It is critical that when voting in the upcoming county council election you understand the “7 vote thing”.

So, I am compelled to explain the importance of “plunking” and in general resisting the urge to go “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” and expending all seven of your Kauai County Council votes on candidates you have little or no knowledge of.

PLEASE CONSIDER NOT USING ALL 7 COUNCIL VOTES.  Your ballot will say “Vote for not more than seven (7)” and does not require you to cast all 7 votes.   Remember that your #5, #6, or #7 votes could be the same vote that beats your top choices!

Many voters will naturally vote first for those candidates they really want to see in office and who they are familiar with and confident in.

Then, often at the expense of those they truly support, the uninitiated voter feels compelled to cast their 3 or 4 remaining votes on candidates that are “ok” and are perhaps familiar with their names.

Those final “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” votes could be the votes that inadvertently beat your #1, #2 or #3 top choices.

The fundamental rule of experienced akamai Kauai voting is: Do not use all 7 votes when choosing your Kauai County Council candidates.

Experienced Kauai voters will use their Council votes sparingly, selecting only those candidates whom they really and truly and positively want to get elected. These voters might cast one vote or perhaps up to 4 or 5 votes but rarely do they go beyond this number.

An example of how casting all 7 votes can work to the detriment of the candidate or candidates you are most interested in getting elected:

Assume there are 14 candidates running for the 7 Council seats.

The council candidates’ mother goes to vote.

She votes for her child (naturally) and then pauses and decides to vote for one other candidate who has been especially nice to good ol’ mom during the campaign. 

Mom’s favorite candidate (her child) then loses the election by one vote to that other candidate and very nice person mom decided to vote for also.

The bottom line is that in most Kauai Council elections – moms, grandmas, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, cousins, and children of the candidate will often only cast one vote in the Kauai County Council race.

This is called “plunking”. Others have their definition for plunking but this is how I have come to know the term.

There is a fundamental hard and fast rule of service in elective office: No matter how smart the candidate is, no matter how hard they work, no matter how good they are in their heart – they cannot serve unless they get elected.

And they won’t get elected if voters are throwing their votes around eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

Please vote. Please research all of the candidates and vote only for those you truly believe will represent your core values.

For those that are wondering who I am voting for: I’m casting only two votes in the Primary Election – for the newcomers. One will go to Fern Anuenue Holland and another to Addison Bulosan.

Thank you, gh