The O’ahu-dominated State Reapportionment Commission recently voted to include transient military and student populations in setting the election district boundaries, despite a constitutional requirement that only permanent residents be used in redistricting. Counting nonpermanent residents would result in O’ahu retaining a Senate seat that would have otherwise gone to Hawai’i island. But it also concentrates the political power of areas with large military populations, which tend to be more conservative and pro-Republican.
The State Reapportionment Commission whined that it was impossible to exclude military personnel from the redistricting because it could not get accurate data from the military about where military personnel live.
After the neighbor island reapportionment councils threatened to sue the Commission, the Commission changed its tune. As the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports:
There is enough information on people living temporarily in Hawaii who likely vote elsewhere to exclude them when redrawing the state’s election district boundaries.
That conclusion was reached by the staff of the state Reapportionment Commission, which held public meetings this week on proposed new legislative district maps. District boundaries are reconsidered after every Census in the interest of equal representation.