Honolulu’s cost-saving vote-by-mail election to fill the City Council District V seat has exposed a major loophole in the state’s campaign spending law, which fails to address the unconventional process.

Basically, you’re out of luck if you want to find out in a timely manner where candidates draw their financial and political support, how much support each candidate receives from voters in the district, or whether any candidate is overly reliant on backing from special interests.

Most votes will probably have been cast before the deadline for candidates to disclose their campaign contributions received and expenses incurred.

It’s a major flaw in the law which the State Campaign Spending Commission has described as primarily concerned with disclosure and transparency.

According to the Commission’s reporting schedule, candidates must file their preliminary report covering contributions and expenses from January 1-July 23 on July 28. A second report on “late contributions”, those received between July 24 and August 3, which is supposed to be due days before the election, will not be filed until August 4.

Meanwhile, ballots are being mailed to District V voters today and tomorrow.

In the recent special mail election to fill the District III seat, the majority of votes were cast in the first days, according to data compiled by the City Clerk’s office.

A full 60 percent of votes came in during the first week. If that pattern recurs in this election, most ballots will have been cast before the first candidate reports are filed.

The problem occurs because the current campaign spending law pegs its deadlines to the election date.

Section 11-212 HRS requires preliminary disclosure reports to be filed ten calendar days before a special election.

Section 11-207.5 HRS requires late contributions to be disclosed three calendar days prior to the election.

Although Honolulu’s election has been officially set for August 7, the final day for ballots to be received by the clerk’s office, the process is built around advanced voting by mail. Since most voting actually takes place well before the official election date, the current disclosure deadlines are rendered meaningless and voters are cut off from crucial information about the candidates.