Big Isle candidate fears
backers will spoil ballotsHILO >> Bill Eger, Big Island Democratic candidate for the state House, says poor ballot design and the appeal of Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle will hurt his election chances.
State elections chief Dwayne Yoshina says polling place workers are trained to help voters avoid the problem Eger fears.
Running in the 4th House District (Lower Puna), Eger has to get past Democratic incumbent Helene Hale and fellow challengers Gerard Silva and Al Smith in the primary. He needs every vote he can get.
He's finding that people who support him also support Lingle. Eger backs Democrat Ed Case for governor, but he predicts Lingle will win the general election. He thinks a few lost votes won't hurt her.
The problem is that the primary ballot design makes it easy for people to mistakenly vote across party lines for himself and Lingle, although doing so will spoil their ballots and cancel their votes. In 2000, 489 Big Island voters had ballots spoiled by this cross-party voting, Eger said.
"I think this hurts me," he said.
Yoshina says any voter trying to put such a spoiled ballot into a voting machine will set the machine to beeping.
An election worker, reading from a script, will advise the voter that the ballot has been marked incorrectly and will give the voter a chance to correct it, Yoshina said. Some voters decide they want to cast the defective ballot anyway, he said.
Sierra Club supports Case
The Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, has endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Case for Hawaii governor.The 5,000-member group announced its list of political endorsements last week. Members backed Case after interviews with Case, Mazie Hirono and Linda Lingle. Surveys were sent to all candidates in all races.
In the 1998 elections, the Sierra Club had backed Gov. Ben Cayetano's re-election.
"We believe that Ed Case has the right environmental vision for our families and for our future," said Melody Heidel, Sierra Club Oahu Group member.
Nurses back Matsunaga
The Hawaii Nurses Association gives state Sen. Matt Matsunaga a top grade in his checkup for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.Executive Director Christi Keliipio said: "The HN-PAC (Hawaii Nurses political action committee) has reviewed the records and positions of all the candidates and believes that Matt Matsunaga is the best candidate to help revitalize the Hawaii economy. He has a sense of fairness and compassion for the people of Hawaii which will assist him in addressing the many economic, social and health issues facing our state."
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