Opinion ID: 2506328
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Balancing of Irreparable Harm and the Public Interests

Text: Stop Rail argues that the balance of irreparable harm favors granting the requested injunctive relief because: If the City Clerk does not place the Petition on the November 4, 2008, general election ballot, [Stop Rail] will lose their rights to have the issue decided this year. The City Clerk suffers no damage if the preliminary injunction is granted. If the City Clerk were to prevail, the ballots for Petition 53 need not be counted. However, [Stop Rail] cannot have non-existent ballots counted. Finally, the public interest is great and there is no other remedy to [Stop Rail] as the circuit court below found[.] Stop Rail presented no affidavits, declarations, or other sworn statements supporting the assertion of irreparable harm in conjunction with the ICA Motion, as provided in HRAP 8(a), but the Callan Declaration, which was submitted to the Circuit Court, contained the following unchallenged averment: The next general election is November 4, 2008. Unless this initiative is placed on the general election ballot, both I and the voters of the City & County of Honolulu will be denied the right to vote on this initiative this year. Thus, it is undisputed that Stop Rail will suffer the aforementioned harm and, as this appeal will likely be concluded on the merits long after the November 4, 2008 election, this specific injury cannot be avoided, except through the relief requested by Stop Rail and, therefore, appears to be irreparable. The City Clerk argues, in essence, that any harm to Stop Rail and Honolulu voters has been greatly mitigated by the passage of Reso 08-166. The City Clerk posits that, with the passage of Reso 08-166, there will be a ballot question on rail transit presented to Honolulu voters, regardless of the outcome of this motion. Callan's Declaration does not address the distinctions between and/or the relative merits of Stop Rail's ballot question versus the Reso 08-166 ballot question. Both questions address the same underlying issue of rail transit, and while we recognize the differences between them, we have little basis for declaring that more harm would result from a vote on one versus the other. It seems clear, however, that the voting public, including Stop Rail's supporters, would be most irreparably harmed by a decision of this court that would jeopardize the public's right to vote on the fundamental issue underlying both ballot questions, whether the public supports rail transit or not. Thus, we must examine the potential impact of our ruling on the ICA Motion in light of the provided that clause in Reso 08-166, which follows (emphasis added): BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu: 1. That it propose and it is hereby proposed that the following question be placed on the 2008 general election ballot; provided that if the ballot question posed in Petition 53 (2008), either in its original form or as it may be altered or restated pursuant to RCH Section 3-406, is included in the ballot language submitted by the city clerk to the chief election officer of the State of Hawaii pursuant to HRS Section 11-119(b), the following question shall not be placed on the ballot; Shall the powers, duties, and functions of the city, through its director of transportation services, include establishment of a steel wheel on steel rail transit system? In short, if Stop Rail's question goes on the ballot, the Reso 08-166 question shall not be placed on the ballot. There are three main scenarios whereby the ruling on this motion affects the public's right to vote on the issue of rail transit: (1) If injunctive relief is denied, Stop Rail's question will not be placed on the November 4, 2008 ballot, but the Reso 08-166 question will be placed on the ballot. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this appeal, the voting public's right to vote on the issue of rail transit will be preserved, although not in the form requested by the 35,056 duly registered voters whose signatures on the Petition met the requirements of § 3-403 of the Charter; (2) If injunctive relief is granted, Stop Rail's question presumably will go on the ballot, the Reso 08-166 question presumably will come off the ballot, [8] and if Stop Rail ultimately prevails on the merits of this appeal, the ordinance proposed by Stop Rail will go into effect and will prohibit trains and rail transit in Honolulu. The voting public's right to vote on the issue of rail transit will be preserved and the specific injury to Stop Rail would be avoided; or (3) If injunctive relief is granted, but Stop Rail does not prevail on the merits of this appeal, Stop Rail's question presumably would appear on the ballot, but the votes on that question would not count. In addition, the Reso 08-166 question would not appear on the ballot. Thus, Honolulu voters would not be assured of an opportunity to vote on the issue of