Federal lawsuit challenges Hawaii’s voting maps as unconstitutional

A federal lawsuit challenges Hawaii’s voting maps as unconstitutional. The suit was filed by State House Lawmaker Mark Takai and five voters.

The latest reapportionment plan was approved barely a month ago, itself a do-over after the State Supreme Court threw out a previous version and said nonpermanent residents should be excluded.

Reapportionment to draw voting district boundaries is done every ten years following the census, and there are 45-day windows for legal challenges.

"The main focus of this complaint is to make sure everyone is counted," said Reapportionment Commission Chair Victoria Marks. "We’ve been hearing about it since last June; I can’t say that it’s unexpected."

The maps approved by the Reapportionment Commission March 8 allegedly violate the 14th Amendment of U.S. Constitution – equal protection – by discarding 108,000 residents (mostly military, dependents and out-of-state students).

"I think since day one we’ve been trying to balance State and Federal Constitutional requirements," Marks said.

But the suit alleges a domino effect of flaws once voting maps are drawn based on 1.2 million and not 1.3 million people the census counted.

"So you can’t really divide things up like we do in Hawaii based by county appropriately, then you can’t do you districting within each island unit appropriately when you don’t have the right population count to start with."

The suit wants a three-judge Federal Court panel to enforce counting of all residents under redone maps.

"They, as a matter of Constitutional Law, can impose pretty much any remedy that they think appropriate from ordering the commission to go back and do it again, ordering the commission appointing a master to try it again or even in some circumstances doing it themselves."

The lawsuit has the potential to further delay preparation time for the August Primary.

The governor’s office, which had supported the nonresident exclusion in the State Supreme Court case, declined comment until they review the case. The defendants are the Office of Elections and Reapportionment Commission. The plantiff’s attorney says they’ll file a motion for preliminary injunction soon.