FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          March 24, 2005                        

Release No. NC-1

CITY DISTRIBUTES NEIGHBORHOOD BOARD ELECTION BALLOTS

           The City is mailing Neighorhood Board election ballots to more than 215,000 Oahu residents this week.

Residents 18 years or older can vote. There are 538 people running for 444 seats on the 32 Oahu Neighborhood Board in this year’s election. Voters in neighborhoods or subdistricts where there are no contested races will not receive ballots. The candidate deadline was January 18.

Ballots must be returned to the City postmarked no later than April 18.

Election results will be announced on May 1.  The election winners will begin their two-year term of office on June 1.

The Neighborhood Board system was created by the 1972 City Charter Review Commission and approved by Oahu voters that year. The boards serve as grassroots advisory bodies for the City, state and federal governments.

The Neighborhood Commission, which oversees the boards, has designated 35 neighborhoods on Oahu. Boards have been established in all but three of them.

The boards meet once a month and discuss a limitless range of issues of interest. Board members serve without pay. The boards are strictly advisory, but are often the first level of government where citizen concerns and complaints are aired.

Voting in the current election is open to all registered voters and any other adult who previously registered for the Neighborhood Board elections. (You need not be a U.S. citizen to vote in the Neighborhood Board elections.)

Each voter should receive a ballot, a return envelope and an information sheet with brief descriptions of each candidate.

Neighborhood Commission Executive Secretary Baybee Hufana-Ablan said the staff began mailing out ballots last week. Two problems have been reported and corrective action is being taken:

·       614 registered voters on Wikao Street in Waikakalaua Valley, below Mililani Technology Park, erroneously received ballots for the Wahiawa Neighborhood Board No. 26. Those homes actually lie in the area represented by the Mililani Mauka-Launani Valley Neighborhood Board. New voter packets are being mailed to those voters. Any of the errant ones that are returned to the City will not be counted in the Board No. 26 tallies.

·       The wrong information sheets were sent to voters in some Waianae Neighborhood subdistricts because of a contractor error. New information sheets are being sent to all 10,897 voters in the Waianae area. They received the correct ballots; only the information sheets were mixed up. Those Waianae residents who have already voted and wish to change their vote should contact the Neighborhood Commission at 527-5579 for new ballots. The old ones will be discarded. Those Waianae residents who have not yet voted should wait until they receive the new information sheets by early next week. The same information is being posted on the Neighborhood Commission website, www.honolulu.gov/nco

Hufana-Ablan said all voters should receive their ballots by the end of next week. Those who do not should call the Neighorhood Commission at 527-5579.

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For more information contact:  

        Baybee Hufana-Ablan, Neighborhood Commission executive secretary, 527-5749

        Elwin Spray, Neighborhood Commission elections coordinator, 527-5758