Voters offered electronic options
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer
Voters will have new electronic voting options available at the polls next year, thanks to the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
While paper ballots will be available, new requirements to make the election process more accessible to the disabled means there also will be electronic options, said Dwayne Yoshina, Hawai'i's chief elections officer.
Elections officials will explain this and other recommended changes to the balloting process in community meetings during August, he said.
Under the electronic voting system, every precinct will be required to have at least one of the new voting machines, which likely will use a touch screen or keyboard. The screens may be able to enlarge the print and there may be an audio component, both features designed to facilitate voting by the visually impaired.
Yoshina said the state received $5 million from the federal government to comply with the Help America Vote Act.
Provisional voting, another federally mandated option, will allow residents to cast their votes even if it can't be shown at the polling place that they are properly registered. Their votes will be kept aside and counted when elections officials confirm the voter is registered.
Yoshina said he was unable to get the Legislature to approve same-day registration, which would allow any resident to register and vote on election day. The Office of Elections will try again next year to get it approved. If passed, it would make provisional voting unnecessary.
The Help America Vote Act requires centralization of some elections functions that are now distributed to the individual county clerk's offices. Yoshina said the state Office of Elections is required to have a statewide voter registration system under state control, a statewide toll-free communication system for voters to call to find their polling places and a centralized complaints process.
Yoshina said his office plans to adapt existing systems for those changes. It will establish a secondary statewide registration system to work in tandem with the one now operated by the City and County of Honolulu, add features to its existing toll-free phone line to meet voter registration information needs and adapt a state ombudsman's complaints process for the elections system, he said.
The Elections Office expects to ask the Legislature to move the primary election to an earlier date, perhaps in late August. As it now stands, the state has about 45 days between the primary and general elections. That gives the state seven days in which to print general election ballots, and 35 days for its mail-in ballot program, Yoshina said.
Federal guidelines recommend a minimum of 45 days to allow voters in foreign countries enough time to file absentee ballots.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
