Several thousand voters in Puna on Hawaii island will get the rare opportunity Friday to settle a close election, but U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who trails U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in the Democratic primary for Senate, questioned whether holding the vote so soon is realistic.
The state Office of Elections announced Monday that voters in the Paradise Community Center precinct and the Keonepoko Elementary School precinct, which did not open for Saturday’s primary because of nearby damage from Tropical Storm Iselle, will be able to cast ballots Friday at Keonepoko Elementary School.
The results will be announced Friday evening.
Election officials determined that the special, one-day vote — on Statehood Day, a state holiday — would be the least disruptive to Puna voters still dealing with storm damage. State law allows the chief election officer, in the event of a natural disaster that disrupts voting, to postpone the vote for no more than 21 days.
Initially, election officials suggested that voters in the two precincts would be allowed to vote by mail through absentee ballot, an option described in the law. Voter registration in the two precincts is 8,255, but some voters have already cast ballots by walk-in or mail.
Hanabusa, who is behind Schatz by 1,635 votes, needs to claim the bulk of the vote Friday. The congresswoman is also looking at her legal options.
"It is disappointing that the state Office of Elections reversed course and decided to hold walk-in voting on Friday," Peter Boylan, a spokesman for the Hanabusa campaign, said in a statement. "A lot of voters in those two precincts are without power and water and many of the roads are blocked with debris, isolating large pockets of the community.
"It is unrealistic to think people struggling to find basic necessities and get out of their homes will have the ability to go to the polls Friday. There is very limited electricity and phone service in some of these areas and it is unclear how the state will notify people that there will be a vote. Our campaign is currently reviewing all legal options at this time."
Both Schatz and Hanabusa were in Puna on Monday to inspect storm damage and raise their visibility with the election on the line.
Hanabusa toured parts of Puna by car and on foot Sunday and viewed the devastation by helicopter Monday, courtesy of a civilian pilot. She said she was "shocked," adding, "It’s not a good situation."
The congresswoman described residents using their own chain saws to cut through fallen albizia trees and clear streets.
"What is the right way to do this?" she said of the vote. "A lot of the people who are affected are worried how to get by day by day without water and electricity. Once you see the damage, that takes over: How can you help get them food and water? That is paramount."
Schatz was helping with relief supplies and delivering ice and food, said a campaign aide. The senator also met Monday with Federal Emergency Management Agency and Army National Guard officials.
At the Hawaiian Shores Recreational Estates Community Center, across from Keonepoko Elementary School, which will be the focus of Friday’s critical vote, Hawaiian Shores resident Caroline Weber said, "We’re in a very odd position with 8,000 people not being allowed to vote."
Both candidates, Weber said, "know where they stand, how many votes they need and what they have to do."
Dawn Hurwitz, also of Hawaiian Shores, said Puna voters find themselves in an unusual spot.
"We are so used to being the bastard child of the state," she said. "Now I’m in the catbird seat. I’m enjoying it."
Hurwitz said she was undecided between Schatz and Hanabusa but said, "I can’t see Colleen with a chain saw cutting albizia trees."
Political analysts and election law experts, speaking privately, said election officials are in a difficult situation. Distributing absentee ballots, by mail or by hand, could be problematic given the damage in Puna.
Holding the vote at a single precinct, on a single day, brings more order and finality to the process.
One legal source questioned whether election officials were "making it up as they go along." Others noted that the primary vote was held on Kauai just days after Hurricane Iniki devastated the Garden Island in 1992.
Hanabusa, or a group of at least 30 voters of an election district who thought they had been disenfranchised, would have six days after Friday’s vote to contest the primary before the state Supreme Court. The complaints have to show that the errors, mistakes or irregularities alleged would change the outcome of the election.
The complaints would have to list reasons for reversing decisions such as the closing of only two precincts in Puna or holding the vote Friday instead of by absentee ballot later.
Hanabusa successfully led the demand for a recount of the 1998 general election, the only recount in Hawaii’s history. Hanabusa, a labor attorney elected to the state Senate that year, and others complained after electronic voting machines malfunctioned and miscounted votes in seven precincts, including one in her Waianae district.
The recount, which included manually counting ballots for some races, found that the voting machine malfunctions did not change any election results.
Hanabusa unsuccessfully pushed the Legislature to change state law and require automatic recounts after close elections.
"I introduce it every year," she told the Honolulu Advertiser in 2002. "An elections commission that studied it recommended that, but it is killed in the Legislature."
The primary for Senate is not the only race that will be decided Friday. State Rep. Faye Hanohano (D, Hawaiian Acres-Pahoa-Kalapana) trails attorney Joy San Buenaventura in a House primary.
Voter turnout in House District 4 was 5,545 during the 2012 primary, when the district had three precincts, and 4,429 votes came from the Paradise Community Center and Keonepoko Elementary School precincts.
