THE DOG ATE MY VOTE

THE DOG ATE MY VOTE: We tend to think of outright election fraud as something that happens in faraway places like Florida and Ohio done by secretive Republican moles and operatives in places where the laws and rules of the state combine with unregulated proprietary soft-ware-using electronic-gizmos to “flip” the votes.

But that was in a different era- one before the reign “King” Kevin “The Minotaur” Cronin as Hawai`i Chief Elections Officer, whose exploits we’ve detailed many times for many months now as a search of his name in the box at the top of the page will reveal.

A month ago we detailed how despite the fact that there are absolutely no required HRS Chapter 91 Administrative Rules Cronin has made some up arbitrarily and capriciously- and illegally- and a judge has ruled that, although Cronin was grossly negligent if not guilty of malfeasance in selecting the electronic voting machines in the Hart InterCivic contract that was struck down by an administrative hearings officer, the election will proceed with the equipment they provided... and of course no rules for their use

But we thought, at least if people want their votes to actually count they can shun the DRE - direct electronic recording- devices and mark their choice on a piece of paper to be read by an optical scanner as Hawai`i voters have done for many years

But an article in yesterday’s Honolulu Advertiser dashed all hopes of that because it reports almost all of the walk-in absentee polling locations in O`ahu will contain no paper and optical scan opportunities and force those voting to use the unregulated, un-transparent highly hackable and rigable machines.

Buried deep in the article- and of no particular interest in terms of potential voter fraud to Advertiser Staff Writer Gordon Y.K. Pang- he reports

One thing O'ahu absentee walk-in voters will notice is that electronic voter machines are more prevalent than in the past. Glen Takahashi, the city's election administrator, said only electronic machines will be available to absentee walk-in voters who show up at the Kapolei Hale, Aiea Shopping Center and University of Hawai`i-Manoa Campus Center locations....

Those wishing to conduct absentee walk-in voting on O'ahu and who want to fill in a more traditional paper ballot can only do so at Honolulu Hale or Windward Mall, Takahashi said.

You’d think that the issue of the electronic machines’ reliability- brought up in court as part of a lawsuit on Maui over the lack of any regulations- would be discussed next but Pang prefers to bury his head up the butt of election officials by reporting

Election officials also prefer the electronic system, (Voter Services Section Chief Rex) Quidilla said. The machines don't allow for overvotes, which occur when someone incorrectly punches more than one vote, or more than one party ballot in the primary, he said.

Additionally, it's easier for a voter to correct mistakes before turning in final selections, Quidilla said.

But though we were pretty livid over this next questionable act by self proclaimed “de facto” Election Chief Cronin, attorney Lance Collins who is representing the plaintiffs in the lack of “ad rules” case isn’t shocked in the least. When asked for comment yesterday and he told us:

“Reports about the lack of optical scanners at walk-in voting precincts is not surprising. When a state agency is required to comply with rule making and fails to comply with rule making, there is nothing to stop the agency from changing its rules whenever it wants to.”

Although the current ongoing walk-in voting- at the Historic County Building- the only location on Kaua`i- will be providing paper ballots watch out for the vote eating DRE behemoths... that is if you want your vote to count.