About $83,000 in budget cuts has forced the city Neighborhood Board Commission to consider trading traditional paper ballots for online and phone-in voting in what would be the first broad paperless election in Hawai'i.

"Based on the budget we received from the City Council, it looks like it's going to be very difficult to do paper ballots," said neighborhood commissioner Brendan Bailey, chair of a permitted interaction group on elections formed this year. The group reported its progress to the Neighborhood Commission at a meeting on Monday.

For elections that already suffer from low voter participation — 28 percent in 2007 — the idea of switching to online voting raised concerns about alienating groups of voters, as well as worries about security and the potential for fraud.

Other options are being considered as well, including delaying the 2009 election a year. But thus far, the group is discussing the online and phone-in option.

Online voting allows anyone with access to a computer and the Internet to vote, which is different than the electronic voting machines used in state elections.

The commission has already allowed some online voting, incorporating it with traditional balloting for the first time in the 2007 elections, said Joan Manke, executive secretary of the Neighborhood Commission. About 10 percent of those who voted cast their ballots online.

The commission spent about $300,000 on that election, Manke said.

There is $180,000 in the budget this year for elections, she said. Costs for coordinating online voting would be less than in 2007 because the system is already established, she added, but other costs are rising.

"The cost of paper and the costs of printing and postage are increasing, and looking at the rate of return (by voters), it's a very small amount," Manke said. "We're trying to look at other ways."

Don Clegg, a political consultant, said potential fraud and maintaining secure and anonymous voting are among the concerns that could be raised by casting ballots via the Internet or phone.

Requiring voters to provide their own postage or running cut-out ballots in the newspaper are other ways to lower costs, he said. But both methods have their problems.

"With the neighborhood boards, maybe it's OK because of cost constraints and because their primary function is as a forum and not a decision-making body," he said. "But I would not recommend this at all for a decision-making body."

Neighborhood board chairs reached for comment on Tuesday voiced concerns about disenfranchising certain groups and how the new system would affect participation.

"Going paperless will be a disaster," Downtown Neighborhood Board chair Frank Lavoie said via e-mail. "If no mailings go out to registered voters, how will they even know there is an election?"

"I would consider it an interesting experiment," Roy Yanagihara, Kane'ohe Neighborhood Board chair, said in an e-mail. "It might be interesting to see whether phone-in or Internet voting will alter voting behavior or result in more cases of voter fraud."

"I think we risk excluding and alienating a large portion of our population if we do away with the method they're used to using," said David Henkin, chair of the Kahalu'u Neighborhood Board. "I think it's going to raise a lot of concerns."

In the past, paper ballots have not been mailed to districts where candidates are running unopposed.

In 2007, voters in these uncontested districts were encouraged to vote online.

Also at issue is how to publicize candidate profiles, which are traditionally mailed with ballots. The profiles could be posted online, Manke said.

Bailey's group is considering other alternatives, including postponing the 2009 election one year until the commission's election budget is restored.

One option that has been raised is to extend the current two-year term of board members elected in 2007 to three years so that board elections coincide with the general election in 2010.

But some chairs said that wouldn't be fair to voters.

"I would be hesitant about doing a switcheroo on voters who thought they were electing someone for two years and suddenly it's three years," Henkin said.

Many chairs said they will put the issue on the agenda for their next meetings.