PRIMARY ELECTION
Despite the hassle,
voters are turning out to make
their preferences knownDemocrats rally in Hilo
By Helen Altonn
and Craig Gima
Star-BulletinHawaii residents were voting today on the new balloting system, they probably would throw the rascal out.
Many precincts opened at 7 a.m. to long lines of primary election voters wanting to "get it over with," as one said, and go on to other activities.
But crowds built up in some polling spots as election officials dealt with confused voters, jammed voting machines and other problems.
ELECTION RESULTS ONLINE
Sun., Sept. 20, 9:15 a.m. Final numbers
Downloadable Database Files
Download our election results database, in your choice of
formats, for use with a database or spreadsheet program:
Macintosh: DBF, Tabbed Text, Filemaker HQX
PC: DBF, Tabbed Text, Filemaker ZIPSee also the Office of Elections Web site. "That machine is not working well," voter Miriam Chun said after casting her ballot at Aina Haina Park. "I stood there for some time trying to get the ballot in. The machine would not take it. I think the old system is much, much better." Under the previous system, voters got one ballot with candidates in the party of their choice. Today, they were given a ballot with all the parties -- but could only vote for candidates in one party, along with those in nonpartisan races.
"There were a lot of problems," said Norman Tanaka, 52, at Aina Haina. He said he prefers the old system where they "just give you the party so there's no mistake."
At the St. Clement Episcopal Church Parish House, Edwin Quides, 40, said he thought voting was "complicated" and that the machine used to feed in the ballots stuck. "We had to wait about 15 minutes."
Ballots were inserted into computerized scanning machines which read them and rejected those with votes for more than one party. Those who cast rejected ballots could vote again.
Some polling places didn't open on time today. Waimanalo Elementary School, for instance, couldn't open until 8:20 a.m. because its voting machine's memory card wasn't reading right, officials said.
Bob Brown of Elections Systems & Software, which is operating the new computerized system under contract, said, "We're having a few problems, like you'd have with any start-up system."
Additional voting machines were available to take to polling places having machine troubles, he said.
As for the new ballot, he said, "This is a complication of the Hawaii system, where the voters can choose in secret the party they want (in the primary election)."
They may be confused if the last time they voted was in a general election, when voters can choose candidates of any party, he said.
Donna Spaulding, precinct chairperson at Kaahumanu Elementary School, said the machines were working OK.
"It's more the crossover vote. . . . They want to vote for this governor but this representative (in different parties)."
Some voters also didn't realize they could also select candidates in nonpartisan races, she said.
For a change in this heavily Democratic state, the major races in today's primary election are Republican.
State GOP Chairwoman Donna Alcantara believes the Republican turnout will be more than double the 58,316 ballots cast in the primary election in 1996.The marquee race today pits Maui Mayor Linda Lingle against former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi in the Republican gubernatorial primary.
Because there's no Democratic primary in the governor's race, some have suggested Democrats may cross over to vote for Fasi because he is perceived as an easier candidate for incumbent Gov. Ben Cayetano to beat.
Alcantara, however, believes people will vote for the candidate they support. She said Republicans welcome Democrats who want to cross over.
"There are tens of thousands of Lingle supporters, most of whom are not card-carrying Republicans. We want to get them to vote Republican and vote for Lingle, and a lot of them are lifelong Democrats," she said.
Based on the high number of absentee voters, chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina is optimistic the overall voter turn out will be about 70 percent.
"I think people are interested," he said. "I think they're anticipating the general election."
The statewide voter turnout as of 9 a.m. was 12.04 percent of total registered voters, compared with 11.67 percent in the 1996 primary, officials reported.
The primary turnout in the first two hours in 1994, the last time there was a governor's race, was 16.5 percent.
There are 582,558 people registered to vote in the primary election. That figure would be about 78 percent of the total eligible voter count of 746,568, based on 1996 population estimates.
But because of a change in the law that requires states to keep names on the lists for at least four years since they last voted, the number of registered voters may be inflated, as some of those on the list may no longer be in Hawaii.
On the Big Island, with strong challenges to incumbent state Sens. Malama Solomon and Wayne Metcalf, County Clerk Donald Ikeda expected a good turnout of about 60 percent of registered voters.
That would be an increase from the 51 percent posted two years ago, but still below turnouts in prior years in the high 60s.
Maui County voter turnout was light to normal. Bonnie Cobb, the chairperson of the Wailuku Elementary School precinct, predicted turnout would be good because of the island's mayoral race and the high number of County Council candidates running for four nonincumbent seats.
In Kihei, a source of Lingle's voting strength, the turnout was slow early this morning.
But Virginia Theriault, precinct official at Kihei School, said the turnout was picking up as noon approached.
Republican mayors have traditionally obtained support in Kihei to make up for less support in Central Maui, where there are more Democrats.
On Kauai, Donald Watkins, a precinct official at the Kauai Veterans Memorial Convention Center, said voter turnout appeared to be similar to previous years.
Watkins explained the new ballot carefully to each voter and reported few problems with the new ballot system.
"So far, if we catch them at the front and try to explain, most of them understand and have no problems."
Lihue resident Myrna Losera said she liked the new system.
"It's wonderful, wonderful. Real fast," she said.
But Raynard Ellis, casting his ballot at Kauai High School's cafeteria, says he preferred the old ballot system. "I just like that punch thing."
This is the first election using the new computer system, which allows voters to mark their ballots with a pen instead of the old punch card system.
The state says it is saving money with the new system because ballots can be printed on a single page rather than on multiple cards.
Most results should be available by 9 p.m., officials promised.
Under the new system, most ballots will be counted at the polling places, then fed into the main election computer set up on the Senate floor of the state Capitol.
Neighbor island results will be sent in from county counting centers using computer modems.
The computers began counting absentee ballots at 7 a.m., and the results should be tabulated by 5 p.m. They will not be printed and released until after the polls are closed at about 6:30 p.m.
The second printout at about 9 p.m. should contain nearly all of the election results, except for absentee ballots that are turned in today and possibly results from South Kona and other areas of the Big Island that have to be driven in to the counting center in Hilo.
The last printout should be available by midnight.
Last night as workers prepared for today's election, Yoshina said he is cautiously optimistic that the new system will work without too many problems.
"Any time you have a new system, you have to expect a learning curve," he said. "It's new but it's fairly simple."
Star-Bulletin writers Rod Thompson, Trish Moore
and Gary T. Kubota contributed to this report.
