Two Hawaii Island polling sites will be closed today and voting postponed for affected voters while elections officials try to determine how to distribute and collect absentee ballots from the areas hemmed in by damaged roads stemming from Hurricane Iselle.

With the exception of the polling sites at Hawaii Paradise Community Center and Keoneopoko Elementary School, all other polling sites are expected to open as scheduled from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“We found out that there are miles of roads that are obstructed,” state Attorney General David Louie said Friday at a news conference with Gov. Neil Abercrombie and emergency operations officials at Diamond Head Crater. “There’s albizia trees, some very large, that are blocking roads, so access to the polling places is disrupted — you can’t even get in there.”

There are about 8,000 affected registered voters, but some may have cast early ballots.

Chief Election Officer Scott Nago, in a news release, said voting in the affected areas would be done by absentee ballot, but it has not yet been determined how those ballots would be distributed and collected.