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ASD Staff

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all enjoy a baby playing with a baby..."}]

Smile 26 6 6 2

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026</title>

Now let's all enjoy a baby playing with a baby...

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

 Now let&#039;s all enjoy a baby playing with a baby...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Crime & Courts

Justices on the Hawai‘i Supreme Court seemed incredulous Friday over a dispute between the Hawai‘i Elections Commission and the state Office of Elections.

The Elections Commission, the board that appoints and evaluates the state Election Officer, has been unable to meet since June. The previous election chair’s term concluded that month, and without a successor in place, it has fallen to other commissioners to schedule a meeting in which a new chair can be selected.

This seemingly trivial task has been met with repeated roadblocks by the Office of Elections, leading commissioners Ralph Cushnie and Tamara McKay to file a petition for the Supreme Court to intervene and clarify what authority the Office of Elections has over the Commission.

Aaron Schulaner, the attorney representing the Office of Elections and Election Officer Scott Nago, repeatedly told the Supreme Court Friday that the Office of Elections only serves an administerial role for the Commission, advising them on what they are or are not permitted to do based on state statutes.

If, for example, a leaderless Commission wishes to schedule a meeting, Schulaner said the Office of Elections can do so — so long as a majority of the eight commissioners request the office for assistance scheduling a meeting. But without that request by the majority of the Commission, the Office of Elections cannot provide administrative support, Schulaner said.

Cushnie and McKay argued that this alone appears to not be backed up by state law. McKay said Schulaner’s reasoning seems to be based on the statutory requirement that the Commission act by majority, but the definition of “act” is based on actions taken during an agendized meeting, not administrative functions like scheduling meetings.

But justices of the court seemed shocked at the dysfunction between the Commission and the Office of Elections, two bodies that are charged with serving the public good.

Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna questioned why the Office of Elections hasn’t been more proactive in scheduling a meeting after four months of inactivity by the Commission with a general election looming.

“Why are we here?” McKenna exclaimed. “Why can’t this be done by rational people that are trying to serve the public?”

Schulaner said the Office of Elections could proactively send emails to each commissioner, asking them if they agree with holding a meeting, and if five commissioners answer in the affirmative, then the office would begin scheduling a meeting. But McKenna again was incredulous: “If you’re conceding that you could do that, why haven’t you done that?”

The Commission’s own inability to schedule meetings was also called into question. Cushnie said the commissioners do not have access to their fellows’ email addresses or contact information, which has prevented him from coordinating other commissioners.

Schulaner suggested that allowing commissioners to know each other’s emails could raise concerns about violations of the Sunshine Law, the government transparency law that, among other things, prohibits public boards from discussing business outside of agendized meetings. But he also could not confirm that the state Office of Information Practices specifically advised the Office of Elections to not share commissioners’ contact information with each other.

“You’re telling us that in all the years that this commission existed and that we’ve had email, that they haven’t created an email that would just say ‘RalphCushnie@ec.gov’?” scoffed Circuit Judge Peter Cahill.

Justices also questioned whether the Commission’s legal representation represents a conflict of interest. Cushnie and McKay represented themselves Friday; the Commission’s own attorney, Deputy Attorney General Jordan Ching, did not appear.

In fact, Schulaner said that Office of Elections staff reached out directly to the Commission’s counsel and received advice from him to not distribute correspondence among the commissioners.

“So your client is contacting the other entity’s lawyer directly and asking for advice?” Cahill said, calling this behavior “unheard of” for a lawyer. “So the lawyer is making decisions, and there’s nothing to indicate in the record that the lawyer obtained the consent of his own client to have these communications?”

The court made no decision Friday, and did not indicate when a decision would be forthcoming. But McKay told Aloha State Daily afterward that she hopes a decision will be made soon, as the election is looming.

But regardless of the court’s decision, McKay said there is “true division” among the Commission, with animosity and “bad behavior” between the Commission and the Office of Elections, as well as between commissioners themselves.

McKay added that the question of whether the Commission is receiving proper legal representation “needs to be visited” as well in the future.

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<title>Deadlocked state election organizations go to Hawai‘i Supreme Court</title>

Hawai‘i Supreme Court hears arguments in dispute between Hawai‘i Election Commission, Hawai‘i Office of Elections. At least one justice was stunned that the dynamic between the two groups had reached this point.

