ITEM: The presidential election recount in Florida has put election officials there in the spotlight. COMMENT: Though not generally known for their gregariousness, the Kaua’i County League of Women Voters added a light touch to the Florida proceedings by sending
ITEM: The presidential election recount in Florida has put election officials
there in the spotlight.
COMMENT: Though not generally known for their
gregariousness, the Kaua’i County League of Women Voters added a light touch to
the Florida proceedings by sending a case of Kaua’i Coffee and a dozen tweezers
to the Palm Beach County Elections Canvassing Board. “The tweezers will be
useful in removing those now infamous hanging chads and pregnant dimples
plaguing your electoral process. The coffee may keep you alert and smiling
during this protracted process,” wrote Carol Bain, president of the Kaua’i
League, in a message to the frazzled Floridians Nov. 17.
The tweezers were
reminiscent of the pre-1996 days when Hawai’i used punch-style ballots in its
elections, requiring “tweezer teams” to clean up partial punctures, Bain said.
ITEM: Speaking of Florida, the National Association of Secretaries of
State – the men and women who are the top election officials in their
respective states – has called together a bipartisan task force to examine
election problems and propose solutions.
COMMENT: The task force can start
by recommending one standardized and sensible ballot for presidential elections
in all 50 states. Even if states insist on designing ballots for their own
state and local races, there should at least be a separate ballot for
president, one that can’t be accused of being confusing or impractical to the
point that voting for the world’s most powerful person is more complicated than
a tax return.
ITEM: Canadian newspaper publisher David Black, after lengthy
negotiations that have gone pretty much his way, is close to finalizing his
purchase of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
COMMENT: David Black is a shrewd
businessman. How do I know? I met him only once when I was the editor of one of
the 80 newspapers his Black Press Ltd. owns in Washington and Canada. He was
visiting a western Washington group of them one day, including mine. He arrived
with two of the group executives, both dressed in expensive, tailored suits.
Black, however, wore a cheap-looking blazer, slacks and an outdated necktie.
He’ll spend money, but only on what makes business sense.
ITEM: The press
release issued Tuesday from Honolulu had a Mayor Frank Fasi letterhead and
stated, “Mayor Frank Fasi” has called upon Republicans in Hawai’i to contribute
money to cover the cost of George W. Bush’s transition into the
presidency.
COMMENT: Does Fasi know he isn’t the mayor? Either somebody is
pulling a prank on his (not) honor, he has an impish sense of humor, or he’s in
denial about first giving up the office in 1994 for failed political
aspirations and then finishing a distant third in September’s primary election
when he tried to win it back. It can’t be that he doesn’t know what it is to
lose. He also has come up short in four runs for governor.
TGI editor Pat
Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and pjenkins@pulitzer.net.
