On plunking, block voting and other such Kauai County Council voting strategies

The absentee ballots have been mailed, walk in voting starts on October 23 and emails and blog postings are already promoting strategies and suggestions on how to get your favorite Kauai County Council candidates elected.I am compelled to explain the importance of block voting, plunking and in general resisting the urge to go “eeny, meeny, miney, moe” and expending on November 6 all seven Kauai County Council votes - some votes on candidates you really want to see in office and other votes on candidates that are “ok” or whom you are not really sure.The fundamental rule of akamai Kauai voting is: Do not use all 7 votes when choosing your Kauai County Council candidates. Unless of course you feel equally supportive of all 7 candidates you choose...or perhaps have your own strategy you believe in.The ballot will say “vote for up to 7” or similar language. 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 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: There are 9 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. Bottom line is that in a Kauai Council election - mom’s, grandma’s, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, children and other close friends of the candidate will only cast one vote in the Kauai County Council race. This is called “plunking”.Block voting is an expanded variation of the one vote all powerful plunk. Block voting is usually a 2, 3 vote or 4 vote maximum but the same principal applies. The Kauai resident selects only those candidates whom they truly want to get elected, whom they believe truly represent their core values – and they vote for those candidates only and resist giving their remaining votes to candidates whom might as a result beat their favorites.A fundamental rule of service in elective office: No matter how smart you are, no matter how hard you work, no matter how good you are in your heart – you cannot serve unless you get elected.Please vote and yes, please cast one of your 7 county council votes for me, Gary Hooser.Thank you, gh