should campaigning be allowed in Hawaii election even tho the outcome is known so far?

[msongs]

in Hawaii, the recent hurricane caused voting to be cancelled in some precincts in the storm zone. The rest of the state voted and now knows the outcome of the already cast votes. There is less than 2000 votes difference between the 2 candidates.

Now the state is sending absentee ballots to voters in the cancelled precincts so those people can vote even though they already know the outcome of the election as of this date.

Both candidates have said they are going to the storm zone to continue campaigning.

So my questions are should they be allowed to keep campaigning after the election results are known so far and should the people who couldn't vote due to the storm still be allowed to vote. There are about 8000 people affected by this.

Seems to me if the state wants to allow additional voting , vote totals should have been kept secret until all the storm people have voted.

your thoughts?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. They probably should have left things unannounced

but even though they've announced what the counts are so far, that's no excuse to deny the remaining people their votes.

[tritsofme]

2. How could a candidate be prohibited from campaigning?

This was definitely poor planning, though in the midst of a natural disaster, on the state's part. But I don't how a candidate could be legally stopped from soliciting votes, so I'm not sure what you are proposing.

[Demit]

3. You're assuming the count so far will influence the remaining voters.

I don't see any reason to assume that.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. So what? Why should they not vote because they know the current totals?

You just assert that somehow knowing the current tally invalidates their right to vote, but you make no case for why that should be so.

What is intended to be secret in the "secret ballot" is who *you* voted for, not what the total votes are.

The objections to early predictions in presidential elections wasn't that it would somehow give west coast voters some advantage, it was that it would, in the case of a blowout, discourage them from voting at all - it would effectively disenfranchise them. In the case of a close election it encourages more voter participation, and in my opinion that is a good thing.

[brooklynite]

5. The election results aren't know...

...the tally of election day votes has been announced, but the results haven't been certified yet. Theoretically, the results could change bease on delayed preceint voting, return of absentee ballots, etc.