Election Staff ‘Sickout’ + 500,000 Incorrectly Printed Ballots

What’s going on over at the state elections office? 

There was the ‘sickout’ by Hawaii County election workers who apparently planned in advance to be ‘sick’ on primary election day — something that was known by state officials. Ian Lind had a good blog post musing whether the incident violates the Voting Rights Act.

Meantime, the Hawaii Tribune Herald has a report today about 500,000 incorrectly printed ballots. The problem? Presidential candidates names are not printed in alphabetical order, despite a state law saying as much. 

The state elections office essentially shrugged its shoulders over the whole incident:

“The Office of Elections has stated this was an error on its part and that it apologizes,” Nago said in the email, obtained under Hawaii’s open records laws. “The ballots will not be reprinted as all candidates for president are on the ballot and voters are still able to exercise their right to vote.”

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