The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii has asked the state’s top court to allow voters affected by Tropical Storm Iselle to cast ballots in the primary election. The ACLU filed the challenge in state Supreme Court on Thursday. The lawsuit against Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago and others says voters on Hawaii Island were disenfranchised because they couldn’t get to the polls due to storm damage. Tropical Storm Iselle made landfall on Hawaii’s Big Island less than 48 hours before election day. Two precincts in the badly damaged Puna region were closed, and voters were told they would be mailed ballots. But then Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago changed course and scheduled a makeup primary for a week after the original election date, leaving some voters confused about the logistics of voting.
Some residents of neighboring precincts were upset because they were dealing with storm damage and couldn’t vote on election day, but they didn’t get a second chance to cast ballots because their polling stations had remained open.
The ACLU said it’s unlikely that the message got to thousands of residents who were without power, and that series of decisions denied voters their rights.
“The government has a duty to respond to conditions on the ground to make sure people can vote,” said Daniel Gluck, senior staff attorney for the ACLU, in a statement. “Here the government failed to do that, and changes are needed now to preserve the integrity of future elections.”
Full Article: HONOLULU: ACLU sues Hawaii over election storm response | National Politics | The Sun Herald.