There’s a lot to like about Hawaii’s all-mail-balloting system, at least in theory. Every registered voter gets a ballot that they can fill out well ahead of Election Day and drop in a mailbox or in a ballot drop box. “Cast your vote in comfort,” the Office of Elections proclaims on its website. “Your ballot comes to you.”
There are lots of nice bells and whistles, too, such as ways to get a ping if and when your ballot is accepted.
The assumption is that most people would take this option, or take advantage of early voting options to submit their ballot in person at a voter service center. And most do.
But the results of Tuesday’s General Election strongly indicate that the system does not adequately accommodate the needs of voters, many of whom want the option to vote in person on the very last day.
That much is clear from Hawaii voters’ experience in the 2024 election cycle. Even with an early-voting period that enables casting ballots for a full two weeks ahead of Election Day, a lot of people opt to wait as long as possible. The lines at the voter service centers wound around buildings, the voters themselves waiting for hours, sometimes in the rain.
Witness what happened late on Tuesday. Scott Nago, the state’s chief elections officer, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and other media organizations about major delays in delivering the first printout of votes cast, well after polls closed at 7 p.m. After 11:30 p.m., Nago said the printout remained stalled because about 100 people were still in line to vote at Kapolei Hale.
That first release of results finally came at 12:07 a.m. Wednesday, hours later than what is normal. Under state law, those in line at the 7 p.m. closing time must be allowed to vote.
Of course, the state policy of accepting those in line at the end must be preserved. People deserve being given every chance to vote. But more service centers were made available during early-voting periods than on the actual Election Day — and that needs to be reassessed.
The long lines on the last day — including one that snaked from Honolulu Hale to the Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building — signaled a high turnout, among Republicans in particular. Nationally, the GOP embraced early in-person voting this year, but the party has leaned toward Election Day voting in past cycles.
Enabling a more robust voter response was one of the purposes behind the vote-by-mail system, which must be set up to encourage that voter engagement.
The statewide system was authorized in Act 136 in 2019. The timing was fortunate, because by the time of the 2020 primary election when the system was launched, everything was in place to help Hawaii citizens vote more safely during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The law established that a “limited number of voter service centers” would be open starting the 10th business day preceding an election to allow for early voting and same-day registration.
Now, though, the limit on in-person voting centers has been well tested, and this year was shown to be insufficient.
Voters themselves, certainly, bear responsibility to be akamai about where and when they can vote — again, in addition to mail-in balloting, in-person casting at voter service centers is open 10 days before Election Day, convenient and definitely less crowded than the big day. But factors, such as being undecided for whom to vote until the last day, can come into play.
Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center, observed that preferences of local voters should be respected.
“If a sizable portion of the public still wants to cast their ballots in person on Election Day, then the counties need to accommodate that,” he said.
Correct. There is no reason to return to Hawaii’s full network of voting stations for every precinct, but adding more Election Day capacity statewide would further the state’s effort to boost participation in democracy.