Deadlocked state election organizations go to Hawai‘i Supreme Court

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Columnists

 with frustration as I observe the deaths of three children and a teacher. The only good thing about the situation: An 

 driving by Silver Rail Elementary School heard the shots, parked, ran into the danger and shot and killed the school shooter before he could kill any more children. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He ended the threat before police could even get on the scene."}]

It’s yet another horrible example of two true things. One, there are psychopaths who want to shoot up school kids. Two, they can only be stopped by shooting them. 

My frustration is that Hawai‘i has stubbornly refused to acknowledge either reality and we are damned lucky we don’t have dead schoolchildren of our own.

If you think our keiki are being kept safe by our gun laws, you haven't thought past your feelings. In the real world, they are corralled into unprotected facilities with only police response time standing between them and death. That's exactly what happened at Silver Rail, where guns have been banned by state law since 2021.

One of the main sources of this vulnerability is our Act 52, the Statewide 

Sensitive Places Law, signed by Gov. Josh Green on June 2, 2023. He made this statement at the time:

“In observance of today’s National Gun Violence Awareness Day, I’m pleased to be signing two bills – SB1230 and HB1239 – as gun violence represents an urgent public health and public safety issue,” 

 Green. “These bills strike a very appropriate balance between public safety, and protecting people and children in Hawaiʻi, along with respecting the Second Amendment right of individuals.”

, banning guns from, among other places, all schools and universities, public or private.

HB1239 became Act 53, mandating “active shooter training” in the DOE. Well, sort of mandated, as it allows students to opt out. Here’s an example of such training at Hawai‘i Pacific University’s website,

 it’s the “run, hide, fight” method

. I assume this same method is taught throughout the Department of Education for public schools.

And it doesn't work. There's evidence it makes things worse. Read “

Unfortunate Outcomes for Popular Safety Programs,

. This is a business leadership trade organization for independent schools. Author Michael Dorn says of run, hide, fight and similar programs, “It has become evident, however, that in multiple school attacks, these training approaches have resulted in what can only be described as tragic failures that have increased rather than decreased casualties.”

That was two years before Hawai‘i made such training the law of the land for our schools and universities.

Here's what happens to "run, hide, fight" in real life when unarmed children and teachers are attacked by school shooters:

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Get shot in the back while you run. "}]

Get shot wherever the shooter finds you hiding. 

Get shot in the face while you fight ... with what, exactly? Algebra books?

These school shooters always end up being 

social misfit weirdos with chips on their shoulders

 who are going to make the world pay. They range from depressed and bullied to malicious and evil to inhumanly psychopathic. But they are generally not stupid. They select schools for a reason that ought to be jaw-droppingly obvious:

Schools are the only things weaker than the shooters themselves. The children are small and harmless. The teachers are nice people unaccustomed to violence. And, most importantly, from the shooter's perspective, they are all unarmed. No one can fight back.

Every school shooter knows this. They know it because there’s a stupid sign on the school that says, “gun-free zone.”

[{"type":"text","text":"You know what that sign says to a school shooter?"}]

Oregon's Silver Rail Elementary itself is the proof, where three students were killed before that armed father stopped the shooter. "

Oregon School Shooting District Had Banned Staff From Carrying Guns

These laws are not safety. True safety comes from stopping the shooter immediately. True safety comes from would-be school shooters knowing they will be shot on sight so fast that it isn’t worth it, they’ll never achieve what they’ve set out to do. They need to know it’s a suicide mission with no pay-off — and note, many of them do end on suicide, but only 

 they’ve killed others. They want their body count first. Take away their prize and school shootings will stop.

This is reality. Under these laws, our children are no safer than the ones at Silver Rail. As far as I'm concerned, those c

hildren are human sacrifices to the moral vanity of the gun control advocates who left them undefended.

If you've seen me make this next point before, well, I'm going to make it again because it's still true.

I’ve worked Downtown for 30 years and have seen countless armored cars making deliveries, with their armed guards openly carrying guns on their hips.

No one even looks twice. No one squawks. No one freaks out, “OMG! That guard has a 

Why? Because it’s obvious that sacks of money tempt robbers, including the armed-robbery type. We all collectively agree that people who transport money are at risk, the money is at risk, and if an armed robber gets killed during a robbery, well, too bad, you shouldn't have tried to steal the money and shoot the guards. That's if anybody gives this any thought at all, which, they probably don't because it's such obvious common sense that it's hardly worth noticing. Literally no has a problem with this. No marches on the state Capitol with a "no blood for armored cars!" sign.

