Posted on: Friday, October 22, 2004

Absentee vote could be faxed, e-mailed

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

A city elections official does not believe lack of timeliness will be an issue for absentee mail-in ballot voters during the general election.

But for those living abroad or on the Mainland, the City Clerk's Office in Honolulu may have another option if they have not received their absentee ballots or cannot mail them back by the Nov. 2 election.

Under certain circumstances, according to city elections coordinator Glen Takahashi, a voter living far away could have a ballot e-mailed or faxed to him or her under condition that it be faxed back to the clerk's office.

Pat McManaman learned about the option when she inquired about the absentee ballot request of her 18-year-old daughter, Katie Tanigawa. Tanigawa, McManaman said, just began her first year at the University of Victoria in Canada and was worried she would miss her first election. She mailed her request before she left at the end of August, McManaman said.

"This was huge for her, and she wants to be able to vote," said McManaman, an attorney at the immigration legal services agency Na Loio.

McManaman said that after she balked at a suggestion that her daughter use a shipping service to return her ballot, Takahashi suggested another alternative. "Glen said to have your daughter call us if she doesn't receive her ballot by Tuesday and we can make arrangements for her to fax or e-mail it back," McManaman said.

She encouraged the city to make it known that the option may be available for those living outside Hawai'i so that potential votes aren't disenfranchised.

Takahashi, however, stressed that the option is available only in "extenuating circumstances" and warned that anyone faxing ballots back to the clerk's office without first checking with the city clerk risks having their absentee ballot disqualified.

"Locally, this does not apply," Takahashi said. "And we have to authorize faxing a ballot back. If someone say, on the East Coast, does not get a ballot say by Thursday, Oct. 28, we could start a fax process where we have to specifically authorize them to fax a ballot back."

Takahashi said a person requesting to fax a ballot must waive his right to a secret vote. There is also a voter verification check, he said.

During the primary, the city authorized one person to fax his ballot in, a young man going to college in New York. The man's mother, who asked not to be identified, said she was pleased her son was able to vote. "The staff seemed dedicated to letting everybody who wants to vote get through the red tape," she said.

In the five years Takahashi has been elections coordinator, he said, the most people who have faxed their votes in any given election is about half a dozen.

He said those in Hawai'i who cannot vote on Election Day can do so via absentee walk-in voting through Oct. 30. "If they haven't gotten their ballot, they can actually walk-in and vote."

City Clerk Denise DeCosta said anyone who had put a request for a mail-in ballot by Monday should have received a ballot back by today. If not, she said, they should call the clerk's office at 523-4293.

The city mailed about 49,000 ballots by Oct. 15, put in another 13,000 by Oct. 19, leaving a balance of about 3,000 that were to go to the post office yesterday, Takahashi said,

He acknowledged that his office "got smashed" at the end of the primary period as voters rushed to turn in their requests for mail ballots but does not believe that will happen in the general election.

Applications for absentee mail ballots must be received by clerks' offices no later than Tuesday. The deadline for turning them in is 6 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots received after that will not be counted.

When Joy Saunter, who sent in her request for a mail-in ballot the week after the primary, didn't receive anything in the mail as of earlier this week, she and her husband, George, decided to head to City Hall to vote walk-in on Tuesday, the first day for absentee walk-in voting.

Joy Saunter, a 73-year-old retiree, said she didn't want to wait any longer because the couple is going away on a trip. It turns out she didn't need to make the trip to downtown. The ballot, she said, arrived in the mail Wednesday.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.