Editorial: Measures can improve voting

As disruptive as it’s been, the runoff election to settle the disputed Honolulu City Council race between recent incumbent Trevor Ozawa and challenger Tommy Waters may prove instructive in one important way. Hawaii seems headed for elections in which nearly all ballots will be returned by mail, and this vote-by-mail example underscores where such a process needs improvement.

The Council race should be decided, finally, on Saturday. A rematch from 2014 and a contentious battle to the end, it is itself vote-by-mail: a high-profile, high-interest contest, with every flaw playing out beneath the Klieg lights. And there have been anecdotal reports of double ballots — or no ballots — being mailed in some cases.

This is only for a single Council district. It’s reasonable to assume potential problems multiplying when mail-in balloting expands to the full island of Kauai next year — and ultimately to the entire state, if House Bill 1248 is enacted.

HB 1248, which now is destined for a conference committee, went through some useful changes in its Senate review, not the least of which was a delay from 2020 to 2022 for the statewide vote-by-mail conversion. That delay seems almost essential, enabling any kinks exposed in the Kauai pilot project to be worked out. Some, including a need to improve the accuracy of the voter registry, are already apparent.

This is only one of the election-related proposals pending at the state Capitol. The other bills:

>> Senate Bill 427 would establish “ranked choice voting,” sometimes called “instant recount voting,” but only for special federal elections and special elections for vacant county seats. It might not even be a good idea for this limited roll-out.

Essentially this voting procedure addresses the frequent need for runoff elections in races with numerous candidates, as none generally will finish the first round of voting with a simple majority. It directs the voter to rank their selections in order. Subordinate choices would be factored into the tally until one of the candidates emerges above the 50% threshold.

This assumes people make a knowledgeable choice for second- or third-ranked candidates, and beyond. That is likely not the case — it’s easy to imagine the overwhelmed voter simply ranking the also-rans fairly randomly, with little or no basis. The hope is that voting would be, at a minimum, a rational enterprise.

>> SB 412 proposes automatic voter registration (AVR), a process that is part of applications for driver’s licenses and I.D. cards. This remains a viable improvement — both for convenience and citizen inclusion, even if it ultimately might not greatly boost Hawaii’s appallingly low voter turnout. Additionally, the more frequent updating of addresses would sharpen the accuracy of voter rolls.

>> SB 216 would require a mandatory recount in races that have a vote margin at or below 100, or one-half of 1% of the votes cast, whichever is greater. This process might bring resolution to close contests more readily, but it won’t necessarily prove to improve the accuracy of, or satisfaction with, the vote tally. Nor would it eliminate procedural disputes such as in the current Ozawa-Waters conflict.

Of these ideas, AVR and carefully expanding the convenience of voting by mail hold the best prospects for enhancing the vibrancy of Hawaii’s democracy.

Under HB 1248, the state has time to refine how to update voter rolls, to nail down ballot-receipt deadlines, to give voters a chance to respond if ballots are invalidated, and to educate voters on casting their ballot securely — ensuring that they do exercise their voting rights, above all.

No system will be perfect, but making Hawaii’s vote as widely accessible as possible would be a worthy end in itself.