Q: What new voting procedures will voters
see in this year’s elections?
A: Voters will receive a single ballot sheet instead of a
packet of cards, & they'll vote with a marking pen instead of punching holes in the
ballot.
Q: Why the new procedures?
A: We’re speeding-up the entire process -
there’ll be no ballot selection booths or discard stations at the polling place - so
the actual voting should be a lot faster. And ballots will be tallied as they are inserted
in the ballot box - which means that the counting at the county counting centers will also
be a lot faster.
Q: So it won’t take quite as long to
count, compile, & report the voting results?
A: Yes. In previous elections, each ballot had to be
prepared & read by a card reader. Literally hundreds or thousands of cards had to be
read on election day at each counting center. The new system will be a lot faster - only a
single card per precinct will be read instead of the 1,000 to 2,000 cards (average) per
precinct.
Q: Sounds great. Is electronic voting in
the works too?
A: Yes, we’ve started to look at electronic voting
systems. If we’re satisfied that they work well, & if not cost-prohibitive,
we’ll pursue it to take Hawai`i into the next century. I’m pretty sure it’s
coming, but we can’t tell you exactly when.
Q: Are you expecting a larger voter
turn-out than previous elections?
A: We’re not really sure. We’ve been too busy
focusing on our responsibility - so we’ve been more interested in the number of
candidates, the size of the ballot, & the cost of producing & working with the
ballot. However, we do note that there seems to be a lot of interest in this year’s
elections - and hopefully, interest means that people will be voting. We’re not in
the business of prognostication - we usually leave that to the guru’s of politics.
Q: How does voter turn-out in Hawai`i
compare with other states?
A: Generally, our turn-out is high compared to other
states. Nationally, the trend is towards declining voter turn-out. Unfortunately, Hawai`i
is following the national trend, only more slowly.
Q: Do you really use taxi cabs to
transport the ballots to the counting centers?
A: Yes. And on Maui, we use airplanes to transport the
ballots from remote areas such as Lanai, Molokai, Kalaupapa/Kalawao, Hana, & Keanae.
Q: Who rides in the cabs to watch the
ballots?
A: Each cab team consists of a driver (provided by the
cab company under contract), a chairperson, & member. The chairperson & member are
not of the same political party.
Q: When you vote, you’re assigned a
numbered ballot. Doesn’t this make it possible to track how a person voted?
A: No, there’s no way to track individual votes. The
numbers are simply to control the inventory of ballots - number of ballots used &
un-used.
Q: How do people get to work at the
polling places?
A: Anyone can apply by calling our office at (808)
453-VOTE (8683). A person needs to be a registered voter (or pre-register to be a voter;
16 year-olds may pre-register). We’re still looking for more volunteers.
Q: Do the volunteers get paid?
A: We don’t pay the volunteers, but we do give them
a stipend. If we compensated them for the amount of services they provide us, we
wouldn’t be
able to afford them. The stipend for a precinct official starts at $75 per day.
Q: Election day must be hectic for you
& your staff.
A: Actually, we start prepping & moving ballots &
supplies to a staging area the day before. Then from about 4:00 a.m. on election day,
delivery teams begin to drop-off the ballots & supplies to the polling places. On
Oahu, our office does this work; on the neighbor islands, the county clerk offices are
responsible. Then through-out the day, we respond to calls for more staffing &
additional supplies, anguish over equipment failure, & try to handle voters who are
usually not properly registered. Then towards the end of the day, we get ready for the
delivery of ballots to the counting center. The ballots are then counted, tallies are
audited, & the results are reported to the public via the news media.
Q: Then your day ends?
A: No (laugh). It’s not unusual for the counting
center staffs & official observers to work until 8:00 a.m. the next day. Then, a crew
from the counting center in Honolulu returns at 2:00 p.m. to start auditing the results,
& the auditing process continues until the end of the challenge period. Only after the
challenge period do we "gear-down."
Q: Then what happens?
A: It’s a never-ending cycle...we start planning for
the next elections.
Q: In all the years of working with
elections, who has been the most interesting
candidate.
A: Actually, they’ve all interesting..but we really
don’t focus on the candidates...we just concentrate on making sure that the elections
process is trouble-free. But really, all the candidates are interesting...they give-up so
much of their private lives to serve our community in this grand experiment that we call
"democracy."
Q: Your office has a great-looking web
site - lots of useful information.
A: Thanks. We tried to put as much information on the
site to assist the public. John Shklov, our web designer, from Kauai did a great job for
us. You can contact John by email or at (808) 822-5572.
Q: Dwayne, mahalo for spending time with
us. You have a thankless job. Keep-up the good work, & we looking forward to the
new voting procedures.
A: The pleasure is mine. Thank you!
Editor: Dwayne Yoshina is a 17-year veteran of the
elections process. He attended Konawaena High & Elementary School, UH-Hilo, UH-Manoa
on an East West Center grant, & De Anza College on the Mainland. While at UH-Manoa, he
studied in the Department of Urban & Regional Planning. Dwayne graduated from
California State University at Hayward.
