An old friend pointed out a potential problem with the primary election ballot.
I haven’t seen the ballot, but thought I would pass his concerns along.
Absentee mail-in ballots have gone out, at least to Oahu voters, and voters are receiving them. Some folks on the sending-out end reportedly found the ballot confusing, and so will some voters. I do my voting in person, but my wife kindly showed me her unvoted mail-in ballot so I could see what the fuss was about.
The ballot has Independents, Libertarians, Republicans, and Greens (if any) on the front page, while Nonpartisans, Democrats, OHA, and I think county contests are on the back. Hey, somebody has to be on the back. But the instructions and the sequence of instructions make it likely that some voters will finish voting the front page before they see the back page with the Democrats. The instructions first say to “Start voting here” and only later say to review both sides before voting.
Someone needs to clarify the matter for the public. Voters should review both sides of the ballot BEFORE STARTING to vote. That’s because some parties are on the front, some on the back, and you have to choose which party or the nonpartisan section of the ballot to vote. Vote for candidates of only one party or the nonpartisans, blah, blah, blah. And all can vote for OHA and county offices.
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Well, you have to choose which party to vote for first and, if you don’t see that party on that page, I can’t imagine someone would not then turn the ballot over to look for that party’s candidates. Frankly, anyone who takes enough initiative to register is going to be inquisitive enuf to turn the ballot over.
Still, I suppose some large print about reviewing both sides before voting couldn’t hurt. Maybe that can be added for the general . . .
The issue wasn’t who’s on the front and who’s on the back of the ballot, it’s that the instructions say “start voting here” BEFORE saying to review both sides of the ballot. I assume most people who receive absentee ballots will not be confused, but it is another boo-boo by an inept Office of Elections.
so Hawaii might have a hanging-chad disaster like Florida?
then we need to rapidly expand the state Office of Aging. best way to do this is steal even more funding from the Department of Education and close the Office of Elections. neighborhood boards might need to hold daily meetings, complete with dinner and nap stations.
— Tsar Chasm
This is like arguing with the referee in a football game when you are up 61-3.
Hmm. The ballot also comes with instructions – and the first one is, “Review the Ballot Card.” IMHO, ‘review’ means to look at the darned thing before doing anything else.
…
If “someone’s” wife didn’t bother to read the instructions, I’d hardly call it a ‘boo-boo’ on the State’s part.
Not at all confusing if you have been interested at all. If not paying attention, why are you voting? Not that I would ever say I think the Office of Elections is competent.
Ian, I feel like I put you on the hot seat here. I was passing along a concern that had been shared with me (no, not by my wife). The ballot that I saw seemed to justify the concern. But if voters agree with your readers that the ballot is no worse than usual, then there’s no cause for alarm.
Congressional leaders, Democratic officials and Gore aides blamed the Palm Beach County election supervisor, Theresa LePore. Ms. LePore, who redesigned the county’s ballot this year, said she had hoped to make it easier to read for the county’s many elderly voters. Ms. LePore is a Democrat.
LePore said she did not think the ballot was confusing. ”I was trying to make the print bigger so elderly people in Palm Beach County can read it,” she said. ”If I’d made it small, they would’ve said we made the print too small.”
The Palm Beach design was not used in any other Florida county.
Instead of helping elderly readers, the redesigned ballot apparently confused many voters. Mr. Gore’s name was the second one listed on the left side of the ballot, almost directly across from Mr. Buchanan’s name, which was the first name on the right side of the ballot. In the ballots center margin, near both candidates’ names, were holes for voters to punch to vote for either candidate.
By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and DANA CANEDY
Published: November 9, 2000
If some careless folks spoil their ballot because they can’t follow directions, then maybe we’re all better off with the results. I mean, if someone can’t bother to spend even a couple of minutes to follow instructions, what kind of thought do you think they give to the candidates they’re voting for?
This critique of the ballot is a little misplaced. This is very manini. I tell friends from out of town the story about how the Office of Elections ” accidentally “ran out of ballots in many of the Cayetano stronghold areas. None of them can believe it.
To me this episode from the Office of Elections was blatant corruption or possibly gross incompetence. Either way those responsible should have been fired on the spot.
John Swindle – you outed yourself. 😉
This kind of banter is normal for Ian’s blog, so no worries about Ian being ‘on the spot’. It’s all good. Aloha 🙂
I know its Un American, but read the directions, all will be well.
aikea808, thanks. Actually you guys served as a good test for my concern about the ballot. Thanks to Ian for putting it out there.
I did vote absentee today, at Honolulu Hale, but I did the Rube Goldberg version with the wheel and the button.