Posted on: Friday, July 6, 2001

Big Island may gain seat

Advertiser Staff

The commission that is redrawing Hawai'i's political boundaries has selected a method of counting residents that may result in a new House seat for the Big Island.

Commission members have been discussing who should be excluded from the population count that is used to divide the state into 51 House and 25 Senate districts.

The commission has opted to exclude military members from its count, but decided to include military dependents and felons.

Since most military are on O'ahu, excluding them reduces O'ahu's population. That increases the likelihood the rapidly growing population on the Big Island will merit a new state House seat.

The commission voted down returning to multi-member districts.