Hawai'i: voters must pick party on primary ballots
An AP report begins: Hawaii voters for the first time must pick a political party when voting in this year's primary election, a requirement that election officials hope will result in fewer ballots being thrown out.
But members of both the Democratic and Republican parties worry that voters could get confused during the Sept. 20 primary, resulting in their votes not being tallied correctly. ...
Voters in Hawaii, as in most states, have always only voted for one party's candidates in primary elections, which are used to narrow each party's candidates to one per race before the Nov. 4 general election.
The 2008 election is different because voters will have to choose a political party before filling out the rest of the ballot. In previous years, voters were handed ballots color-coded by party; this year, everyone fills out the same white ballot. -- The Associated Press: Hawaii ballots add pick-a-party box