Big Island voters get incorrect ballot alert

Following a clerical mistake, more than 2,300 residents on Hawaii island who have not yet voted were erroneously notified that their ballots for the general election had been received and accepted.

On Thursday, Big Island voters who had signed up for a notification service to track their ballots received a phone call, text or email that their ballots had been accepted when that was not the case.

BallotTrax was launched in Hawaii this year as a way to notify voters about where their ballots are in the voting process. But the BallotTrax system needs data input from county staff to work, and in Hawaii County some of the information was pulled from this year’s primary election and incorrectly entered into the service.

“It was a human error that we had uploaded information that was essentially from the primary election, which made BallotTrax believe that all these ballots were accepted, because the primary election already occurred,” Hawaii County Clerk Jon Henricks said. “That was a human error on our part.”

A total of 2,379 voters in the county had signed up for BallotTrax notifications and were affected, Henricks said. But notification were sent soon afterward to disregard the erroneous message.

Libby Leonard, who lives in the North Kohala area, was one of the voters who received an email Thursday afternoon that her ballot was received and accepted despite not yet receiving her ballot in the mail. Leonard had signed up to receive notifications from BallotTrax, and received an email from the county that night telling her to disregard the erroneous BallotTrax email.

She initially was worried that her ballot was lost or stolen, and then she wondered whether it was a problem that could be affecting many people and certain groups of people disproportionately.

After learning why she received the initial messages, she said she was “a little bit more relieved.”

“I was nervous that something was going on,” Leonard said. “It was more worrying about what’s not being seen. If my ballot was compromised, I see that. But there are tons of people who aren’t computer savvy who would never sign up for BallotTrax, and how would they know?”

The issue was limited to voters on Hawaii island, according to the state Office of Elections.

As of Friday afternoon, 111,402 ballots had been issued in Hawaii County.

Election officials made a point of saying they want to reassure the public that the integrity of Hawaii’s voting process remains intact.

“It is unfortunate that this error occurred, but we want to emphasize that there is no impact on a voter’s ability to cast their ballot for this election,” the state elections office said in an email statement. “County of Hawaii Election officials took steps to provide a corrected message and resolve the issue.”

Henricks said as much.

“This was purely … a communications error. Nobody’s ballot was affected, nobody’s voting status was affected. Your ability to vote in the 2022 general election is not impacted,” he said. “The reason for that error was not because the product was compromised or hacked; there was no glitch in the system.”

The voting process around the country is being watched carefully this year following the 2020 election cycle, which former President Donald Trump claims was rigged despite having no evidence. There has since been widespread distrust — particularly within the Republican Party — about the integrity of the country’s voting process.

It has been less of an issue in Hawaii than across the country, although state election officials said hostility toward election officials and volunteers in the state is growing.

Henricks said most of the people who were contacted after receiving the mistaken BallotTrax information were “extremely understanding.”

“Over 13,000 voters signed up for ballot tracking alerts during the Primary Election and we hope more voters take advantage to give them that peace of mind that their ballot is on its way or that it has been received and accepted for counting,” Scott Nago, chief election officer, said in a news release prior to this week’s error.