The Hawaii County clerk’s office is sending a letter Monday to Pahoa voters offering to provide them with absentee mail ballots because of the lava flow headed in the vicinity of their homes.
The letter asks each voter to specify where the absentee mail ballot should be delivered.
State Chief Election Officer Scott Nago said many Pahoa residents are evacuating or making plans to evacuate.
"A lot of people are getting ahead of it," Nago said.
Pahoa voters have been beset by the forces of nature interrupting voting — Tropical Storm Iselle toppled trees blocking Puna voters’ access to two polling places just days before the primary election, and now a lava flow from Kilauea’s East Rift Zone may be arriving before the Nov. 4 general election.
Early walk-in voting is slated to take place from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1 at the Aupuni Center in Hilo, Pahala Community Center in Pahala, Waimea Community Center in Kamuela and West Hawaii Civic Center in Kailua-Kona.
County and state officials said the plan is to open polls at Keonepoko Elementary School, Pahoa High and Intermediate School and the Pahoa Community Center for the general election. The three precincts have a total of 7,542 registered voters.
Hawaii Civil Defense has set up its incident command center at the Pahoa Community Center. Election officials are looking for an alternative polling place on the southern side of Pahoa, which would be used if Civil Defense is using the community center on Election Day.
"It’s too early to tell," Hawaii County Clerk Stewart Maeda said.
Nago said he can’t recall a lava flow in Hawaii having the potential to interrupt voting at the polls.
"This is a first," he said.
Election officials are looking at ways to make the voting go smoother despite the lava flow, following the disruption in voting in Pahoa caused by Iselle. Voting in the Aug. 9 primary was delayed for nearly a week in two precincts in Puna because of damage from Iselle.
Some criticized the Office of Elections’ decision to schedule the voting for the two precincts on Aug. 15 while some residents were still recovering.
