YELLOW DOGS

YELLOW DOGS: When Barack Obama trounces Hillary Clinton in the Hawai`i Democratic Party (HDP) Caucuses Tuesday it’s pretty certain there will be headaches ahead for the loser if the winner is a sore one.

Honolulu Star Bulletin Political Reporter Richard Borreca reported today
http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/17/news/story02.html
that “(t)he caucuses are run by the local Democratic Party under rules drafted by the national Democratic party; it is not conducted by the state Office of Elections”. apparently according to O`ahu party chairwoman Annelle Amaral.

But those national rules are not available through the HDP’s web site which instead answers it’s own “Frequently Asked Questions” http://www.hawaiidemocrats.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=246&Itemid=90
on the caucus eligibility rules and has no link to the actual National Democratic Party regs.

And the state Party’s web site is contradictory on what the rules are. First the page says:
Who can participate?Any member of the Democratic Party of Hawai`i. You MUST be both a registered voter in the State of Hawai`i and a registered member of the Democratic Party of Hawai`i to participate in the February 19th precinct election or the Presidential Preference Poll. No absentee or proxy voting is allowed.
As defined in Hawai`i Revised Statutes a voter is registered only when he or she has been properly recorded and certified as such with the appropriate county clerk’s office. No one is confirmed to be a “registered voter” until they apply and that little yellow postcard is received in the mail telling them where to vote. It notifies the applicant they are a recorded, registered voter.

However the rules listed at the HDP Web site go on to say

Is there walk-in registration?Yes, registered voters will be allowed to fill out Party registration cards. Any unregistered voters must fill out Wiki Wiki Voter Registration Forms.

Hawai`i has what is called a mail-in “Wiki Wiki” registration form. A voter simply fills it out, affixes a stamp and mails it in and gets a postcard later even if you hand it in at one of the clerks’ offices.

There are no longer “voter registrars” roaming the community in Hawai`i in election years, although the clerks and Election Division continues to try to give the impression there are. They’re as Manini as Marini with the Wiki Wiki forms, even though Federal and State law requires them to be widely available at places like schools, post offices and welfare offices..

So they ”request” that anyone who wants to collect filled-out Wiki Wiki forms receive training and certification although neither the state nor the national “Motor Voter” law have a prohibition against collecting them.

The state, through their county clerks, actually discourages people bringing bundled filled-out registration forms to the Cleark’s office But unless you know you legally can when you walk in you won’t get a stack of Wiki Wiki forms and told to bring them, back unless you’ve been trained.

It’ll be interesting to see if “official” collectors are trained and how they’re turning them in. Will they instruct the applicant to fill it out correctly? or does it depend on whether an Obama or Clinton supporter is helping voters fill it out.

So does merely filling out the form make you a “registered voter”? Doubtful but we’re
not the county clerk or the chief of the Elections Bureau and we’ve seen some of them do some bizarre things.(link to new Election System purchase article).

What are the national rules which the state rules are based on? For that matter where are the state rules- not just someone “Q&A answers” about them..

Given the accounts of blissful fear at the prospects of Tuesday’s Obama-mob http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/17/news/story02.html it’s doubtful that enough trained registrars will be there. And even if they are who’s checking what and how? Just asking....

“Hi I’m Keone Kanaka and I’m signing up. ID? Aren’t you the party fighting against showing ID to vote?”. And one thing about “small d” democratic secret balloting- there’s no way to trace the ballot back to the voter afterward if the voter isn’t eligible.

The real question is whether the national Party requires that caucus voters actually be registered voters or whether just “applying” is sufficient.

Despite repeated attempts to contact HDP through both e-mail and phone there seems to be no way to find out if those who are not registered voters on Tuesday will be eligible to vote in the caucuses or if the HDP plans to allow those not registered to vote but who “apply” to participate.

Will the HDP have voter registration rolls at each caucus site? Will potential voters have to have ID? Will they have to prove they are registered voters? Will they even have to show they are voting in the correct caucus since- delegates are awarded by proportionally by winning districts?

Will voters even be required to prove they are Democratic Party members? Democrats have recently made a stink about the legality of the state requiring “open” primary system- presumably to increase membership. But will they even be able to handle the influx of members - or for that matter want the independents and Republicans seeking to vote join their caucuses?

And the bigger question is whether the loser- presumably Inouye’s ol’ girl choice of the ol’ boys Democrats- will challenge the results based on all of these process anomalies (obvious answer:- you betcha... that’s what they DO to keep themselves the ol’ boys and girls) at a contested national convention this August, if not the HDP State Convention this spring- the actual place delegates will be selected supposedly based on the caucus vote.

Prognostications of storm cloud brewing with credentialing challenges and back-room fights in Denver in a virtually tied race, when combined with the reported desperate nature of the Clinton campaign, are gaining credibility. She will only fight more as she loses state after state by wide by enough margins to give Obama a huge lead in “elected” delegates.

Her superdelegates count- a designation originally created to allow the old boys to be such http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/14/superdelegates/?iref=mpstoryview ) will need supplements.

Full disclosure: Andy Parx is not nor has he ever been a Democrat, Republican or Independent and has been a proud Green since 1996. He remains though a Parxist