HONOLULU — Hawai‘i voters overwhelmingly prefer mail-in voting — now in its third election cycle — over lining up at polls to vote in person.
But the convenience and time to research candidates before Election Day has done little on its own to increase voter turnout, which has varied depending on who’s running and other circumstances, such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The August 2020 primary election represented Hawai‘i’s first all mail-in balloting just months after COVID-19 shuttered Hawai‘i’s economy — and months before a vaccine would be distributed.
A new record high for primary election voter registration was set in 2020 at 795,248, along with a record number of primary votes cast of 407,190, or 51.2 percent.
The novelty of mail-in voting — combined with voters largely stuck at home or out of work — are considered major factors for driving the relatively high voter turnout.
Mail-in ballots accounted for 401,716 of the entire 407,190 votes cast in the 2020 primary election.
Then in November 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden beat then-President Donald Trump in a presidential election that saw even more people in Hawai‘i register to vote — 832,466. A whopping 69.6 percent of them cast a total of 579,784 votes.
In the August 2022 primary election, voter enthusiasm dropped despite a lively Democratic race that saw then-Lt. Gov. Josh Green defeat former Hawai‘i first lady Vicky Cayetano and now former U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele.
Some 853,874 people registered to vote in that primary, but only 39.8 percent cast 340,159 ballots.
Voter interest increased in the November 2022 general election when 861,358 people registered to vote and cast 419,363 votes, or 48.7 percent.
Green beat former Republican Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona in the general election with 62.2 percent of the vote.
It’s unlikely that Hawai‘i will ever get close to the 93.6 percent voter turnout set in the 1959 general election right after statehood. But other candidates and external forces have driven voter turnout since Hawai‘i became America’s 50th state.
In the 1970 and 1972 general elections, nearly 85 percent of registered voters cast ballots as the Vietnam War dragged on and the public began to sour on then-President Richard Nixon.
In 1971, the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution lowered the country’s voting age from 21 to 18, perhaps contributing to voter turnout in Hawai‘i in 1972.
During the 2008 primary election, only 667,647 people registered. They cast only 246,299 ballots, for voter turnout of just 36.9 percent.
And in the subsequent November presidential election, voter registration increased incrementally to 691,356.
But, as Hawai‘i-born Barack Obama made his ultimately successful first run for the White House, voter enthusiasm across the islands soared, resulting in 456,064 ballots cast for voter turnout of 66 percent.
During Obama’s reelection bid in November 2012, even more people registered to vote — 705,668. They ended up casting 436,683 ballots, representing 61.9 percent voter turnout.
Obama again was Hawai‘i’s clear choice in 2012, winning with 70.1 percent of the vote.
