There were a couple of big hiccups in this election, leading many to criticize the Office of Elections, and there will soon be a push for change. Two party leaders KHON2 News talked with on Saturday say this is not a partisan issue. They insist things can be done to create a better election process. Actually, an elections reform commission was created back in 2001. When Republican State Senator Sam Slom was asked if he thought the problems have been solved since then, he replied “no, I think the problems have been exacerbated. We need to re-look at this and make some serious changes.” Slom said the election problems aren’t unique to this year.
“Hawaii Kai in 2012, when the ballots didn’t get distributed here and it had a major impact on people being disenfranchised. And then while everyone was focusing on Puna yesterday, then, oh, guess what? Six days later, we find 800 ballots from Maui that had not been counted.”
Former Democratic Governor Ben Cayetano helped in appointing the election reform commission 13 years ago, and he said it’s not necessarily the election process itself that needs changing.
Full Article: Political party leaders say Hawaii needs better election process | KHON2.