Were you outraged when the Hawaii Elections Office realized it failed to include 800 absentee ballots from Maui in its original reporting of primary election results?

What’s your view of Elections Chief Scott Nago? Some lawmakers are calling for his head after the Aug. 9 primary, which went off relatively smoothly despite two tropical storms and the lost ballots of Maui.

Well, there was that little problem in Puna, of course, and big questions, including a legal challenge over the make-up special election a week later. Now there’s even a new lawsuit asking that other Big Island voters still be allowed to vote and that the election process be taken away from the election chief in the event of a disaster.

A man emerges from the voting booth at Washington Middle School on Aug 9.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

If you’re a Maui resident who was as blown away by the electoral process as you were by the winds that buffeted the state, you鈥檙e in luck. The Hawaii State Elections Commission is looking for a new member to represent Maui County.

Perhaps not surprisingly, very few people have applied so far. The position is unpaid, yet seemingly under fire every two years.

State officials want to broaden the pool of potential nominees and they’re to Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald by Aug. 29.

If you’re really interested you can get a preview of what the job might be like at the Election Commission meeting Friday. It ought to be a hot one.

Besides a general discussion of the primary and how things went, including those elusive Maui ballots,聽the discussion will likely drill down on Nago鈥檚 decision on how to hold the make-up election for the two Puna precincts.

Head’s up:聽The commission has balked in the past at holding its chief election officer accountable for an election faux pas. In the 2012 election, when 51 polling places ran out of ballots, the commission grilled Nago over the problems but let him keep his job.

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