Record number of Hawaii election observers, new ballot tracking planned

A record number of volunteer election observers are planning to monitor mail-in ballots as they’re opened and processed across the state, while voters this year also have new tools to track their ballots before they arrive at counting centers and as they’re being tallied.

The number of volunteers for the Aug. 13 midterm, party primary — more than 300 on Oahu and a couple hundred more across the neighbor islands at each county’s counting center — rivals the 2020 November presidential election, which was surrounded by accusations of voter fraud and tampering across the country.

The Hawaii volunteer observers will have access to “everywhere within the counting center,” Aulii Tenn, section head of counting center operations for the state Office of Elections, said Tuesday.

“These are members of political parties, interested individuals,” Tenn said. “We have representatives of the media who participate, as well as community groups.”

Their role is to join election vendors and state and county election officials to “track and count every ballot, release the results and ensure the security and integrity of the election,” Tenn said.

Volunteers will open envelopes and remove ballots and log each one to be scanned and counted.

“No ballots are thrown out,” Tenn said.

This year Hawaii voters for the first time will be able to see their blank ballots before they’re mailed by July 26 for the primary and by Oct. 1 for the Nov. 8 general election. Additionally, they will be able to track, by way of text as well as voice or email alerts, ballot delivery and the completed ballot as it’s being processed.

For more information and to register, visit bit.ly/3usyvnU.

A test of Oahu voter machines — also to be monitored by “official observers” — is scheduled for Saturday at Hart InterCivic, the longtime election vendor for the state Office of Elections.

The “logic and accuracy” test is administered by a set of observers who “serve as the eyes and ears of the public and represent various political parties, community groups, and interested individuals,” election officials said Thursday in a statement.

They will “test and certify that the voting and vote counting system is programmed correctly and counting votes accurately,” elections officials said in announcing the test. “Upon conclusion of the test, the voting equipment will be certified and secured in the presence of the official observers.”

Neighbor island testing and certifications are scheduled for next week.

The 2020 presidential election saw record voter turnout in a state that historically lags the rest of the country in voter participation.

Asked what to expect this year in a midterm election and, with the second election using mail-in ballots, Scott Nago, the head of the state Office of Elections, said “there are too many variables” to make a prediction. “We’ll let the pundits figure that out,” Nago said.