Honolulu mails 817 duplicate absentee ballots

HONOLULU — Honolulu elections officials said Thursday that 817 voters in the city’s Manoa neighborhood received duplicate absentee ballots for the upcoming election because of a printing error.

Honolulu County Elections Administrator Glen Takahashi said new absentee ballots will be mailed starting Monday with an explanation to voters, asking them to use replacement ballots instead of their original ballots.

Bernice Mau, Honolulu’s city clerk, says submissions from the affected voters will be double-checked to make sure duplicates are avoided. She said she does not expect that to significantly delay vote counting on Nov. 6, though officials will separate ballots from the affected group to make sure they were submitted properly.

The mistake was an isolated incident, she said.

Takahashi said the duplicate ballots were produced because the company contracted to print them accidentally restarted from the beginning of a precinct after taking a break after printing the first half of names. Many voters in one precinct with last names starting with M through Z were affected.

Mau said the county learned of the problems because dozens of voters called in. She said the problem should have been caught by the printer but wasn’t.

Though the county wants replacement ballots to be used, Mau and Takahashi say votes will be counted if only one original ballot is mailed in and not the replacement. If an original and replacement are mailed separately, the replacement ballot will count. But if two ballots — both originals or one original and one replacement — are submitted in the same envelope, they will be voided because county officials won’t know which one to count.

County officials don’t look at who voters voted for when they tally whether a vote has been cast, Takahashi said.

Takahashi said costs to the city will be minimal, including staff time, printing costs and roughly $370 in postage for the new ballots.