High court asked for ruling on trial option
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The American Civil Liberties Union late yesterday afternoon filed an emergency appeal with the Hawai'i Supreme Court to try to stop the state from counting or certifying votes on constitutional amendment proposal No. 3 in Tuesday's election.
The text of the amendment may be viewed at www.hawaii.gov/elections
The proposed amendment would allow prosecutors to send felony cases to trial by filing a signed, written "information" (usually a police report and associated documents). Currently, felony cases are send to trial by a judge at a preliminary hearing or by the grand jury with an indictment.
On the Web:
In its motion for a temporary restraining order, the ACLU of Hawai'i argued that the ballot amendment be nullified because the state failed to comply with constitutional mandates.
ACLU legal director Brent White said the constitution requires that the state Office of Elections publish the full text of proposed amendments four weeks before the general election, which he said the office failed to do.
White said the ACLU asked the Supreme Court for a hearing Monday. But he said it will be up to the justices to decide when they will hear the appeal.
Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario on Thursday denied a similar request for a restraining order. But he ordered the state to publish the full text of the proposed amendment in newspaper advertisements and to post the text prominently at polling places.
"Six days before the election they finally publish the text of the amendment in the newspaper," White said. "But a lot of people have voted already. Everyone who voted by absentee ballot voted without ever seeing the text of the amendment that they're voting on."
White said the only information published by the state before Del Rosario's order was contained in a pamphlet, which he said was filled with errors.
• On the Web:
The text of the amendment may be viewed at
www.hawaii.gov/elections
