The deadline to file papers to be a Neighborhood Board candidate is Tuesday. It is still too early to determine how many O'ahu residents will be running. Traditionally, most candidacy declaration forms are received right before the deadline.

The big unknown this year is how many people will vote. In what the Neighborhood Commission says is an attempt to save money and boost participation, the commission is scrapping the traditional mail ballot. One commission staffer involved with the elections told me each mail ballot costs $1. Instead, O'ahu residents will vote via the Web.

Neither candidates nor the general public are well aware of this. The only indication that something is different appears on the candidacy declaration form. In past elections, candidate profiles were limited to 320 characters because of space constraints. In 2007, the profile, with or without a picture, is limited to 200 words. That is a large increase. In addition, while the candidacy declaration form must be delivered by hand or postmarked no later than Jan. 16 (no faxes or electronic submissions), the commission requests that candidate profiles be submitted electronically. When pressed, the commission says the profile can be submitted with the candidacy declaration form instead of electronically.

The plan is to mail all registered voters a personal identification number, which will enable them to access the ballot and candidate profiles on a "secure" Web site and cast their votes from home, work or the library. Those who do not want to vote this way will be able to request a mail ballot. The commission says that candidate profiles will be included with the mail ballot and on the Web site.

These new procedures are a deterrent to public participation.

They add extra steps to the process. Candidates now are asked to file papers in two steps, instead of one, creating confusion and the possibility that documents will be lost. And voters, instead of receiving a ballot packet in the mail that they can fill in and return, are instead given an identification number and asked to go online to vote and get information about the candidates. If they do not want to participate in this experiment, they must contact the commission to request a mail ballot. An additional step.

How many potential voters will be lost because residents do not want to take the time to request the ballot, or forget to? How will this affect O'ahu's seniors, many of whom do not have computers?

Downtown Neighborhood Board member Dolores Mollring objected to this process at a board meeting, saying her condominium complex is home to many seniors without computers. She questioned how many would vote if they have to jump through hoops to get their ballot. How many will see the identification number, realize they do not have a computer nor know how to use one, and throw out the mailer before learning they can request a paper ballot?

The public grows more cynical about voting fraud and the accuracy of ballot counting. Many do not trust electronic voting.

In 2006, when voters at Honolulu Hale were asked whether they wanted paper ballots or to vote electronically, many responded they wanted paper ballots because "they wanted their vote to count."

States are under pressure to provide a paper trail with all-electronic voting. The New York Times recently reported that "a laboratory that has tested most of the nation's electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests." Not to worry. The Neighborhood Commission wants us to believe that Internet voting is safe, and Neighborhood Board candidates should not be concerned about being guinea pigs.

Voting by mail is extremely popular. In Oregon, the only way to vote is by mail. According to a column by Ruth Goldway (Commentary, Dec. 8), 70 percent of November's votes in Washington state were cast by mail.

Sens. Ron Wyden, John Kerry and Barack Obama have sponsored a bill to grant funds to states that adopt Vote by Mail. The Neighborhood Commission should be taking kudos for pioneering a voting system that is gaining nationwide acceptance. Instead, its new voting system could well destroy the viability of the system.

Lynne Matusow is a resident of Downtown Honolulu. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.