City election officials reported they have already collected 76,520 general election ballot envelopes from Oahu voters as of Tuesday afternoon, or about 14% of those on the city’s voter rolls.
Crews picked up 42,844 envelopes in about 80 trays from the airport branch of the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday, the largest haul since 549,935 mail-in ballot packets were mailed out to registered voters last week ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, city Clerk Glen Takahashi said.
The state’s first all-mail election has already proved popular. For the Aug. 8 primary election, total turnout statewide was 407,190, or 51.2%, with 99% of those who voted mailing in their ballots and 1% casting ballots in person at a voter service center.
The number of primary votes cast was the most since statehood by a large margin — the previous high was 309,700 in 1994 — while the percentage turnout in August was the highest since 1996, when it was 51.8%.
The 34.8% primary turnout in 2016, the last presidential election, was the lowest since 1959.
On Oahu the primary turnout was 275,744 votes cast, or 52.5% of registered voters. Only 3,169 people voted in person at voter service centers at Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale.
Takahashi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the large amount of ballots collected Tuesday may be due in part to the fact there there was no postal delivery on Monday, a federal holiday.
“It probably doubled up from what we normally might be receiving around this time,” Takahashi said. The city collected 23,008 envelopes Saturday.
Ballots must be received by the city and counties by 7 p.m. Nov. 3. Voters who want to mail in their ballots are advised by the state Office of Elections to drop their signed return envelopes in mailboxes by Oct. 27. After that it’s advised that ballot envelopes be dropped off at a designated place of deposit or voter service center. For locations, go to elections.hawaii.gov.
Traditional precinct voting locations will no longer be open on Election Day.
While city election crews are tasked with mailing out Oahu’s ballots to registered voters and then collecting them when they are returned, the still-sealed envelopes containing filled-out ballots are sent to the state Office of Elections, as has been the process for a number of elections.
State election workers open the envelopes and count them on Election Day.
Although the official voter registration deadline has passed, election laws require that citizens be allowed to do same-day registration and voting; folks can do that at voter service centers.
Due to concerns raised nationally about the possibility of delays in mail delivery, state and county officials in Hawaii moved up their mail-out of ballot packets by about a week from previously scheduled release dates.
Correction: About 14% of registered Oahu voters had returned their ballot envelopes by Tuesday, not 16% as reported in an earlier version of this story and its headline.
