City tries to rectify
absentee ballot errors

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

City Clerk Genny Wong is putting off a decision on whether anything further needs to be done to correct mistakes that could affect 211 absentee voters on Oahu.

The voters in three House districts were mailed the wrong ballot or two identical ballots.

In House District 26 (Punchbowl-Pacific Heights-Nuuanu), 144 absentee voters who were sent ballots between Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 may have received the wrong ballot because of a printing error.

A clerical error in House District 41 (Ewa-Ewa Beach-Waipahu) and House District 42 (Ewa-Kunia-Makakilo) caused wrong ballots to be mailed to 67 voters.

The clerk's office has mailed out a second ballot to the affected voters and is asking people to destroy the first ballot and mail in the second ballot.

People mailing in the first ballot will have their votes invalidated. As of Monday, the clerk's office has invalidated 80 ballots, and 32 people have sent in the corrected second ballot.

"We're hopeful that everyone who got their second ballot will be able to vote it and get it in," Wong said.

The clerk's office is trying to contact voters by phone and is asking those uncertain to call.

Yesterday, the Star-Bulletin reported that at least one voter in House District 26 was sent two separate ballots that appeared to be identical and correct. That raises the question of whether some of the invalidated absentee ballots could actually be correct.

Absentee ballots are not opened until election day. Wong wants to see how many voters return the second ballot and whether there are enough invalidated ballots to make a difference before deciding if the first ballots should be opened and, if correct, counted on election day.

Some of the candidates in the affected House districts have concerns that in a close race the mistakes could have an effect on the outcome.

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Tax Commission amendment
put on ballot by mistake

The state attorney general's office has ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment was placed on the general election ballot by mistake and will not count.

The proposed amendment calls for the appointment of a Tax Review Commission every 10 years, instead of every five years starting in the year 2005.

The state Office of Elections said the vote will still be tallied because the election computers have already been programmed, but the results will not be legally valid.

For a proposed amendment to be placed on the ballot it must pass the Legislature with a two-thirds majority, or by a majority vote in two consecutive legislative sessions.

The measure passed in 1997, but not with a two-thirds majority. A bill to put the amendment on the ballot this year died in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Ways and Means Co-Chairwoman Rosalyn Baker (D, Lahaina) noticed the error yesterday morning while listening to a radio discussion on the amendment.

She then notified chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina.

Yoshina said he put the question on the ballot after receiving a joint letter from the House and Senate clerks in May 1997, saying it had been adopted by both houses in conformance with state law.

Baker said she believes the mistake would have been caught eventually.

"This is one of another of items that has made this a very interesting year," she said.