If the government was elected by the children of Hawai‘i, Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona would be our next governor. The over 108,000 children statewide who voted in a mock election gave Aiona 59 percent of the votes. Aiona’s nemesis, Democratic
If the government was elected by the children of Hawai‘i, Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona would be our next governor.
The over 108,000 children statewide who voted in a mock election gave Aiona 59 percent of the votes. Aiona’s nemesis, Democratic candidate Neil Abercrombie, received 36 percent of the children’s votes.
In the real elections held Tuesday, Abercrombie won with 57.9 percent. Aiona came in second with 40.7 percent.
Kids Voting Hawai‘i, an affiliate of Kids Voting USA, was introduced in 1996 as a pilot project with the Rotary Club of Honolulu and the Rotary Club of Upcountry Maui, according to its website.
In 2002, Hawai‘i became the first state where students voted online. Each election the program grew in participation. Since 2008, over 100,000 students in grades K-12 statewide cast their ballots online.
On Kaua‘i, the schoolchildren chose a slightly different County Council formation.
In the general election, incumbent Dickie Chang took seventh place, with 6.1 percent of the vote, giving him the last council seat. In the children’s mock election, Chang took first place, snatching 11 percent of the vote.
The main difference in the children’s council choice was the exclusion of Nadine Nakamura and the reinstatement of Council Chair Kaipo Asing.
Rookie candidate Nakamura took second place in the general election, with 8.2 percent of vote, but could not convince enough children to vote for her. In the children’s mock election she took seven percent of the vote, putting her in eighth place.
Asing, who fell to ninth place in the general election after 28 years of service on the council, took the sixth seat in the children’s election, ahead of incumbent Tim Bynum.
Another surprise result in the children’s election was in the race for U.S. senator.
Incumbent Dan Inouye, D-Hawai‘i, won by a large margin in both elections. But his main challenger, Republican candidate Cam Cavasso, had a much different turn out.
Despite publicly saying last week that he was going to shock the nation with a win over Inouye, in the general election Cavasso took only 20.7 percent of the vote against Inouye’s 71.9 percent.
In the children’s mock election, Cavasso secured even fewer votes. He came in fourth place, with nine percent of the vote, behind nonpartisan Jeff Jarrett, with 16 percent, and Green Party candidate Jim Brewer, with 11 percent.
In the race for U.S. representative of urban O‘ahu, Democrat Colleen Hanabusa, with 49.5 percent of the vote, unseated incumbent Charles Djou, R-District 1, who received 39.5 percent of the votes.
In the children’s mock election, however, Djou won with 61 percent of the vote while Hanabusa took 39 percent.
In the race for the 2nd Congressional District seat, representing rural O‘ahu and the Neighbor Islands, both elections had similar outcomes.
In the general, incumbent Mazie Hirono, a Democrat, took 67.9 percent. In the children’s election she took 65 percent. Republican John Willoughby took 23.5 percent of the votes in the general election and 17 percent in the children’s election.
In the race for state representative for each of Kaua‘i’s three districts, all Democrat candidates won by a large margin over their Republican counterparts in both elections.
In District 14, incumbent Mina Morita took 68.9 percent in the general, and 64 percent in the children’s election.
In District 15, incumbent Jimmy Tokioka took 71.1 percent in the general, and 81 percent in the children’s election.
In District 16, Dee Morikawa took 73.5 percent in the general, and 75 percent in the children’s election.
Go to www.kidsvotinghawaii.org for more information.
