Hawaii Elections Project

From dKosopedia

Category: Hawaii

Hawaii Elections Project (HEP) is a non-profit 501(c)(3), a tax-deductible, non-partisan organization.

Background

"In the mid-1990s the Hawai`i State Campaign Spending Commission heightened public awareness about the outrageous criminal and quasi-criminal activities surrounding political campaigns by filing charges against what has become a long list of elected officials and corporate and business entities. To date, an estimated 100 high-profile prosecutions have taken place with many convictions and large fines levied (the most recent conviction and settlement was announced in October of 2005). Early on, in 1997, the Hawai`i League of Women Voters made the comprehensive public funding of elections a priority issue and a group of committed League volunteers created the Hawai`i Elections Project (HEP). The group set out to investigate possible alternatives to the existing corrupt system." [1]

Mission

"Now in its eighth year, the HEP mission is

• (1) to educate citizens, candidates and legislators about comprehensive public funding of election campaigns; and
• (2) to collect, evaluate and analyze data about the connections between money, politics, legislation and legislative outcomes, and to make that research and analysis available to the public." [2]