School grounds, on the other hand, must be made as absolutely defenseless as possible or we simply can't live with ourselves. This is so important to us that we pass laws with fanfare and press conferences to celebrate how defenseless we've made the schools.

[{"type":"text","text":"I don't get it."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"What we're willing to protect with deadly force is what we truly value."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Looks to me like we love money more than we love children."}]

As for Green, he's surrounded by armed guards, at taxpayer expense. Kids on state property aren't, but he is. I guess we love our governors more than we love children, too.

[{"type":"text","text":"How nice for him."}]

People sometimes grumble when opinion writers rant about a problem without proposing a solution, so here's mine: Free guns for school employees and the training needed to safely shoot straight. Does this need funding? Well, the state of Hawai‘i knows exactly how much I paid in state income taxes last year. Start with that, every penny. I'd like to pay for something that works for a change.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

Silver Rail Getty Images 2299891218

<title>Pipikaula Corner: What Oregon should teach Hawai‘i</title>

The Oregon school shooter was stopped by one thing and one thing only — a good, brave man with a gun. Hawai‘i offers its students and teachers only "gun-free zone" signs and some training that they run for their lives. But note this: Oregon's Silver Rail Elementary was a "gun-free zone" school, too.

Pipikaula Corner: What Oregon should teach Hawai‘i

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

After more than six years, Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort’s breakfast buffet is back.

, its new all-day oceanfront restaurant. The eatery — which overlooks Gray’s Beach — features a menu of coastally inspired cuisine.

Hinahina replaces the resort’s Kai Market and The Edge of Waikīkī Bar, combining the two oceanfront spaces as a singular dining experience.

“Hinahina opens an exciting new culinary chapter for Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort and the story of this much-loved stretch of Waikīkī’s shoreline,” states Tetsuji “Tets” Yamazaki, the resort’s general manager. “Since imagining this exciting new concept, we’ve been anxious to begin welcoming residents and visitors to this gathering and dining space shaped by the history, surfing, waterman and beachboy life, and the coastal culture of Gray’s Beach.”

The eatery’s name means “gray” in Hawaiian; it pays homage to Waikīkī’s Gray’s Beach area and Gray’s by the Sea, which was an early 1900s boarding house. “Hinahina” connects Hawaiʻi’s natural beauty with the shoreline’s history, according to Yamazaki.

The new restaurant’s interior features large tables and a private dining room, called the Shapers Room, which can seat up to 40 individuals.

The breakfast buffet ($48 per adult, $25 per child) 

is open daily from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. The return of the resort’s breakfast buffet has been highly anticipated, according to Yamazaki.

“Bringing back our beloved resort tradition of offering a daily breakfast buffet is also special to us, as guests have told us, time and time again, how much they’ve missed it during their stays,” Yamazaki states.

The restaurant’s culinary program is led by executive chef Darren Demaya. Born and raised on Hawai

i Island, Demaya started his culinary career as a dishwasher in Hilo before he joined the kitchen team at Alan Wong’s Restaurant in Honolulu. He has held leadership roles at the Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort’s restaurants and daily dining operations for more than 18 years.

Demaya notes that some of the breakfast buffet’s offerings rotate daily.

“We have a rotating fried rice of the day; the eggs Benedict (selection) is different, too,” he says. “I like the smoked salmon eggs Benedict with smoked trout roe and yuzu kosho hollandaise. For the fried rice, we do a variety, including kalua pig, lap cheong and shrimp. I like Sundays because we do a longanisa fried rice; that’s my favorite.”

Other eggs Benedicts include classic ham and poached eggs, kalua hash with chili water hollandaise, loco moco (hamburger patty and poached egg over rice with brown gravy), reuben and Florentine.

Fried rice varieties range from ginger scallion and kimchi to local boy fried rice (kalua pork, eggs and onions) and a vegetarian-friendly option.

The buffet also offers a rotating selection of composed salads; the selection includes cold somen salad, basil pesto farro salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad and more.

Savory options include a variety of breakfast meats (crispy applewood smoked bacon, maple-glazed chicken sausage and grilled Portuguese Maui sausage) and a made-to-order omelet station.

The Hawaiian-style pineapple upside-down pancake with coconut syrup is another buffet highlight, according to Demaya.

