When it comes to state Rep. Romy Cachola and mail-in ballots, there’s no smoking gun — but there’s a lot of smoke.

For at least six years now, some voters and residents in Cachola’s House District 30 — Kalihi and environs — have questioned his election-year politicking. They say he “helps” elderly voters by providing absentee ballot applications; mails in the ballots for them; watched as one grandma filled in her ballot; and allegedly intimidated elderly patients at his wife’s medical clinic to gain their mailed-in votes. Cachola has steadfastly denied wrongdoing.

The latter accusation was made in a lawsuit filed against Cachola, who won the August primary by 51 votes thanks to “a suspicious and irregular submission of last-minute ‘mail in drop off’ ballots,” the suit alleged. The Hawaii Supreme Court dismissed the suit, but noted that “these allegations are serious and may warrant further investigation.”

Well, yes. Similar suspicions were raised in the 2012 primary after Cachola won with a late influx of mail-in ballots. The following year, the Legislature went so far as to pass a bill prohibiting candidates, as well as unions or employers, from assisting voters with completing absentee ballots.

The public, which is being lobbied to accept all mail-in balloting, needs to know if Cachola was able to game the system.

Whatever the answer, every candidate who respects our election process should know to keep a proper distance from a constituent exercising his or her right to vote. It doesn’t matter if the vote is cast behind the curtain of a booth or at the kitchen table. The vote should be secret and free from interference — or, if you prefer, “help.”