rail transit in this year's general election. In addition, as the City Clerk informed the court, the deadline for submitting general election ballot questions and issues to the State's Chief Election Officer was no later than 4:30 p.m. on the sixtieth calendar day prior to the general election, in this case, September 5, 2008. See HRS § 11-119(b). With the Memorandum in Opposition to the ICA Motion, the City Clerk submitted a Declaration supporting various arguments impacting our analysis of the balancing of harms, including the following: 1. Stop Rail erroneously assumes that because portions of the general election ballot cannot be finalized until after the primary election, the Petition could be easily added to the general election ballot. The City Clerk states that, once the State's Chief Elections Officer receives ballot questions from the City Clerk by the deadline set forth in HRS § 11-119(b), the State Elections Office formats the ballots, which must also be translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Ilocano, as required by law. All that is required after the primary election is the insertion of the prevailing candidate names into already formatted ballots; 2. The State Elections Office begins printing general election ballots on September 22, 2008. Ballot printing needs to begin as soon as possible after the primary election so that the printing company can deliver the general election absentee ballots to the counties by September 27, 2008; 3. The immediate printing of ballots will allow the counties to timely send overseas absentee ballots pursuant to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973ff-1 to 1973ff-6 (UOCAVA). Under UOCAVA, absentee uniformed services voters and overseas voters are permitted to vote by absentee ballot in general, special, primary, and runoff elections for Federal office. 42 U.S.C. § 1973ff-1. In Hawaii, absentee ballots must be received not later than the close of the polls on any election day. HRS § 15-9 (1993). In order to allow overseas citizens a fair opportunity to vote in the general election by absentee ballot, the City Clerk mails overseas absentee ballots between 30-35 days before the general election. The Federal Voting Assistance Program of the Department of Defense recommends an allowance of 35 days for ballot round trip mailing time for overseas absentee ballots. If a jurisdiction fails to timely mail its absentee ballots at least 30 days prior to the election, the U.S. Justice Department can sue the jurisdiction for failing to meet a reasonable benchmark period and to order the jurisdiction to extend the time for acceptance of returned overseas ballots. The City Clerk has targeted Tuesday, September 30, 2008, as the mailing date for overseas ballots (35 calendar days before the general election); 4. Should Stop Rail's Petition question be placed on the ballot, additional time, hardship, and unbudgeted costs will be incurred and there is no guarantee that the State Elections Office will be able to accommodate the changes within the requisite time frame. Delay in transmitting overseas ballots could result in an extended deadline for acceptance of returned ballots and delayed tabulation of the results of the general election, including all federal, state, and county elections. Revisions to the Honolulu election ballot will impact not only the production of ballots and the programming of the election system in Honolulu, but also in the counties of Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai, and will have far-reaching operational and logistical impact to the entire State election timetable. The City Clerk also argues that the possibility of having two rail questions on the general election ballot will likely confuse voters. For example, a voter who opposes rail would have to vote yes on one question and no on the other. The ICA Motion does not request that we order the removal of the Reso 08-166 question, nor does it provide any authority for such action. This court has no method to precisely gauge the likelihood that granting Stop Rail's motion would in fact cause the delays and consequences attested to by the City Clerk, However, her Declaration is the only evidence before the court on these issues and we cannot simply dismiss the possibility that granting the requested relief could engender unintended, serious, negative consequences for the upcoming general election. We must weigh that potential harm to the public's interests, along with the possibility that granting the ICA Motion could ultimately deprive voters of the right to a valid vote on the rail issue in the upcoming election, against the harm to Stop Rail if voters do not have an opportunity to vote in the upcoming general election on the form of the question posed in the Petition. Based on all of the arguments and the record before us, we conclude that the potential harm to the public's interests outweigh the injury to Stop Rail and, therefore, the ICA Motion must be denied. [9]