“We put the pancake batter over the pineapple rings to get this caramelized pineapple look,” he says. “At Hinahina, we’re taking ingredients that make Hawaiʻi special — like kalua pig — and featuring different cultures in our menu.”

Demaya encourages customers to save room for dessert — the eatery’s malasadas are served with three choices of sugar, including cinnamon, li hing mui and matcha.

“The malasadas have been very popular,” he says. “I like the matcha sugar.”

Hinahina on the Beach is currently open for the breakfast buffet and offers an a la carte menu during lunch. The lunch menu features options like build-your-own poke bowls with local-caught ‘ahi or wild-caught Atlantic salmon ($28), Hinahina burger with wagyu beef ($32), the loco moco ($30) and Gray’s Beach fish tacos ($30).

The eatery will soon launch its a la carte dinner service, and its seafood buffet on Fridays and Saturdays is expected to open next month, according to Demaya. He says that diners can look forward to flavorful dishes like miso butterfish and giant tiger shrimp with red Thai lobster curry sauce. Meanwhile, desserts will include nostalgic dishes like Auntie Karen’s strawberry jello cheesecake pie.

“I’m most excited for dinner,” he says. “We’re bringing back the seafood buffet on Fridays and Saturdays in November; that will give us some time to get comfortable (serving dinner).

“People always ask, ‘Are you still doing a buffet?’” he adds. “Not yet, but it’s coming soon.”

The eatery’s dinner service will be from 5 to 8 p.m. The restaurant offers complimentary parking for four hours (with validation).

For more information and to make reservations, visit 

Open daily, 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. breakfast; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. lunch; dinner service coming soon

Four hours of complimentary parking with restaurant validation

Hinahina buffet Photo courtesy Hinahina 101426 jpg

<title>Hinahina on the Beach brings buffets back to Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort</title>

The resort’s new all-day oceanfront restaurant is located in the former space of Kai Market. Hinahina on the Beach features a menu of coastally inspired cuisine, and has brought back the resort’s popular breakfast buffet after more than six years. Dinner service will be starting soon, along with the resort’s popular seafood buffet.

Hinahina on the Beach brings buffets back to Sheraton Waikīkī Beach Resort

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

In the late 1970s, the Miano family left their home in Brockton, Mass. without the family patriarch. 

While Richard Miano Sr. was incarcerated, his wife and three children moved to O‘ahu seeking a fresh start. Though he was a loving and involved father, the people he associated himself with eventually caught up to him. 

"We knew that he was involved with a lot of stuff," his son, Richard Jr., better known to the football world as Rich Miano, recently told Aloha State Daily when asked about his father. "I'm not sure we knew that he was gonna end up in jail, but we knew that it was a crazy lifestyle. I've witnessed things that nobody should see with their own eyes growing up. ... People shooting people, beating up people with golf clubs. All kinds of mayhem, based upon what he did for a living, which was own nightclubs and bars and his associations with mafia and everything else was just, yeah. It was problematic."

[{"type":"text","text":"Brockton was all Rich Miano knew during his childhood. "}]

"Born and raised, never moved. Rarely traveled. Had no idea what Polynesia was. Basically, we're in one of the most segregated parts of the country," Miano recalled. "Coming to Hawaii was like, 'whoa.' Being a minority and didn't know the culture, didn't know anything about Hawai‘i, it took two years to adjust."

Miano enrolled at Kaiser High School with just a handful of weeks remaining in his sophomore year. He took the occasional "haole" ribbing from classmates as he adjusted to a new locale. Homesick but realizing the family wasn't going back to Brockton, Miano eventually acclimated to his new environment. It helped that he lived with his best friend, younger brother Robert, and the two navigated their new lives together. 

As a junior at Kaiser, Rich Miano joined the swimming and diving team, and performed well as a diver, competing in the state tournament. But in an effort to make more friends at school, he decided to give football a try for his senior year. 

"I just wanted to be one of the boys," he recalled. 

Though he hadn't played the sport since he was a youth, Miano quickly readjusted back to the sport. Robert saw how much Rich had enjoyed being back on the gridiron and said he'd join him on the team soon. Richard Miano Sr. had also rejoined the family on the Islands after his release from prison. Things were looking up for the Miano family. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Then, tragedy struck. "}]

Robert and Rich Miano rode together to school one day. Robert told Rich he'd skip class to go to Spitting Cave but he'd be back to pick up Rich. He never returned. 

