Voters wishing to weigh in with their choice for neighborhood board members next year would have to use the Internet or telephone if the Honolulu Neighborhood Commission approves a proposal today that would make the 2009 neighborhood board elections the first paperless contest in the state.

The measure, which is expected to pass, would have voters log onto a Web site or vote by phone. Those without access to computers could go to polling places where banks of computers would be available.

A mailer with instructions for the 2009 paperless elections will be sent out if the initiative is approved by the commission today.

During the last neighborhood board elections, voters were given the option of using the Internet but the 2009 elections would be online only.

A local vendor has been selected for the task of rolling out the system, but the state Office of Elections said no possible future use in larger elections is planned.

About $83,000 in budget cuts has forced the city Neighborhood Board Commission to make the move.

"There are obvious benefits of using online voting such as convenience for the voter, greater accessibility for those with disabilities, greater accuracy, rapid tabulation, elimination of costly paper ballots, harder to tamper with votes," said neighborhood commissioner Brendan S. Bailey, an attorney with Proservice Hawai'i and chairman of a permitted interaction group on elections formed this year.

In Hawai'i, only Kids Voting Hawaii has been voting electronically since the 2002 election. Online voting is used in many other countries.

Voters would have a two-week period to cast their votes, starting on May 10, 2009, and ending May 23 at 4:30 p.m.

Telephone voting is available only during weekdays, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Voters wishing to use this option may call in with their voting number and neighborhood board assignment to the League of Women Voters, where volunteers would take votes and enter them into the online ballot for the caller.

The callers would have to give their voter ID number, which would be mailed to them, and provide the last four digits of their Social Security number.

For those without access to a computer, iPhone, Blackberry or other device with Internet access, the commission would set up remote computer banks at public parks, Honolulu Hale and the nine satellite city halls.

City Council Chairman Todd K. Apo, who also chairs the council's Budget Committee, said paperless voting for neighborhood board elections was discussed as a way to eliminate the cost of mailing out ballots to all voters.

That would have cost the city $294,913, according to an estimate prepared by the Neighborhood Commission.

The paperless option the commission is voting on today would cost $154,625.

There is $180,000 in the budget this year for elections.

However, 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.

The commission has allowed some online voting, incorporating it with traditional balloting for the first time in the 2007 elections. About 10 percent of those who voted in 2007 cast their ballots online.

There seems to be little support for online voting at the neighborhood board level.

Some say the process excludes too many voters and opens the vote to tampering.

At least three neighborhood boards have passed resolutions rejecting the new method.

Rachel Orange, 33, a junior specialist in the Department of Oceanography and chair of the Palolo Neighborhood Board, lamented that neighborhood board elections already suffer from low turnout and said that an online and phone-based voting system would further discourage participation.

"I have a feeling that hardly anyone would use it. As it is, it's hard to get people to vote for these races. Sometimes people don't even know the race is happening until they get the ballots in the mail," Orange said.

Robert Chuck, the 85-year-old chairman of the Kuli'ou'ou-Kalani Neighborhood Board, said those who actively participate in the neighborhood board process like the mail-in ballot system and would resist change.

"We like the old style of mailing out the information. Everybody gets it at their home," Chuck said. "There are many people in our community who don't have access to a computer."

The state Office of Elections has looked at online voting in the past but has no plans to audit the neighborhood board elections to gather data ahead toward possibly using the system in larger races.

Aaron Schulaner, general counsel for the Office of Elections, said: "Right now the Office of Elections is not looking at online voting because there are security concerns and we would want a federal program or guidelines. We're not saying no to it but as of this time it's not on the table right now."