Remember what a confused mess the state made of the elections last year?

Remember how critics called for a better way to run elections?

That new way is now just about to slip below the legislative surface and drown.

The good new idea was to change the elections to an all-mail-in ballot system. The state mails you a ballot; you fill it out, sign it and mail it back. On election day the state gathers up all the ballots, runs them through a counting machine and announces the winners.

The obvious good part about this is we are spared the endless arguments between the Hawaii island county clerks and the state Chief Elections officer about who was supposed to open which precinct polling place on Election Day. There wouldn’t be any more precinct polling places, just a mailbox.

We would also not have to listen to red-faced election officials apologize for running out of ballots and forcing voters to spend hours in line waiting for a chance to vote, because everyone who was a registered voter would get a ballot in the mail.

And finally, going to an all-mail system would give the Legislature the chance to make a positive difference this year.

Back in November, after our most recent election day fiasco, Gov. Neil Abercrombie called for Hawaii to be the third state in the nation to go to 100 percent mail-in balloting.

"I think a mail-in ballot is a sensible thing to do in our state, particularly with our multiple islands and remote electoral precincts," Abercrombie said during a news conference.

The Democratic governor added that today Hawaii operates a system that has both mail-in ballots and a walk-in precinct system, with nearly half of the voters already deciding to ask for a mail-in absentee ballot.

The other half walks in, forcing the state to rent precinct polling locations, hire hundreds of poll workers, maintain poll books and then hire more people to audit the poll records.

A 100 percent mail-in ballot system was part of Abercrombie’s legislative package this year, but it foundered. Of the half-dozen mail-in ballot ideas introduced this year, only Senate Bill 854 is still alive, although just barely.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill, noting that "voting by mail will encourage and increase active participation in the electoral process, especially for individuals who find it difficult to get to the polls due to family, work or other obligations."

The House did not move any corresponding legislation, although it is readying a bill that would make it a crime for candidates to touch the ballot or direct someone how to fill in a ballot.

There was a concern last year that at least one candidate was able to mislead the elderly into voting for him by offering to help fill out their ballots.

But none of the all-mail-in voting bills moved in the House.

In the Senate, Judiciary Chairman Clayton Hee said he was concerned that an all-mail ballot system was being rushed and would be expensive.

Hee added that the four county clerks, who would have to run the system, were worried because "identifying and implementing an efficient, expeditious and cost-effective process for handling the huge volume of outgoing and incoming mail pieces will be a challenge that may require a complete overhaul of their current operations."

The bill moved from Hee’s committee to Ways and Means with warnings that it was "cost prohibitive," and there are no indications that it will survive.

So Hawaii is likely to remain a voting bottom-feeder, competing every two years for the "worst election turnout" title with an inconvenient, underfunded and outdated system.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.