Hurricanes another reason to institute voting by mail

As we hunker down for whatever Iselle and Julio fling our way, consider this a teachable moment.

Not so much for hurricane readiness, because the long lines at Costco for SPAM, bottled water and gas already show how we did in the preparation department.

Instead, there is something in the hurricane to learn about voting.

Tomorrow is a day of history and significance with Hawaii on the verge of setting a new political direction. The election is a big deal, but because of the hurricane threat, much is in doubt.

For elections officials, however, the concern is not so much about who will run state government and represent Hawaii in Washington, but who will make sure the lights stay on at Naalehu Elementary School, which is the 1st Precinct in the 5th House District and as of late Wednesday, lay directly on the plotted course of Iselle.

I asked Scott Nago, Hawaii chief elections officer, what would be the difference if Hawaii were like Washington state, Oregon and Colorado where elections are conducted entirely by mail.

"We would not be worrying about maintaining polling places, assessing them for possible damage; we wouldn’t have to worry about election volunteers," Nago said.

Every two years, the state forces its way through a complex ballet of finding polling places, reserving them, unpacking the voting machines for those 232 polling places, securely transporting said voting machines to the polling places, and then making sure they are not tampered with.

Our election system means state officials have to assemble a team of more than 3,200 to work all day and into the evening for a small stipend.

They have to know the voting procedures, administer the election laws and follow through with the numbing counting and rechecking of the ballots and poll books.

Most are volunteers who do it either to help raise money for a school or community project, or because they are involved in a political party or they simply volunteer every two years and will continue to hold that sort of community spirit.

Noble, yes, but so is the U.S. Postal Service.

Imagine instead a team of about 500 taking the mail out of the mail bags, opening the envelopes and running them through a counting machine.

That would do it — no precinct training sessions, no ferrying machines around the state, no worry about whether every precinct has enough ballots.

"Basically there wouldn’t be any officials in the field," said Nago, who is a strong supporter of voting by mail.

If we didn’t have to open precincts, it would just be an issue of mail delivery. We wouldn’t have to worry about people actually showing up on Election Day, Nago said.

In vote-by-mail states, every registered voter is mailed a ballot; in Colorado, if you just have to vote in person, you can surrender your mail ballot at a voter service center.

Vote by mail is simple, easy and efficient.

When the 2015 Hawaii Legislature opens, it will be time to see how much we learned from Iselle.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.