With two days left to register for the primary election, Hawaii is inching closer to 700,000 registered voters.

As of yesterday there were a record 693,000 registered voters in the state. That included about 466,000 Oahu residents, said City Clerk Bernice Mau.

Those numbers are up from the 2008 primaries, when there were 667,647 registered voters statewide and 450,522 on Oahu.

Hawaii County has more than 101,000 registered voters, a record and a 1.8 percent increase from 2008.

The deadline to register to vote in next month’s primary election is Thursday.

The primary election is Sept. 18, and voters will head to the polls to cast ballots in the races for governor and Honolulu mayor, along with seats in Congress, the state Legislature, Board of Education and county offices.

Voter registration in Hawaii has been steadily increasing, but voter turnout has been trending downward, especially in the primary election. In 2008 only 37 percent of registered voters here cast ballots, a record low. Turnout in the general election is typically about 10 to 20 percentage points higher than in the primary.

So far, the voter registration process has gone smoothly, Mau said.

Meanwhile, the city will start mailing out absentee ballots for the primary election at the end of the month to about 60,000 Oahu residents.

The last day to request an absentee ballot for the primary election is Sept. 11.

Voters can start requesting absentee ballots for November’s general election on Sept. 3.