Rich Miano knew something was wrong when he never got picked up from school, but when he returned home to see countless heads slumped and in tears, he was given a piece of news he could've never fathomed prior to that point. Robert Miano passed away following an accident at Spitting Cave. He was 16 years old. 

"I just remember how sad it was for my parents and how tragic it was to realize that my best friend, my roommate, is no longer there," Miano recalled. "I just saw the anguish and just the hurt in my parents and my sister, myself, and realized that nothing worse could ever happen in life for your parents and just your whole family in general."

Before Rich Miano became an all-conference and honorable mention All-American defensive back at the University of Hawai‘i, and before his 11-year NFL career, he was just a kid who wanted to honor his brother. 

"I think that was the motivating factor in part of the success — the fact that you're now playing for your brother as well," Rich Miano said. "You're playing for your family. You're trying to keep focused in terms of what you're doing in life, because otherwise you're just thinking about being sad and not trying to make the most out of your life."

Despite coming from an era where maintaining a tough exterior was paramount, Rich Miano never shied away from the heartbreak. 

I don't care how tough you are, whether you're a football player or you're a member of the mafia or whatever. When a family member dies, I think that crying and all that other stuff, it's just part of life. We cried openly. We weep openly. Even the thought now, when I talk about it, I get choked up talking about my mom, my dad, my brother, and my sister," Miano said between sniffles. 

Miano enjoyed his one season of high school ball at Kaiser. More importantly, he itched to keep playing. He joined the University of Hawai‘i football team as a walk-on, wreaking havoc on the scout team. At the time, walk-ons were forbidden from eating with the rest of the team, per NCAA rules. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"\"We'd eat s***,\" Miano recalled."}]

Miano, who also had to pay his way through school, worked valet at a local restaurant at nights and sometimes saw his teammates on scholarship come by and wave to him. "I'm busting my a** just to have $100 in my pocket," he says. 

Hawai‘i was Miano's only choice at the time as far as school and football were concerned. He didn't want to leave his parents so quickly after Robert's death. 

"The trajectory of my life changed because of that. I loved football, but I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave my mom and dad. I couldn't leave the state of Hawai‘i," Miano said.

Miano's first opportunity to earn meaningful playing time was during the 1983 season, a chance he did not squander. After leading the team in tackles and interceptions in 1983, he appeared on the radar of NFL scouts. He replicated his success in 1984, racking up a team-leading 110 tackles earning All-WAC and All-Coast selections for the second year in a row. He was selected in the sixth round of the 1985 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. His $30,000 signing bonus was a far cry from his valet days, and by the end of his rookie year, he purchased the first of his handful of O‘ahu homes. 

After stints with the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles, the final stop in Miano's 11-year NFL career was with the Atlanta Falcons, where he played for another former University of Hawai‘i player in head coach June Jones. Following his retirement, he returned to the Islands, where one of his jobs was as a radio broadcast analyst for UH football games. He watched from up top at 

 as the 1998 team suffered through an 0-12 season. 

When Jones got the UH job in 1999, he plucked Miano to coach the team's defensive secondary despite having no prior coaching experience at the collegiate level. In less than 10 years, the Warriors went from 0-12 to 1998 to a 12-0 regular season in 2007, led by one of Miano's all-time favorite recruits in quarterback Colt Brennan. 

"Colt was the best quarterback in the country. Colt could do everything, and if you looked at the film, every arm angle, every throw, there's no way that guy doesn't get $8 or $10 million in today's (NIL) market," Miano says. 

Jones departed for SMU following the 2008 Sugar Bowl and asked Miano to come with him to Dallas, but Miano's roots were already entrenched in Hawai‘i. Miano was elevated to associate head coach and stuck around in Mānoa through the 2011 season, departing when the school went in a different direction and hired Norm Chow ahead of the 2012 season. 

Miano returned to his high school alma mater, leading Kaiser to an HHSAA Division II title in 2013 before departing to pursue other ventures. 

Ever since he moved back to the Islands, Miano has been one of the go-to voices for anything and everything relating to Hawai‘i football. He's the color analyst during local broadcasts of UH football games. He's a regular on KHON2's Cover2, the state's only weekly show dedicated to high school football. In the same way Brennan was known to never turned down a picture or autograph from a fan, Miano has never turned down an interview request to discuss his passion for football in the Islands. 

