Russell Mokulehua, chairman of the Election Advisory Committee, said he might call for an interruption of the tabulation again on general election night "if I see anything that appears irregular."

Even though state election officials are satisfied with the tabulation process, "it is still my job to be skeptical," Mokulehua said last night after a meeting of the committee.

He said most committee members were in favor of the mid-tabulation primary test.

The final primary results weren't released until 4:35 a.m. Sept. 22, more than 10 hours after the polls closed. In the past, audits of the system have been conducted at the end of counting.

Among the indicators that prompted the tests were narrow vote differences in two races, Mokulehua said. One race came as close as four votes in the first printout and another came within 50 votes in the final tally.

State elections officer Dwayne Yoshina said he is confident that the computer ballot-counting software works accurately, but he might shut down the tallying again.

Yoshina said he was not concerned about a computer virus, which some have speculated could sabotage the tallying, because "our system is not exposed to the outside. There is a system virus-checker." He said he is more concerned <P>that there might be "a feature within the program that causes mischief."