. No. (2) Do Hawaii's election laws require Hawaii's election officials to permit the casting of write-in votes and require Hawaii's election officials to count and publish write-in votes? Answer. No. (3) Do Hawaii's election laws permit, but not require, Hawaii's election officials to allow voters to cast write-in votes, and to count and publish write-in votes? Answer. No. HRS § 16-1 provides: HRS 16-22 provides: These provisions seemingly might permit the chief elections officer to allow write-in votes pursuant to regulations, or on an experimental basis if such voting did not conflict with other statutes, but our review of the present election statutes leads us to the conclusion that such a conflict exists. With respect to general and special general elections, HRS § 12-1 provides: (Underscoring supplied.) HRS § 12-2 provides in part: Write-in votes therefore cannot be cast or counted and published in such general or special general elections. HRS Chapter 12 governs primary elections. That chapter does not expressly forbid write-in votes at primary elections. Hawaii's election laws provide for easy access to the ballot by new, or minority, *826 parties, and by nonpartisan candidates. However, they do require that the nomination process be followed, and they do attempt to make the process of casting and counting ballots an orderly one, where the opportunities for fraud are minimized. HRS § 12-22 provides that: This section requires the nonpartisan ballot at the primary to contain the names of all nonpartisan candidates. A write-in candidate would not be on the ballot and thus write-in votes are not possible in this statutory framework.