To the Chief Election Officer
State of Hawai`i
Many on the Big Island are deeply concerned that the County Clerk -- who seems to be new to the election process -- has suspended training and use of Deputy Voter Registrars. She has the approval of Pete Hoffman, chairman of the Hawai`i County Council though we have yet to find a member of the council who knew of the action before it was adopted.
There was a meeting called by the County Clerk. She did not attend because of illness. Long-time election staff head Pat Nakamoto and deputy clerk attended and ran the meeting. To say it was unproductive would be an understatement but it was manifestly clear that the ten or so persons attending agreed on one thing, the program should not have been stopped or changed without a public hearing. The ILWU had to cancel a class for 40 of their members who had signed up for registrar training. The League of Women Voters had no encouragement to keep the program under wraps.
In this age when the election process is under suspicion because of bad counts, computers that don't work yet are bought for citizens to use even if marked ballots are preferred, it is atrocious that this program was stopped in secret for specious reasons. The claim is that information on the forms could be used for identity theft. If that is the case then NOT having trained and sworn deputy registrars as we have had for decades will make that problem worse.
Any person can pick up a WikiWiki form and, under the guise of helping people register, get their information, ditch the forms and go off merrily to rob the victim account.
Virtually every suggestion at the meeting was already addressed in standing procedures that were prepared by the association of county clerks years ago. There has been no evidence of any identity theft from data collected by a deputy registrar.
Meanwhile we are in the midst of a Presidential election year when registration campaigns -- in keeping with the state law listing maximizing registration as a top priority of the Chief Election Officer! -- are needed. The elderly and ill depend mightily on this help. Newcomers to the island have serious difficulty learning their precinct number and other data that is significant to elections.
We believe that Casey Jarman's precipitous action was taken without legal authority. Her "power" as deputy Chief Election Officer for the county is all derived from her position and is clearly pointed at NON-policy matters such as moving information from voter affidavits into the state register of voters accurately and swiftly. Studies have isolated problems in our county with this process where people were going to wrong precincts because they were assigned wrongly due to errors in the county office. This usually stemmed from the duplication of road names. One instance has four different roads with the same name in the general Puna area! When a Deputy Registrar is working these duplications are avoided by the time given to ascertaining on the map where a person lives.
This rash and harmful decision should be reversed immediately by the State Chief Election Officer by telling his deputy that the program must be continued at least until proven harmful in a public hearing -- and that whatever harm is feared is somehow more important than the known good the program has created.
Thank you,
Bill Eger
HCR 1 Box 5164
Keaau HI 96749
808-969-1234 or at home 808-966-8565
Registered in District Four, Precinct Nine -- being changed this election to Precinct Six for no good reason.