The state Elections Commission today expressed confidence in Kevin Cronin, the state's chief elections officer, after criticism of his handling of candidate filing challenges, his failure to register to vote until last week and his decision to print primary ballots without showing them to the political parties.

"You know something, I think Kevin is doing one fantastic job," said William Martson, the commission's chairman. "And, I can't speak for all of the commission, but the commission feels that somebody has put a target on his back and has unfairly gone after him."

The commission met in executive session today to discuss the status of a challenge to the state's new voting machines, a lawsuit from Maui residents over the transmission of votes from the Neighbor Islands over telephone lines, Cronin's voter registration and the candidate filing challenges.

Marston said the commission would not comment on the pending legal matters. But he said they had accepted Cronin's apology for not registering to vote until last Friday. An anonymous caller had contacted the news media questioning whether Cronin was a registered voter and, after an inquiry from The Advertiser, Cronin registered at Honolulu Hale.

State law requires that the chief elections officer be a registered voter.

The leaders of both major political parties, meanwhile, complained today after learning that Cronin had authorized the printing of primary ballots without first showing them to the parties. State law allows the parties to view the ballots before printing, so party leaders can correct any mistakes.

Cronin said the ballots needed to go to the printer to meet the August deadline to distribute ballots to absentee voters and to military personnel and civilians eligible to vote in Hawai'i but living abroad. He said there are procedures under the law if the ballots have to changed because of the candidate filing challenges.

"Hopefully, all the ballots will be correct when they go out," Cronin told reporters.

Florence Kong Kee, the political director of the Democratic Party of Hawai'i, said she was disappointed.

"I think we should have had the opportunity to take a look at those ballots and approve the ballots before they were printed," she said.

Willes Lee, the state GOP chairman, called it a "huge mistake" given there are challenges pending. "For us, for the public, this points to an issue of having ballots printed before the challenges are resolved. It just looks like too much going on behind-the-scenes that the public ought to know about," he said.

State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), who had interrupted the commission meeting to ask about the ballot printing, told reporters afterward that Cronin should be fired. He called Cronin's actions over the past week "indefensible."

"This guy has got to go, really," he said.