Through his organization Hawai‘i Speed and Quickness, local athletes have earned thousands of dollars in scholarship money and other college opportunities. 

 in the KHON2 studio with the distinction of being named to the UH Circle of Honor for the Class of 2026. On Friday evening, he'll be one of five members officially inducted. 

"People ask me, 'Are you getting in as a player? You getting in as a coach? Are you getting in as a broadcaster?' I'll be honest. I don't know what I'm getting in as, but I'm proud of all three of those things. I'm proud of my affiliation with the University of Hawai‘i for the last 40-something years."

In recent years, Miano has lost both parents, as well as his sister, Karen. But his wife, Lori, and children Kupa‘a (born Richard III) and Siena will be there to celebrate his lasting impact on Hawai‘i football. 

Brockton and Honolulu are separated by over 5,000 miles, and there's no way teenage Rich Miano would have envisioned the life he built for himself in the Islands. Now 64, he's fully ingratiated himself to countless amounts of football players, coaches and fans across the state. 

Though his parents, sister and brother won't be there physically on Friday, Miano likes to think they'd be proud of the way he turned tragedy into triumph. 

"They would have never expected when we moved to Hawai‘i to be part of this community in such a big way," Miano said. "I do think they're still watching down from above, and they're proud. I think that I've I've reached my genetic potential in football. I don't know if I've reached my giving potential, but we certainly try, and we'll continue to try. So the more that comes our way, the more we can help other people. I always pray to them each and every day, and I hope that they are watching and they're proud."

Rich Miano Robert Miano 101526

<title>Rich Miano overcomes personal tragedy en route to becoming Hawai‘i football staple</title>

Miano lost his only brother, Robert, before his senior season of high school football at Kaiser. It set him on a path to an 11-year NFL career and a reputation as an Island football legend that will be cemented with an induction into the UH Circle of Honor on Friday.

Rich Miano overcomes personal tragedy en route to becoming Hawai‘i football staple

Peter Adler without coat 2022 1011447 copy Large

Peter S. Adler, PhD

Elections in Hawai‘i, like most in the United States, tend to be emotional and complicated. In general, they are dominated by Republican and Democratic inter-party squabbles, which often erupt into titanic national posturing. As Will Rogers, cowboy humorist and political raconteur, put it a century ago: “I tell you Folks, all Politics is Apple Sauce.”  Elections and electioneering are mushy.

Nationally, there appears to be mounting frustration with both national political parties. Some voters seem fatigued by a predominantly two-party system, and polls seem to show a possible openness to change. Knowing we might be a little different here, does this hold true in Hawai‘i?  Voters in the City and County of Honolulu may find out when staring down one particular question within a set proposed charter amendments in November.

At a minimum, this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity. Number five of the 

20 proposals listed by the Charter Commission

 will ask voters on O‘ahu to decide if its voter-selected officials — the mayor, city council members, and the prosecuting attorney — should be elected using ranked choice voting. If approved, the change would take effect in 2032 at the earliest.

At the moment, ranked choice voting appears to have been used or has been approved for upcoming public elections in 49 U.S. jurisdictions, including 36 cities, three counties, and Maine and Alaska statewide. Several jurisdictions employ ranked choice voting ballots for military and overseas voters. Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes §11-100 already requires ranked choice voting for federal elections held outside regularly scheduled primary or general election dates, and for special elections to fill vacant county council seats.

Interestingly, ranked choice voting also appears outside government elections: About 100 American colleges and universities use it in some student-government elections. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses ranked ballots to determine most Oscar nominees; it also uses ranked-choice tabulation to select the Best Picture winner. Ranked, point-based ballots also select the Heisman Trophy winner as well as that of Major League Baseball’s Cy Young Award.

National democracy-reform advocacy organizations argue that ranked choice voting can broaden voter choice and strengthen representation. FairVote, for example, strongly endorses ranked choice voting; Common Cause sees it  as a solution to growing voter disengagement. 

Prominent politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Mitt Romney, Cory Booker, Jamie Raskin, and Joe Manchin have appeared to offer varying degrees of support of ranked choice voting. Romney, for example, expressed qualified support in 2023, while Raskin introduced federal ranked choice voting  legislation in 2025.

