Since the release of nominating petitions for those wishing to run in the November 8 general elections on June 30th, the Election Office has been inundated with new voter registration and renewals.
Last week voters were unable to register because the Election Office printer that produces the voter ID cards just had enough and needed to be taken off line.
But the Election Office didn’t turn anyone away.
All voters were still registered and told to return this week to pick up their Voter ID cards.
A staff member handling voter registration said they have piles and piles of ID cards waiting to be picked up.
And Chief Election Officer Uiagalelei Dr. Lealofi Uiagalelei is asking all those who were waiting for their ID cards to please come to the Election Office to pick them up.
The staffer said since the release of nominating petitions, a large numbers of voters , both first time voters and renewals are coming in daily.
She said the office printer has been working non stop producing Voter IDS and last week it temporarily stopped after heating up from the heavy printing load.
She told KHJ News the problem has been fixed and all voter IDs for those who registered or renewed last week are ready to be picked up.
The employee did not have the exact number of voter IDS which have been issued since the surge in voter registration began, but she estimates it was “a couple of hundreds.”
One mother reported that her daughter who was leaving the island to go to college in the mainland left without a voter ID due to the Election Office printer being down.
But according to the Election Office staffer, no one who came to register was turned away.
They were given paper slips which they need to bring to the Election Office to pick up their ID cards.
For cases like students attending college and can’t appear in person at the Election Office, they can write to the Election Office to have someone pick up their voter ID.
