HILO, Hawaii: After a few rough days of speculative news reports that culminated in a Hawaiii Tribune-Herald news article written by Hunter Bishop, County to resend yellow cards to voters (subscription required), Hawaii County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi has issued the following media release.

In the media release, the clerk does not mention the somewhat scathing letter sent to her by Hawaii’s Cheif Election Officer Scott Nago. Big Island Video News later learned that many members of the media had reportedly seen the letter before Kawauchi.

SOURCE: Office of the Hawaii County Clerk

This press release is in follow up to the article by Hunter Bishop printed in the Hawai‘i Tribune Herald on 07-26-2012. All media are advised:

1. The County Elections Division will not be re-sending 101,728 yellow cards to registered voters as reported in today’s article. This information is not accurate. New yellow cards will not be sent to every registered voter twice.
2. The County Clerk has contacted Hawai‘i Tribune Herald Editor David Bock by electronic message dated 07-26-2012 at 3:29 a.m. to schedule a meeting with him and to make sure that the inaccurate reporting is corrected.
3. The yellow card is the pre-election notice to voters confirming their address, precinct, district, and polling place information.
4. Yellow cards were mailed to all registered voters on July 16, 2012. The County Elections Division began receiving returned yellow cards a few days later and continuing on into this week. As of 07-25-2012, 5,212 yellow cards have been returned to the office. The reasons for the return of the yellow cards: (a) forwarding address expired; (b) voter temporarily away; (c) the mail is undeliverable; (d) the mail is to be returned to the sender because the post office is unable to forward the mail; (e) the mail is to be returned to the sender and the mail may be forwarded to the new address printed on the yellow card. The County Elections Division will make best efforts to contact those voters.
5. New yellow cards will be sent to voters who were mis-assigned. The County Clerk is aware that two Hawai‘i Island streets, were mis-assigned to the wrong zip code. Corrections to the voter registry were made and new yellow cards will be sent to these voters. The mis-assignments affected less than 175 voters and they are now properly assigned.
6. Yellow cards sent to absentee ballot voters will not display a polling place. Instead, these voters are expected to vote by mail. Should absentee ballot voters wish to vote in person, they may consult their yellow card and the County of Hawai‘i/Elections Division website at www.hawaiicounty.gov/elections-voter-info to find their polling place by matching their district/precinct number on their yellow card with their polling place and they may also call us at the Elections Division Office at 961-8277 in Hilo or 323-4400 in Kona.
7. Voters who have not received a yellow card by Friday, July 27, 2012, or who have questions regarding their voter registration assignment, should call the Elections Division Office at 961-8277 in Hilo or 323-4400 in Kona.