Rep. Joey Manahan Letter on Chief Election Officer

Rep. Joey Manahan is a former elections administrator. In this morning's Honolulu Advertiser...

Failure to register to vote is very disturbing

I have grave concerns about our chief election officer not being registered to vote in the state of Hawai'i until last Friday. Had your political reporter not called him to ask the question, he would probably still be unregistered and ineligible to vote, not to mention in violation of the law. If he cannot account for his own voter registration, how can we hold him accountable for the hundreds of thousands of registered voters in the state?

In addition, there are many details and duties of this job that require meticulous monitoring, such as overseeing ballot operations, counting operations, poll workers, observers, as well as all the needs of 339 precincts and polling places statewide.

For Kevin Cronin to overlook something so fundamental is appalling, especially when the requirements of his job are clearly stated in the first section of Chapter 11, the statue that governs elections.

Perhaps most disturbing was his cavalier attitude to such a serious oversight. His response, "Thanks for reminding me," and that it was something that he "didn't get around to doing," is alarming. Mr. Cronin has been on the job since February and seems to have been in violation of the law since that time.

Executing the law properly is essential to maintaining the integrity of our elections, which are at the very heart and soul of our democracy. We deserve a chief election officer with whom we can place our trust and confidence.

Rep. Joey Manahan D-29th (Sand Island, Kalihi, Kapalama)