Based on lessons learned in Hawaii’s Aug. 8 primary election — the state’s first all-mail-in election — officials have made two basic changes for the state’s Nov. 3 general election.
First, ballots were mailed starting “super early” on Oct. 5, said Doris Lam, elections specialist at the Honolulu Office of the City Clerk Elections Division, to give people more time to vote, as mail delivery in Hawaii and most states has been slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and U.S. Postal Service budget cuts.
In the August primary, more than 900 mailed-in Hawaii ballots were received by county clerks too late to be counted.
“Registered voters who did not receive a ballot by Oct. 16 should call the Election Division at 768-3800 and we can do a check to determine if it was mailed,” Lam said, “and we can always send you another ballot.”
The second change was that four more drop-box locations, or places of deposit, have been added on Oahu. Kauai and Hawaii island also added drop-boxes, although Maui, which offered 15 drop-box sites for the primary, did not.
The reason for the additional receptacles: On the day of the primary election, the number of ballots placed in drop boxes statewide nearly tripled, resulting in delays in processing and reporting results.
“In the primary, we didn’t get the final summary until the next day, in the afternoon,” said Nedielyn Bueno, head of the voter services section at the State Office of Elections. She added that even with more drop boxes in place to collect ballots, voting earlier would still make a difference.
“It comes down to how many ballots are received the day of the election,” she said. “If people put their ballots in early, we can get them counted and the results should be reported as scheduled.”
The Aug. 8 primary was the first Hawaii election in which ballots were sent to registered voters by mail and voting in person was possible only at voter service centers; traditional polling places having been eliminated.
At a time when group gatherings increase the risk of spreading the new coronavirus, Hawaii voters embraced mail-in voting with “the highest turnout we’ve seen for a primary election,” Bueno said.
Statewide turnout for the primary was 51.2%, or 407,190 of 795,248 registered voters, according to the Office of Elections. That compares to approximately 39% in the 2018 primary and 35% in 2016, when the last presidential vote was held.
Of those who voted in the 2020 primary, nearly 99% did so by mail or drop box and a little more than 1% in person.
Hawaii voters also set a record for the number of votes cast in a primary election — 380,152, shattering the previous statehood-era best of 309,700 votes in 1994. Honolulu voters did similarly well, casting 256,344 ballots in the 2020 primary, breaking the 1994 record for a primary election of 225,406 votes.
Asked about another quandary in the 2020 primary, in which some residents received ballots for previous occupants, “what happened is that the voter didn’t update their registration, so the ballot got sent to whatever address was on file,” Lam said. “We ask that voters return it to the county elections office so we can try and find them.”
This can be done by writing “not at this address” on the envelope and putting it back in the mail, she said.
As far as potential USPS delays in returning ballots, elections officials say that if voters fail to mail their ballots by Oct. 27, they should return their ballots to a place of deposit (ballot drop box). That doesn’t mean ballots will be rejected if they are postmarked Oct. 28 or later — they will be accepted as long as they get to the respective county clerk’s office by
7 p.m. Nov. 3, Lam said.
However, she advised returning ballots by mail no later than Oct. 28, while highly recommending, given “the potential uncertainty regarding the mail, what we’re seeing in the news,” that from
Oct. 27 onward people take their ballots to ballot boxes at voter service centers or places of deposit, from which they are collected daily through Election Day.
She also recommended that those who prefer to vote in person do so early: A handful of voter service centers across the islands will open Oct. 20, “and come early in the day, when they open and are less crowded, especially if you need assistance.”
Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. on Election Day. For those who didn’t meet the regular voter registration deadline, same-day registration and voting is available at voter service centers.
As for the national hysteria some have been fomenting over alleged fraud in mail-in voting, Lam and Bueno said neither Honolulu nor state election officials received any reports of fraud in Hawaii’s primary.
To help guard against fraud, the counties verify voter signatures on the outer envelopes that hold the ballots, matching them with voter records, she said, before the state opens the ballots and counts the votes.
That’s why it’s absolutely required that voters sign the envelopes, Lam said.
Those worried about identity thieves plagiarizing their signatures can put their signed ballot envelopes into another envelope, but in that case they’ll have to pay for postage.
Or they can just deposit their signed ballots in an official drop box, from which they will be collected by county election officials out of sight of prying eyes.
Whatever your preference, “make sure you have a plan to return your ballot before the 7 p.m. deadline on November 3rd,” said Honolulu City Clerk Glenn Takahashi.
To view the full Star-Advertiser 2020 General Election guide, go to https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/10/18/special-sections/2020-general-election/
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