However, opposition has also grown. States have enacted a patchwork of restrictions on ranked choice voting, including statewide 

 as of May 2025. The National Conference of State Legislatures tracks state laws governing ranked choice voting, including state restrictions and local-use provisions. In some states, statutes neither expressly authorize nor expressly prohibit ranked choice voting, leaving the extent of local authority unsettled. Michael Greibrok and Madeline Malisa of the Foundation for Government Accountability believe 

, writing, “Lawmakers who want to protect ballots and the will of the people should pass legislation to ban ranked-choice voting statewide and for all local elections.”

One of the indicators on Guild Consulting’s 

 speaks directly to the situation in our state. The Dashboard is an evolving, publicly accessible, and free resource indicating how Hawai‘i stacks up against other states on 27 different measures; it draws data from federal agencies and established nonpartisan research organizations. Its selected indicators are intended to encourage comparison and discussion, not to prove that particular policies cause particular outcomes.

As it turns out, Hawai‘i scores better than many states on measures such as our rate of unemployment, rainy day fund balance as a percent of annual general fund spending, and suicide per capita. Nonetheless, Hawaiʻi is dead last (No. 50 of 50) when it comes to 

. Only 50.3% of eligible Hawaiʻi voters cast a ballot in the 2024 general election. Turnout for the August 2026 primary (ballots cast divided by registered voters) was 

, Hawai‘i, at 50.3% ranked lowest in the nation in the 2024 general election. For comparison, Wisconsin ranked No. 1, with a 76.7% voter participation rate. The nation's median rate was 64.7%.

Most state legislative incumbents won handily in the recent primary, a longstanding “same–same” pattern in Hawai‘i. There were a few exceptions: Incumbent Sen. Les Ihara lost by more than 30 percentage points. Sen. Kurt Fevella tied Bob McDermott and subsequently lost the drawing that determined the Republican nomination. Rep. Kanani Souza similarly tied challenger Sheila Medeiros but lost when lots were cast.

So how does ranked choice voting actually work?

While ranked choice voting procedures vary among jurisdictions, the basic process is straightforward. All qualifying candidates appear on the ballot, and voters rank candidates in order of preference. During the initial tabulation round, the first-choice votes on all valid ballots are counted. If one candidate receives an outright majority of votes cast, that candidate wins. If no candidate receives more than 50% of votes cast, the last-place candidate is eliminated from further contention.

Hence in the next tabulation round, each ballot that had presented the just-eliminated candidate as the top choice is re-counted using instead the ballot’s next-highest-ranked candidate still in contention. Each ballot already tabulated for a candidate who remains in the race is tabulated as it was in the prior round.

The process repeats until a candidate wins under the applicable rules, generally by receiving a majority of active ballots (not necessarily of all cast ballots) in a tabulation round.

The upcoming Honolulu Charter Amendment question 5, as written, describes this as a process to be conducted “in a single November election,” and its supplemental information notes that voters may “rank any number of candidates in the order they prefer.”  A valid ballot nonetheless becomes exhausted if every candidate ranked on it has been eliminated; such a ballot  may have counted in earlier rounds but would no longer impact the final tabulation deciding the winner of the election.

Are O‘ahu voters hungry for a change?  Would ranked choice voting, if adopted and suitably clarified and understood by voters, become a viable system that makes a satisfying difference?

Question 5 will offer an important conceptual choice. If adopted, the proposal directs the city clerk to prepare rules and implement a public education program which clearly addresses important operational nuances, such as ballot design, recounts, certification procedures, and treatment of skipped rankings, ties, and exhausted ballots. The public should be able to see and comment on those rules before implementation, as Honolulu’s charter provides that public-facing administrative rules generally require public notice, a public hearing, and mayoral approval.

Whether or not question 5 passes in November, it presents a special opportunity to think collectively about how local governance could be elected. Ranked choice voting has pros and cons and deserves the analysis, discussion, and debate I’ll cover in Part 2, including a closer look at the arguments for and against the process and what the available evidence says about its potential effects on participation, civility, and representation.

Ranked choice voting

<title>Ranked choice voting in Honolulu, part 1: Analysis of a possible game change</title>

Honolulu voters will soon weigh a 2032 shift to a single-election ranked choice system for its mayor, city council members and prosecuting attorney. In this two-part series, ASD columnist Peter S. Adler explains how ranked choice voting works, and explores the arguments for and against it.

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

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Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

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