Mail-in ballots for Oahu residents for the Aug. 13 primary election are being mailed today and Thursday by the Honolulu City Clerk’s office.
Residents can now register to vote by mail up to 10 days before the election. Previously, the deadline to register and receive a mail-in ballot was 30 days before Election Day.
As of Tuesday afternoon the number of ballots that will be mailed is 470,268, which will continue to increase as more people request mail-in ballots.
The number of people registered to vote in Honolulu was 561,011 on Tuesday.
Ballots on the neighbor islands should be mailed out Friday.
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In addition to mail-in ballots, registered voters will have the opportunity to vote in person Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at two polling sites: Kaneohe District Park meeting room from Aug. 1 through 5; and George Fred Wright Wahiawa District Park ceramics room from Aug. 8 through 12.
In addition, Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale will both be open starting Aug. 1, Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
On Primary Election Day, in-person voting will be conducted at Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale only, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Online registration and in-person registration continue until polls close.
City Clerk Glenn Takahashi is encouraging residents to vote by mail or go early to the polling sites to decrease wait times on voting day. To prevent the long lines that defined 2020 General Election Day, Takahashi said a temporary hiring service is being used to bring on extra trained staff to help process ballots and registrations.
“We want to encourage the Hawaii voters to make the highest and best use of the vote-by-mail process,” he said.
“The Legislature created this process to provide the highest level of convenience and accessibility, putting a ballot in the hand of every registered voter. And so that’s the process we would hope that the voters would use.”
People can also deposit their mail-in ballots in person at collection boxes across the island.
Mail-in ballots received after 7 p.m. Aug. 13 will not be counted, and Takahashi advises anyone turning in a mail-in ballot close to the deadline to walk it in.
Those who vote in person on Aug. 13 will need to be in line at Honolulu Hale or Kapolei Hale by 7 p.m. for their ballots to be counted.
If people make a mistake or accidentally damage their mail-in ballot before they submit it, they can request another ballot from the City Clerk’s office, which can be done online. The replacement ballot will be mailed within 24 hours.
Takahashi warned that filling out primary election ballots can be tricky because voters need to designate a political party on their ballot and only vote within that party. Votes outside of the chosen party will not be counted.
“The pick-a-party feature allows the state to basically lock out any multiparty voting,” he said.
“For example … if I picked the Green Party as my choice, and I happened to go through the rest of the ballot and I vote for some Green Party candidates but I stray into the Constitution Party. Well, that Constitution Party vote will not be counted, but your Green Party votes would still be counted.”
Party voting applies to elections such as for governor, lieutenant governor and state legislative seats.
The nonpartisan races such as for Honolulu City Council or Office of Hawaiian Affairs are on the other side of the ballot.
To ensure the safety of those voting in person, the state Legislature passed a law in 2021 to extend the 200-foot perimeter that prohibits campaigning near the polling site to include voters in line. That way, even if the line extends beyond 200 feet from a polling site, campaigning to those in line is still prohibited.
