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Cost blamed
for not using
separate ballots

The elections officer says he
also thought people would adapt
to a single ballot for all parties

Voters say secrecy violated

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By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

Chief Elections Officer Dwayne Yoshina said he didn't look into printing separate party ballots for the Sept. 23 primary because of cost and his belief that people would adapt to voting through the new system.

More than 9,000 ballots were spoiled during Saturday's election because voters made mistakes by voting for candidates in more than one party or casting too many votes in one race.

Yoshina views the number of spoiled ballots positively. He said that means more than 9,000 people voted wrong, but took the time to correct their ballots and make sure their votes counted.

If the vote-counting system did not detect mistakes on the ballots, voters who spoiled their ballots would not have been given another chance, he said.

However, Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday that he favors a return to the practice of using separate primary ballots for the different political parties. "I would suggest that they seriously look at that," he said. "And if it means that there will be an added expense, it probably is worthwhile."

There have always been problems with cross-party voting in primaries, even when there were separate ballots, Yoshina said. "It is my belief that people are voting for candidates," regardless of party, he said.

"That's not something the present ballot causes; that's something the present law prohibits."

Yoshina said he did not recalculate the cost for printing separate ballots for this election, but looked to the 1996 election when it cost between 36 and 39 cents to print each ballot and 10 ballots were printed for each voter.

The single ballots in the primary election cost 49 cents apiece.

Yoshina added, "It's not just a matter of economics, but we felt that people would be able to adapt to the new system, and by and large they have." Nevertheless, Yoshina said he will be taking recommendations from the election staff and the public into account. "I'm always open to change."

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Starbulletin.com Primary Results
State Office of Elections

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Voters claim ballot
secrecy was violated

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By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

The Star-Bulletin received complaints Saturday that ballot secrecy had been violated and that poll workers failed to give adequate instructions on ballot acceptance.

Ray Lovell, 57, said poll workers were checking ballots at the Maunalani Community Park precinct on Sierra Drive because the machine wasn't checking for mistakes on ballots.

According to Lovell, when he walked up to the machine -- which had no barriers for privacy -- a poll worker grabbed his ballot and looked at it before he could feed it into the machine. "I feel personally violated," he said. "The whole democracy is predicated on secret ballots," Lovell said. "If it's not a secret, people can be intimidated as to how to vote."

Lovell said when he called the election office, he was told it may have been "an innocent error" and that poll workers were instructed to "kind of look away," an explanation he said wasn't good enough.

Chief Election Officer Dwayne Yoshina said precinct officials were trained to never look at completed ballots without permission from the voter unless asked to do so. Even then they are supposed to just look for the marks and not study the ballot. "We try to train people to respect the privacy of the votes," he said. "If that was happening, we will correct them."

However, Yoshina also said he couldn't be responsible for the actions of all the precinct workers and suggested that people who made the complaints volunteer to work in the precincts themselves.

At Washington Intermediate School, attorney Alan Lynde said that precinct workers failed to explain what would happen if voters told the machine to accept a ballot with cross-party or over-votes.

Lynde said when the machine rejected a ballot because of a mistake, the poll worker just asked voters if they wanted their ballots accepted or rejected without saying if the machine accepted a ballot with errors, votes cast in that race wouldn't count ."What's the average voter going to say? They're going to say they want it accepted, unless you explain to them that that means that the portion that is spoiled won't count."

Lynde suggested poll workers should have a script to follow in case of any problems, to standardize the process. "They should all give the exact same statement," he said. "That would make us confident in our elections."

Election spokesman Rex Quidilla said instead of giving the precinct workers a script, a sign is posted above the ballot box explaining what each error means.

Most workers are also given two to three hours of training and if for some reason they have to be trained on the job, they should be kept out of "sensitive" areas.

According to Quidilla, an Oct. 7 election review should lead to changes, clarifications and "reaffirmations of the rules we've already established. All these problems we experienced in the primary, they're all subject to review."

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Starbulletin.com Primary Results
State Office of Elections