Question: I received my ballot in the mail and noticed that the instructions do not specify that a pencil (or other instrument) should be used to mark the ballot. Does this mean that any writing instrument or color is OK, e.g., pen, crayon, etc.? Election personnel should make this clear; otherwise there will be just another screw-up, resulting in invalid ballots.
Answer: The old directive to use a dark-colored pen or pencil no longer is being given because technology has rendered it unnecessary.
You can use “any pen, pencil,” said Glen Takahashi, the city’s elections administrator. “It really doesn’t matter what (voters) use.”
Digital scanning technology is now used to tabulate ballots, he said, as opposed to the old system, which “reflected light off the paper” and required the specific use of pen or pencil.
With the digital technology, “If your eyes can see it, so can the scanner,” Takahashi explained.
Even if you use a heavy felt tip pen, “it really doesn’t matter,” he said. That’s because, even if the ink were to bleed through the reverse side, there is no voting position on that side to be affected.
That said, you shouldn’t use something like a crayon, which might be rubbed off, and it’s best if you stick to a simple pen or pencil.
Question: Regarding absentee ballots: What if it is marked incorrectly and mailed in? Is it returned to the voter? If you vote in person and you mark your ballot wrong, the machine will spit it out. How does the absentee ballot work in that scenario?
Answer: If a mistake is made on an absentee ballot, the voter should call the City Clerk’s office for a replacement ballot.
“We will send them a replacement ballot packet and ask them to destroy the original,” said Honolulu Elections Administrator Glen Takahashi.
But once you send in the ballot, there’s no recourse.
“If the erroneous ballot is mailed in, it is treated as a voted ballot and cannot be recast,” Takahashi said. “In voting by mail, a voter assumes a higher level of responsibility to mark the ballot correctly” because absentee voters don’t have the benefit of a ballot scanner to identify overvotes or other errors.
Takahashi explained that absentee ballots remain sealed in the return envelopes until election day, when they are opened and counted, so there is no way for officials to identify a marking error and resend a ballot.
Information on the upcoming election can be found on the Honolulu Elections Division website, www.honoluluelections.org.
For information on absentee voting, go to www.honoluluelections.us/voter_info/absentee_voting.
You can also call the Honolulu Elections Division at 768-3800.
Mahalo
To all those involved in the splendid street revitalization project in the McCully area: the city’s road crew, contractor Grace Pacific, Aiwohi Bros., Hawaii Pacific Concrete & Paving and numerous others who have their hands on the job, all under the oversight of Troy, Grace Pacific’s foreman. I’m not related, much less even know any of these hardworking individuals. I got company names from reading logos on equipment, and a police officer on duty gave me Troy’s name. I just didn’t want them to feel that their work is going unnoticed. Until it progressed, I really hadn’t realized how long overdue the project was, with extensive cracked, bumpy asphalt conditions. Now, by comparison, not only is there much improvement, but the new areas are simply glistening in the sun, smooth and with new striping! I also appreciated that the crews worked quickly and efficiently with minimal disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, even in our narrow roadways. Great job! — Appreciative McCully Resident
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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
