More than one-half million Hawaii ballots were printed with the presidential candidates in no particular order, despite a state law that says all candidates must be in alphabetical order within their respective races. The state Office of Elections has downplayed the error, and officials contacted this week also don’t see it as a problem, especially for the Barack Obama-Mitt Romney race. But Hawaii County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi is seeking a legal opinion after her office was contacted by voters. With Hawaii-born Obama on the ticket of an overwhelmingly blue state, there’s little chance the candidate will be missed, even if he’s at the very bottom of the line-up behind the GOP candidate Romney, at the top, followed by Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson, they say. Obama received 71.5 percent of the Hawaii vote in 2008.
“We don’t see it as a problem at all,” said Ria Baldevia, director of Obama for America in Hawaii. “President Obama is very popular in Hawaii, and we love him, and we are confident he will win here.”
But close races elsewhere on the ballot could be challenged based on the illegal order at the top, said Kyle Kondik, a spokesman for noted political analyst Larry Sabato’s Center for Politics, based at the University of Virginia. “If lawyers could get at something, they will,” Kondik said. “If there’s something to sue about, they’ll sue.”
Full Article: Ballots printed incorrectly | Hawaii Tribune Herald.