State offers new
ballots for review

Voters will indicate choices
with a pen instead of using the
old card-punch system

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

A new design for ballots for this fall's elections is being circulated to county clerks and political parties for comment.

The new ballots are necessary because the state recently signed a $1.6 million contract with an Omaha, Neb., company to provide a new computer system and support for the September and November elections.

Chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina said he's soliciting comments on the new design in an effort to make sure the ballots are easily understood by the public.

Once a ballot design is selected, the state will begin an educational campaign to make sure voters know how to use the new election system.

The new computer system will count ballots using an optical reader so the ballots can be printed on a single page instead of the multiple card system used previously.

Voters will use a pen instead of a card-punch machine to mark their choices.

Yoshina said printing a single page instead of multiple cards will save taxpayers money.

He said the cost of the entire contract for the new computer system is $200,000 less than what the state had budgeted for just the printing of the ballots using the card system.

The ballots will also be printed in Hawaii rather than on the mainland.

When other costs are factored in, the new system should save more than $1 million over the cost of the old election computer system, Yoshina said.

The contract with Elections Systems and Software was awarded without soliciting other bids because Yoshina said the company has the only system that is certified by both the Federal Elections Commission and the National Association of State Election Directors.

Yoshina said the office of elections will put the contract out to bid for the next election.