Question: I mailed in my ballot, but how will I know if it was received?

Answer: Hawaii voters cannot track their ballots online, as voters in many other states do. So you would have to call your county clerk’s office to verify that the filled-in ballot you mailed back was received and accepted, according to the state Office of Elections.

Here are the phone numbers for the county clerks statewide; add the area code 808 if you are calling from off-island. We have received this question from numerous Hawaii readers, not all of whom specified their home island:

>> Honolulu County, 768-3800

>> Hawaii County, 961-8277

>> Maui County, 270-7749

>> Kauai County, 241-4800

Your question, and similar ones from other readers, prompted us to look at how other states handle absentee ballots. Online ballot-tracking systems are common, allowing individual voters to log in (by supplying identifying information) and verify that the ballot they filled out and mailed back was received and accepted by their government authority.

For example, in Florida “any voter who has requested a vote-by-mail ballot can track online the status of his or her ballot through a link within the Division of Elections’ Voter Information Lookup or through their county Supervisor of Elections’ website,” according to Florida’s Department of State.

This tracking system applies in both directions: when the government mails the ballot to the voter and after it is returned by the voter. Read more at dos.myflorida.com/elections.

In California “each county elections official allows voters to check the status of his/her vote-by-mail and provisional ballot either through the county website, by telephone, or both,” according to the secretary of state’s website, sos.ca.gov (click on the “elections” icon).

We read about similar online ballot-tracking systems in Oregon, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and other jurisdictions, either statewide or by county. According to news accounts, election officials in those jurisdictions cite the convenience and transparency of these tracking systems as fostering trust in democracy and election integrity.

Hawaii allows people to register to vote online but does not provide ballot tracking online.

Rex Quidilla, administrator of the Honolulu County Clerk’s Elections Division, said “we’re looking into” this type of tracking tool but that it is not available for Oahu voters now.

Any absentee voter on Oahu interested in tracking their ballot should call the Elections Division, he said. Based on identifying information provided by the voter, an elections employee can verify whether the ballot was received and recorded.

In general, he reminded absentee voters to sign the affirmation statement on the ballot return envelope, which is blue; your ballot will not be counted if the affirmation statement is not signed. Moreover, “if there is more than one absentee voter in the household, make sure that each voter signs the correct envelope,” he said.

About 160,000 absentee ballots were mailed to Oahu voters; voted ballots flowed back to the elections division at an initial rate of about 8,000 a day, Quidilla said. Voted ballots must be returned (received, not postmarked) by 6 p.m. Election Day.

About 3,000 unopened absentee-ballot mailers were returned as undeliverable because the person had moved, a number that is consistent with past years, Quidilla said.

For election security, absentee ballots cannot be forwarded, he said. The person must update their address on their voter registration record, not simply with the U.S. Postal Service, he said.

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.