All registered Hawai'i voters are eligible to vote in the four Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee races on Tuesday, regardless of residency or ethnic background.

That is a consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rice v. Cayetano eight years ago, which opened OHA elections to all voters.

Previously, only Hawaiian voters were eligible.

There are incumbents running in all four races and only one, Kaua'i trustee Donald Cataluna, faces no opposition.

Haunani Apoliona, the St. Louis Heights resident who chairs the OHA board, is the incumbent of the one at-large seat this election. She faces Helene Honda, a preventive care specialist from McCully; former OHA administrator Colin Kippen, a Kailua resident and executive director of the Native Hawaiian Education Council; and retired scientist Sol Nalu'ai of Kane'ohe.

On the Big Island, incumbent trustee Bob Lindsey was appointed to the seat in 2007 following the death of former trustee Linda Dela Cruz. The Waimea resident was formerly employed by Kamehameha Schools. Lindsey faces a challenge from William (Willy) Meyers, a Papa'ikou resident and mental health technician.

For the Moloka'i-Lana'i seat, incumbent Colette Machado of Puko'o is being challenged by Waipa Purdy, a Kualapu'u resident who is a retired Hawaiian Airlines customer service agent.

Cataluna, a retired plantation executive and Koloa resident, needs only one vote cast for him to return to the board.

Trustees serve four-year terms.

The seats for the other five trustees — at-large members Rowena Akana, Oswald Stender and John Waihe'e IV; O'ahu trustee Walter Heen and Maui trustee Boyd Mossman — are up in 2010.