In ordinary circumstances, the December before an election year would be crunch time for the state Office of Elections.

With Tuesday's announcement from Kevin Cronin, the embattled chief elections officer, that he will resign at year's end, circumstances have become extraordinary and crunch time a crisis of the first magnitude.

The 2010 elections are extremely important — most of the seats in Hawai'i government are up for grabs, including one in the governor's office. That this election is less than a year away, and the state Elections Office is without a leader, without enough money and without a clear game plan — it's a mess that demands swift, cooperative action by state and county officials.

First of all, the Elections Commission, which accepted Cronin's resignation yesterday, needs to step up and craft a plan for running the 2010 election with a temporary replacement. Finding an interim leader is something commission Chairman William Marston already said is needed, but it's clear the commission will have to take more of a leadership role.

For starters, the commission will need to meet with the Lingle administration and key lawmakers to find a solution to a critical funding shortage heading into the election cycle.

Here's why: Although the elections office is set up by law to run independently of political entities, it remains dependent on the budget process for funds. The governor cut the office's $3.8 million budget by 14 percent, as it did other state agencies. The Legislature restricted $2.8 million to be spent on electronic voting machines and set aside almost $114,000 to convert office employees to civil service. The balance for the 2010 fiscal year: about $981,000.

Already the administration and the elections office are pursuing federal funds that may be available to fill vacancies. That's a good start, but the commission and state elected leaders also should explore whether some of these restrictions can be lifted. In particular, money reserved for machines is unavailable for that purpose anyway, a Lingle spokesman said, since the purchase of the new election equipment is bogged down in litigation stemming from a procurement process dispute.

The alternative Cronin proposed is to close 97 election precincts. He said funding cuts mean that he can't hire people to recruit and train precinct staff.

That idea seems untenable. It would cause confusion to voters — on O'ahu, the shutdown would affect 77 precincts — and there's no money for the public education campaign needed to counter that confusion.

Having orderly, trustworthy elections is crucial to any democracy and there are viable solutions at hand to make sure this happens.

But it will take leadership, cooperation — and a sense of urgency — to implement those solutions and ensure that voting next fall goes smoothly.