Chief elections officer hit by calls for ouster

At least two state senators are calling for the dismissal of the chief elections officer over his handling of the postponed election in the storm-ravaged Puna District and the mishandling of a memory card that led to the late discovery of about 800 absentee ballots on Maui.

Elections chief Scott Nago will get a chance to discuss both issues, as well as his office’s overall performance in the 2014 primary, at a meeting of the state Elections Commission on Friday.

"We’re just basically doing our job," Nago said Monday in response to critics. "We just do our job, that’s all."

Nago was tasked with holding the Aug. 9 primary amid a threat of back-to-back tropical storms, the first of which, Iselle, blew ashore on the Friday before the election, toppling scores of trees on Hawaii island and leading to the closure of two polling precincts in Puna.

After first declaring voters would get a chance to cast absentee ballots by mail — and posting signs to that effect, the Office of Elections announced on Aug. 11 that a special one-day election would be held for both precincts at a single site on Friday.

Officials determined the one-day makeup vote — on Statehood Day, a holiday — would be the least disruptive to Puna voters still dealing with storm damage. State law allows the chief elections officer, in the event of a natural disaster that disrupts voting, to postpone the vote for up to 21 days.

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hana­busa, who was trailing U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz by about 1,600 votes in their Democratic primary heading into the makeup vote, unsuccessfully went to court to try to delay the vote until more residents recovered from the storm. She lost by 1,769 votes.

Her call for a delay was echoed by others, including Hawaii County Democratic Party Chairman David Tarnas, state Republican Party Chairwoman Pat Saiki, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and state Sen. Russell Ruderman.

Although the makeup vote was open only to voters from the two precincts that had closed, dozens of voters from surrounding districts who were unable to vote on Aug. 9 because of storm damage showed up and were turned away.

Ruderman said he is working on a challenge to the election that would require 30 voters to say they were disenfranchised by such actions. Any election challenge would have to be filed within six days of the close of voting.

He noted the Hawaii County Council race in which Greggor Ilagan finished with 53.9 percent, followed by Roy Lozano with 19.3 percent, could have been taken to a November runoff had more people been able to vote.

"There are hundreds and probably thousands of voters who were physically blocked from getting to the polls on that day, the day after the hurricane, and those people never had a chance to vote and it clearly skewed the election results," Ruderman said. "The winner’s neighborhood voted. The loser’s neighborhood didn’t get to vote because they were blocked in by storm-related debris on Aug. 9."

Ruderman said he attempted to contact Nago on primary day, but his messages were not returned. He said he would try to attend Friday’s Elections Commission meeting to voice his concerns on behalf of his constituents.

"Scott Nago should be let go," Ruderman said. "He shut himself off from any input from the real world on Election Day, when we had an emergency in my neighborhood. He refused to hear about it, refused to change his plans, refused to even take my calls — not to mention the missing ballots on Maui."

Separate from the Puna vote was the discovery of the 800 absentee mail-in ballots on Maui. The ballots were on a memory card that was secure, but was not properly scanned and read.

Nago said a routine audit discovered the issue on Wednesday, but officials held off on announcing the error.

"In hindsight, would we have issued an interim report before Friday? That’s something we probably would do, looking back at things," Nago said. "That’s what the audit is for — to find these things.

"That’s why we do the audits, to make sure we get everything," he said. "The audit found this. It’s unfortunate, but it found it and we corrected it."

Like Ruderman, state Sen. Sam Slom also called for Nago’s firing.

Recalling ballot shortages that led to long waits and frustrated voters two years ago, Slom (R, Diamond Head-Kahala-Hawaii Kai) said Nago’s performances in at least the past two elections should cost him his job.

"The No. 1 change that I’ve recommended for two years is fire the chief elections officer," Slom said. "If you have something that happens once then maybe that’s a glitch or maybe you can explain it, but twice, three times, four times?

"I think that the integrity of our election process is in doubt and is in danger."

Two years ago, the Elections Commission conducted an internal investigation of the ballot shortages and other procedures but declined to take disciplinary action against Nago.

Elections Commission Chairman William Marston said he is reserving judgment on the performance of the Elections Office until it can present its review on Friday. Although the commission has the authority to hire and fire the elections chief, Marston said the only thing on Friday’s agenda is the review of the primary.