← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · Hawaii
Our call — vote NO
The measure
Question 1 is a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on Hawaii's November 3, 2026 ballot. When the governor makes a judicial appointment between April 1 and December 31 at a time when the state Senate is not in session or is about to adjourn, the Senate's time to act on the appointment would extend from 30 days to 60 days. If the Senate does not act within the window, the appointment is deemed consented to. Supporters cited the roughly $5,000 cost of calling a special session; the Judiciary warned that longer vacancies carry their own costs.
What YES does
A yes vote gives the Senate 60 days instead of 30 to consider off-session judicial appointments, with consent deemed granted if it does not act.
What NO does
A no vote keeps the 30-day clock.
The math
No official fiscal note was published on the measure's Ballotpedia page; the only figure in the debate is supporters' roughly $5,000 special-session cost, printed here as their argument.
OUR CALL
Our call: no call.
This is a procedural scheduling rule for judicial confirmations — it changes neither who is appointed nor the Senate's power to reject, only how long it has to act when out of session. The amounts involved are small and the trade-off (fewer special sessions versus longer vacancies) is a judgment about legislative housekeeping, not taxes, rights, or government growth. We print the facts and make no call.
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Sources
- Ballotpedia — Hawaii Question 1 measure page (accessed October 25, 2026)
- Ballotpedia — 2026 ballot measures — https://ballotpedia.org/2026_ballot_measures
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.