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Back ToPage 26 of 60
<br />Higashi had asked, right now do we have a vendor for, for example, the year 2000
<br />election. The answer is no. And that’s why we’re saying the State because much of
<br />the support that we need has to come from the State. And actually it’s not just the
<br />State but also there are other agencies that we would require the cooperation from,
<br />for example, the Voter Registration files. We don’t maintain them in the County of
<br />
<br />Hawaii, they’re City and County, right?
<br />
<br />KOZOHARA: Right.
<br />KONISHI: So for example, any kind of work we would do with getting list of
<br />registered voters available, etc., we would have to work with the City and County of
<br />Honolulu on that also. I just want to make that clear. We say the State, the State,
<br />because we depend so much on the State with regard to logistical support during most
<br />elections. Like on the punch card question, I guess what Mr. Kozohara was saying was
<br />that the level of support that we used to have for the punch card system is no
<br />longer there. I was going to say that that assumes that we would run it exactly the
<br />same way we had in the past. I’m sure anything is possible. You could use the punch
<br />cards and somebody could count it by hand, I guess. You know that’s always possible.
<br />Whether or not the public would have the same level of confidence in that, I don’t
<br />know and that’s what I said earlier about we can cut corners, we can cut a lot of
<br />corners but if the public is not going to be confident in that result then I would
<br />recommend against cutting those corners, especially now because of the experience in
<br />
<br />‘98.
<br />
<br />RAY: Go ahead George.
<br />MARTIN: If I hear you correctly, and I’m giggling over here because I wonder if the
<br />public has any sense of confidence in the system that we used last time. That’s why
<br />I was giggling. As we’re mentioning a Special Election per se, pertaining to the
<br />Charter, and I don’t think anybody in this body has committed to it as of yet. We’re
<br />in an informal way of just discussing it. If it were a County Special Election,
<br />
<br />could we not then determine what format we would use?
<br />KOZOHARA: I guess the public doesn’t know too much about what goes on in an election
<br />but in past elections, up until the 1998 election, we depended on the State a whole
<br />lot. They provided us, the Department of ICSD, I guess it was, used to send people
<br />over but with the budget cuts, personnel were not available and we went to this Mark
<br />Sense system which is one of the systems that many of the other states use and it’s
<br />much less costly. This estimate over here is based on a Mark Sense system. If we go
<br />to a punch card, I know it’s going to be more. I know that, automatic. I believe in
<br />the previous elections when we used the punch card system, you remember like in the
<br />Primary, we had five different ballots and we discarded four. This election over
<br />here, with the Mark Sense system, we have all the parties listed on one card. The
<br />cost of the card came down tremendously because of this new system. Now if you’re
<br />going to go to the punch card, we have to revise this estimate over here, plus I
<br />
<br />don’t know how we’re going to get the support from the State.
<br />MARTIN: Okay, I hear what you’re saying and I’m not trying to nitpick or anything.
<br />Just for my own thoughts here, again, I hear punch card and I hear Mark Sense. Is
<br />there any other form that we possibly could use that would save money, would be as
<br />
<br />efficient, and would be welcomed by John and Jane Q. Public?
<br />KONISHI: There is a system, which to me, fits the bill except for your last point.
<br />And there’s a system. It’s like an ATM. You go to the screen. You touch the screen.
<br />You register your vote. It’s counted right there. You don’t have to print the
<br />ballot, but there’s no paper involved. So, I make speeches all the time to public
<br />groups. I use what I call the Lions Club test. I ask them, eh, what do you think
<br />about a system - this really sounds great. Then I come to the last one, but there’s
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