State election officials are urging residents to pay attention to their mail in the coming months. The state elections office sent postcards last month to registered voters to confirm their addresses. But there's more information arriving as part of an effort to ensure the new vote-by-mail system goes smoothly.
Hawaii is moving to a vote-by-mail system, closing most of its neighborhood polling locations and consolidating them in several voting centers where voters can still cast ballots in person.
The new system is aimed at raising Hawaii's voter turnout rates, which are among the lowest in the country. The mail voting will also save an estimated $750,000 for each election since poll workers won't need to be hired.
State Chief Election Officer Scott Nago gave an update to the elections commission last week on the transition to the vote-by-mail ballots. The office recently sent out notification cards to confirm voter information in anticipation of mailing ballots to residents later this year.
Nago says the cards are important to not only update the voter rolls, but also to notify residents to take action.
"Not getting the postcard is supposed to trigger an action to either follow up to see if you are registered, or if you need to update your registration," he said. "We're sending voters something to establish a communication, to see if they're registered or not."
According to Nago, roughly 20,000 postcards have been returned to the office. Election officials are working with the U.S. Postal Service to make sure registered voters get the postcard or confirm a person no longer resides at the address. Nago says his office will soon be mailing another notification postcard as a precaution.
"It is important to keep your registration up-to-date because ballots, by law, are not forwardable," he said. "Your ballot will not get forwarded to you, and you will not receive your ballot."
In April, the elections office will be sending out a signature capture card, requesting a sample of voters' signatures.
"When you get your ballot for the election, you're going to need to sign it," said Nago, "because we need to verify your signature to make sure you are that voter."
Voters will be getting their ballots 18 days prior to both the Aug. 8 primary election and Nov. 3 general election.
Nago advises residents who don't receive a ballot in the mail by that time to contact their county clerk's office or visit one of the eight voter service centers in the state.
For information on voting by mail, visit the elections office website. If you would like to confirm or update your information, or even register to vote, visit olvr.hawaii.gov.
