Ballot shortage spurs panel to form a new subcommittee

The state Elections Commission opted not to fire or discipline Chief Election Officer Scott Nago after a meeting Tuesday and instead will form a subcommittee to study the ballot shortages that led to long lines and frustrated voters on election day.

Commission Chairman William Marston said the subcommittee will issue a report in January, after which additional action could be taken.

"We want to be sure that whatever we do, we cover all our bases," he said. "We just want more answers."

Asked whether Nago should be worried about his job, Marston replied, "I don’t know."

The creation of the subcommittee came a day after Gov. Neil Abercrombie directed state Attorney General David Louie to conduct an investigation into the ballot problems.

Abercrombie also announced Monday that given the problems on general election day, he wants the state to switch to an all-mail-in ballot system.

Nago said he would support the change, but added that moving to an all-mail-in system would require infrastructure changes.

The commission, gathering for the first time since election day, met for about an hour in executive session Tuesday to discuss Nago’s performance after nearly two hours of discussion and testimony.

Much of the concern revolved around the ballot shortage on Oahu.

Several testifiers urged the commission to sack Nago.

State Sen. Sam Slom (R, Diamond Head-Hawaii Kai) told the commission a "simple apology" won’t suffice.

"This erodes the confidence in the public. It makes them angry and it cries out for action," he said. "I would urge you today to take strong, decisive actions, expediting your internal review, and replacement of current leadership."

At least 51 Oahu polling places ran short or ran out of paper ballots on Nov. 6. In the 24 precincts that ran out, hundreds of voters had to wait hours to cast their vote on the lone electronic voting machine at each polling place.

As he said previously, Nago told the commission Tuesday that the ballot problems happened because of a miscalculation over how many ballots were needed at polling places.

He said that while there were enough ballots printed, getting reserve ballots to polling places proved difficult.

"It was a matter of deployment," he said after the meeting.

Nago said the creation of the subcommittee shows the commission is "being fair."

"All I ask for is fair," he said.

But commission members also appeared unsatisfied with Nago’s explanation of how the ballot problems occurred, and several expressed anger at the scope of ballot shortages.

"If you’ve got 100,000 voters, you order 100,000 ballots," said commission member Danny Young, who described the voting problems as a "fiasco."

Commission member Xara Marshall said she doesn’t understand "why it’s not possible to" provide enough ballots.

"It’s going to lead to a lack of voter confidence," she said.