Absentee voters
unable to check
for errors

New election system
raises concerns that a significant
number of votes won't count

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

Mistakes made by voters who take out absentee ballots mean that not every vote will be counted in the primary election.

Unlike those who vote on the day of the primary, absentee voters are not able to use an optical scanner to check their ballots for mistakes before turning them in. That has raised concerns.

"With a brand-new election system, it just seems folly to set up a significant section of the vote that isn't protected against that certain kind of error," said Bill Eger, Democratic Party chairman for the Kau and Puna districts.

He said ballots not counted because of mistakes could determine a close race.

The primary election Sept. 19 will be the first using new ballots printed on a single page and filled out with a pen, instead of the punch cards used in previous elections.

Under Hawaii law, primary election voters can only cast ballots for candidates in one party.

Ballots of voters who make a mistake and vote for candidates in more than one party -- except in the nonpartisan elections for Honolulu City Council and the Board of Education -- will not be counted.

Dwayne Yoshina, chief election officer, said the new ballots mean absentee voters must pay closer attention to how they vote.

"Because people are voting absentee, they accept a higher level of responsibility," Yoshina said. "If you are voting absentee, it's one of the things that come with the territory." Ten years ago, when the state experimented with a similar optical absentee primary ballot, about 4 percent of absentee ballots returned were disallowed because of multiparty voting.

That's a higher percentage than under the old punch card system, where less than 1 percent to about 2.5 percent of absentee ballots were disallowed because of multi-party voting.

Under the new system, voters who make a mistake and mark the wrong candidate will have to get a new ballot or their vote will be disallowed.

"Once you mark your ballot, it's marked," Yoshina said. "Even if you 'X' it out, it's going to read as an over count."

In the first three days of absentee voting, county election clerks said most people appear to understand how to mark the new ballots.

In Honolulu, County Clerk Genny Wong said five people have come in for a second mail-in absentee ballot because they made a mistake, and about 15 people have requested a second ballot in walk-up absentee voting.

That's out of 15,400 people in Honolulu who have either requested mail-in ballots or voted using absentee ballots.

All counties reported an increase in absentee voting.