Despite long lines on Election Day, a shortage of blue “secrecy sleeves,” and malfunctioning voting machines that turned away some voters, the new chairman of the state Elections Commission said Wednesday he was “very, very impressed” with the election.
F.M. Scotty Anderson, who took over as chairman of the nine-member commission this year, watched hundreds of volunteers Tuesday for his first Election Day at the state Capitol, where “we had a couple of minor problems that were all handled,” Anderson said. “They all got fixed and it all went smoothly.”
Nearly all of the problems occurred on Oahu, where 18 polling sites reported trouble with their scanning machines and 17 had problems with their voting machines, said Nedielyn Bueno, spokeswoman for the state Office of Elections.
Voting also was slowed because Oahu voters were given two ballots, including one listing all of Honolulu’s proposed charter amendments.
“On Oahu, we did have the two ballot cards. That is unusual and may have led to the long waits in line,” Bueno said. “It could be voters weren’t prepared for the charter questions.”
Each polling site normally has about 50 blue secrecy sleeves on hand, Bueno said.
But problems with the scanning and voting machines — coupled with the usual morning and afternoon voting rushes — likely triggered the shortage of blue sleeves that meant some voters stood in line with their ballots exposed.
Others chose to vote on cafeteria tables instead of waiting for a voting booth.
Then 29 polling sites did not report in after the scheduled 6 p.m. closing time. While some sites, such as Kapolei High School, still had voters in line after 6 p.m., elections officials had to scramble to verify whether sites were closed or still operating.
As a result, the first election returns could not be released until nearly 7:45 p.m., Bueno said.
As they do every election year, state officials will conduct a postmortem with elections officers and volunteer coordinators around the islands later this month, Bueno said.
“We always have a debrief after each election,” she said. “There are always ways to improve.”
