Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 3, 1 March 1996 — Plebiscite changed to Hawaiian vote, HSEC gets funds [ARTICLE]

Plebiscite changed to Hawaiian vote, HSEC gets funds

The Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Council announced recently that it would replace the term plebiscite with the wording "Native Hawaiian Vote" in order to clarify the meaning of the event. "The Native Hawaiian Vote is simply a vote of the Native Hawaiian people," explained HSEC chairman Sol Kaho'ohalahala. "Hawaiians will be asked to vote 'yes,' or 'no,' to this question: 'Shall the Hawaiian people elect delegates to propose a Native Hawaiian government?' This will be the first step in the process to determine the will of the indigenous Hawaiian people to restore a nation of their own choosing," Kaho'ohalahala said. And now the funds are available for HSEC to carry out its plans for educating and registering Hawaiian voters in a massive move beginning this month. After a freeze of such funding, the governor released the remainder of its share of the $2.5 million allocated to HSEC to carry out its mission with the state and OHA providing equal fund-

ing. The govemor released $353,000 in state funds to HSEC according to Act 359 whieh created the eouneil in 1993. Consequently, the OHA Board of Trustees, Feb. 15, 1996, in a five-to-two vote also approved the release of previously appropriated matching funds. "With the funding, we're ready to produce the educational materials and begin the media campaign that will inform Hawaiians and the public about the importance of their vote," said Debbie Lee Behm, HSEC voter education coordinator. "We've been ready since January 1995 to launeh this thing, and now we ean." We've had to operate on a limited basis, thus far." "OHA has always backed the plebiscite," said OHA Trustee Klna'u Boyd Kamali'i, who is also an HSEC member. "We changed the name, in part, just to accommodate Ka Lāhui." Kamali'i sought out Ka Lāhui's input since it has so adamantly opposed the idea from the beginning. "Now we ean move to having the Hawaiian vote in order to see if we will be forming a

convention of delegates to seriously discuss sovereignty," she said. The vote had been postponed from 1995 to 1996 because of the freezing of the needed funding, she said. In addition, a disclaimer will be added to the ballot that reads that this vote in no way infringes upon the rights and entitlements procured for Hawaiians and native

Hawaiians, she pointed out. "The eouneil feels this is the only valid, fair process to get our people involved, and the only way to give our people a fair ehanee at it, now. If the majority vote "no," there are other ways to pursue the sovereignty issue but with our own community funding," HSEC Director Tara Lulani McKenzie said. It will be the First vote of its kind not based upon citizenship or residency, but on ancestry and age, Behm said. Presently HSEC has registrations ffom 32 states, Australia and Germany plus some 60,000 OHA registered voters. Those eligible to vote on this question are "any descendant of indigenous peo-

ple inhabiting the Hawaiian islands whieh exercised sovereignty and subsisted in the Hawaiian islands prior to 1778" and will be at least 18 years old by Sept. 2, 1996. Registered voters will then be mailed a ballot beginning July 1, 1996. OHA registered voters will be receiving a card in the mail by April to confirm and update addresses. These will then automatically be mailed a ballot. Those who are not registered OHA voters may request that a registration form be mailed to them by ealling HSEC at (808) 587-2834. "Send a list of names and addresses, we will mail them out," Behm says. - by Pearl Page