Posted on: Friday, October 12, 2001

Reapportionment Commission eliminates four 'canoe districts'

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief

The effort to redraw the state's political boundaries will begin again almost from scratch after the state Reapportionment Commission voted yesterday to eliminate four "canoe districts" and change the way state residents are counted.

The commission is redrawing the boundaries of the 25 Senate districts and 51 House districts, a process that is closely watched by members of the Legislature.

For years the state has had unpopular "canoe districts" that required some members of the Legislature to represent portions of more than one island.

The nine-member commission initially approved maps that included eight canoe districts, but in a 7-2 vote the commission agreed yesterday to adjust the way a key calculation is handled to eliminate four of those canoe districts.

In another change, the commission voted 5-4 yesterday to exclude about 53,000 dependents of nonresident military personnel from the tally of state residents.

Since most of those dependents live on O'ahu, excluding them from the population count would increase the Neighbor Islands' population count relative to O'ahu, which will justify an increase in their representation at the Legislature.

The changes will delay the final approval of the new district boundaries, which were supposed to be completed by Oct. 26.

Commission staff now plan to have the new maps ready in early November, and hold a series of public hearings on them around the state. Final approval of the maps is expected by mid-December.