Hawaii
voting integrity
If anyone doubts voter integrity in Hawaii be assured, there is NO integrity in our voting system. None.
Watch this from one of the Big Island election observers: https://tinyurl.com/yuan2fvs.
You should have no confidence in Hawaii’s voting. I watched the Elections Commission meeting (on Monday). There were at least five testifiers saying that Scott Nago should be removed from his position as chief elections officer for willfully refusing (for at least the last two elections), to provide cast vote records or to do the 10% paper audits, both required by state law.
It went to court. The judge did admit the Office of Elections did not follow the law but said it wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome, so threw it out. How do they know it wouldn’t have made a difference if they didn’t look?
To rub salt, House Bill 132 was introduced this legislative session that would have exempted the Office of Election from doing paper audits. Thankfully, it did not pass.
At Monday’s Election Commission meeting (the supposed watchdog over elections for “We the people”), they said of 112 testifiers at the Legislature, 111 were against the bill (HB 132). The only testimony in favor came from — wait for it — Scott Nago.
And I’ll bet you they voted to raise for Mr. Nago’s salary (from $148,582 to $152,298) at Monday’s commission meeting. Of course, we don’t know because that was discussed in executive session.
Sad what we’ve become.
Michelle “Mikie” Kerr
Waikoloa
Support urged
for KCH
My name is Lynn Reinert. I have lived on the Big Island for 12 years and have been fortunate to be employed by Kona Community Hospital for this entire time.
While I am a transplant from the cold Midwest, Kona is my community. My husband and I work in the community, my son graduated from high school here, and my granddaughters will attend school here. I am a member of the Board of Directors for Hospice of Kona, as well.
When I began at KCH, I was a casual-hire respiratory therapist. I worked my way up to the director of ancillary services. I am very proud to be a part of the KCH ‘ohana.
Leadership has changed over the time I’ve been at KCH, and it has changed for the better! I am excited to work for an organization that is thinking about the future and what KCH needs to continue providing care to our community.
Kona Community Hospital is always looking to improve. We want to provide quality care to our community. We live in this community, support local businesses, and have connections with people outside of our work ‘ohana.
Because our hospital is an old building, we continue to need financial support from our legislators so we can fix the issues that plague an aging structure. With help, we can make our hospital all that it needs to be for our community.
We also want to thank Gov. Josh Green and those legislators that have helped with the funding needed to improve our infrastructure. We appreciate their support.
While they are working with us, we simply need more to fix long-standing issues with our structure, wastewater treatment, and other behind-the-scenes issues that have been ignored for too long.
Lynn Reinert
Kailua-Kona
