On July 11, Hawaii state representative Mark Nakashima died. He had been running for re-election and no one had filed to run against him in the August 10 Democratic primary. Nor did anyone to file in any other party’s primary ballot in that district, nor did any independent candidate file.
Hawaii is one of only five states that bans all write-ins in all elections. Because there is no write-in space, when only one candidate files, that candidate cannot be defeated. So, voters in the First State House District effectively have lost their ability to choose their state representative.
Hawaii election law provides that the new Democratic nominee will be chosen by the Governor, from a list of three Democrats suggested by the Democratic Party. See this story.
Typical for communist Hawaii.
Sounds like the Democrat national convention.
Someone should get an injunction to require the state to accept write-in votes on the grounds that by not doing so the state is depriving the voters of their power to choose their own representative.
The voters chose the governor, so what’s the problem?
But did they ever have a choice in the first place? Nakashima passing away only revealed the problem, but he was always going to be the winner given how blue Hawaii is.
Democrat governor, democrat representative. Seems like no problem.