The city is touting the efficiency of the nation's first all-online election system as incentive for O'ahu voters to take part in this year's Neighborhood Board elections.

But in a budgetary belt-tightening move, this year's election is open only to those who voted in the 2008 election and who live where there is a contested board race.

That means only 115,000 people are eligible to vote in the Neighborhood Board elections, although there are roughly 420,000 registered voters on O'ahu.

Those adults living in contested districts but who are not registered voters, including noncitizens and military people with out-of-state addresses, could also have participated but would have needed to register with the city Neighborhood Commission Office by Feb. 20.

Eligible voters have until May 22 to go online and make their choices or dial them into an automated system. Voters can also choose to go to Honolulu Hale, Kapolei Hale or the Windward Satellite City Hall to cast their votes online.

As of noon Friday, 4,558 people had voted, according to Bryan Mick, a community relations specialist for the Neighborhood Commission Office.

"We hope an extensive media campaign which we launched will help to boost the voter turnout over the final week of voting," Mick said.

Historically, turnout for board elections has been low. During the 2007 election, 44,047 votes were cast, a turnout of 19 percent of registered voters but 28 percent of those who received notices in the mail. Of that number, only about 4,000 votes were cast online.

The 115,000 voters eligible for this election should have received instructions in the mail earlier this month. The packets included a password allowing people to vote either online or by phone. Voters will also need to input the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Candidates in uncontested races are deemed automatically elected and will take their places on their respective boards on July 1. Of the 33 boards, 17 have at least one contested race while candidates from the remaining 16 boards get a free pass, Mick said.

During the last Neighborhood Board election in 2007, voters were given the option of going online to cast their ballots as part of a pilot project. Afterward, the City Council Budget Committee directed the commission to hold its election this year completely online.

POSSIBLE PRECEDENT

The election is being closely monitored because an all-electronic system presumably would be more cost-efficient because it requires fewer workers and less postage costs. If successful, it could be used during the regular election cycle both here and in other states.

San Diego-based Everyone Counts, which won through a competitive bid process for a $25,000 contract to conduct the election, uses military-grade decryption technology to guard against election tampering.

Joan Manke, Neighborhood Commission Office executive director, said a paper option would have driven the cost of the election to $220,000. Instead, the total election should cost only $85,000 to $90,000, Manke said.

Not everyone says the process has been easy or inclusive.

Kunia resident Sharleen Heanu said she tried more than a dozen times from May 6 through last Friday to vote in the Waipahu Neighborhood Board election using her telephone.

"We don't have a computer," Heanu said. After inputting her password and about 20 seconds of silence, the call gets disconnected, she said. The same thing happened after she entered her husband's and daughter's passwords, she said.

Mick said he's received complaints about the same thing. Nearly all, he discovered, were being dialed in from older telephones. Using another phone in the house or a cellular phone seems to solve the problem, Mick said.

Heanu intended to keep trying through the weekend, and if that failed, she intended to go to Kapolei Hale today.

"If there had been a mail ballot, I would've done that," she said.

Lynne Matusow, longtime member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said she's unhappy that people living in districts without contested races, a large majority of registered voters, can't participate in the process.

"I think the public would be really incensed if we had one candidate running for president, for governor or mayor and they were told since there's no one else, you don't even get a chance to vote," Matusow said.

Voters need to be able to show a candidate support through a vote, or discontent through either a blank ballot or by not voting, Matusow said.

'RIGHT TO BE HEARD'

Registered voters in areas with uncontested races have been left out of the election since former commission Executive Director Ben Kama decided to focus only on contested races as a cost-cutting measure in 2000.

The commission office decided two years ago to try to bring those living in areas with uncontested races back into the process, Manke said.

"I wanted to be as inclusive as possible," she said. But because she didn't have enough money in her budget, those in uncontested areas did not receive any notices about the election in the mail, although her office did try to get the word out through public service announcements in various media.

Manke said she would have liked to have included all voters and all races this year as well, especially since there was not the added expense of a return-address envelope.

"This time around, because my budget was cut, it only allowed for postage to be sent out to the 115,000," Manke said. Saying that postage is the biggest cost, Manke added that postage just went up 2 cents a letter.

That the final outcome of who sits on the board for an uncontested seat is determined without the expense of an election is beside the point, she said.

"I, as a citizen and a voter, have a right to be heard, and I'm being disenfranchised by not being able to vote," she said.