Registered voters on the north shore of Kauai who were directly impacted by flooding in April will be mailed absentee ballot applications and information for the Aug. 11 primary election, according to a statement released by Kauai’s Office of the County Clerk, Elections Division.

This enhanced voting service is for those living inside the established security checkpoints that were created as a result of road damage from the flooding. The damage has resulted in restricted travel routes from Wainiha to Haena.

Absentee ballot applications will also be available at the security checkpoints and at the Hanalei Colony Resort. Voters living inside the security checkpoints should submit their applications by July 6 and pick up their ballots on July 20 at the Hanalei Colony Resort. For more information visit www.kauai.gov/countyclerk, www.kauai.gov/elections and www.kauai.gov/KEMA.

Man gets 5 years for assault with a hammer

WAILUKU >> A Hawaii man convicted of attacking an employee of a Maui business with a hammer has been sentenced to five years in prison. Ramoncito Abion, 51, was sentenced last week after he was found guilty of second-degree assault at a trial in March, The Maui News reported.

Abion struck a woman in the back of the head with a hammer outside Waiehu Super Stop in January 2016, prosecutors said.

“It’s truly remarkable that this victim survived this attack and that we were not here on an even more serious charge,” Judge Richard Bissen said Wednesday.

The woman had told Abion to leave the area around the store. He later followed her down an alley and struck her, according to testimony. “It was a direct hammer strike to the head of a completely innocent person,” Deputy Prosecutor Brandon Segal said. “He fractured her skull and caused her pain and injury, not just physically, but mentally.”

The judge denied a probation request, noting in court that Albion was found to be mentally competent to stand trial by three mental health professionals. “They say he’s in the condition he’s in because he used crystal methamphetamine, and that’s not a valid defense,” Bissen said.