The Hawaii Supreme Court ruling on the Council District 4 snafu illuminated how poor is the election law regarding absentee ballots currently on the books.

While there are other states that can be looked to for better language, right here at home we have an example in the Oahu neighborhood board election rules.

“The ballot return deadline shall be the third Friday in May of the election year. Any ballot returned in person in the return envelope provided must be received by the commission office by 4:30 p.m. on the ballot return deadline. Any ballot returned by United States mail in the return envelope provided, shall be postmarked by the ballot return deadline and received by the commission office by the seventh calendar day thereafter to be accepted.”

This assures that 99.9 percent of the ballots given to the mail office by the deadline will be counted.

Bryan Mick

Kakaako

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