It was a long day, with long lines, for those turning out to vote in person in Hawaii.
Hundreds of residents stood in the rain since early Tuesday morning — some waiting for up to three hours — to get into Oahu’s voter service centers in Honolulu and Kapolei.
Election officials said residents started lining up at least an hour before the centers opened at 7 a.m. at Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale. At Honolulu Hale the line stretched down the walkway to the Frank Fasi Municipal Building to a monkeypod tree, then around and back along the same walkway.
The average wait time by noon was about three hours, according to Honolulu Election Administrator Rex Quidilla, and that remained the case until the 7 p.m. cutoff time.
While the majority of state residents vote by mail, state and city election officials had warned residents to expect long lines of people exercising their right to vote in person, as well as register to vote, on Election Day.
The first results were released after midnight and showed there was a total turnout of 439,269, or 51%, of the 860,868 people registered. There were 409,671 ballots, or 47.6% of those registered, received by mail, and 29,598, or 3.4% of those registered, voted in person.
Overall, people in the afternoon waited patiently to get in, even if they were standing for hours in the rain. Some had umbrellas and some did not. Some brought their kids with them to witness the process of voting in person.
Many in line wanted to vote in person rather than by mail or ballot dropbox, while others had registration problems or did not receive their ballots.
Justin Panoke of Aina Haina stood in line with his 14-year-old son and family.
“It’s important to show up,” said Panoke about an hour into his wait, “and if you look at what our country was founded on, a lot of people died for this right, for us to come and vote, so it’s one of the many ways we can honor their sacrifice.”
He said he just preferred to vote in person and did not mind the wait.
Others in line lamented the days when voter service centers were located close by, at local schools in their neighborhood. Hawaii public schools were closed on Election Day.
Pi‘ilani Akina of Honolulu took a bus and walked her ballot over to a dropbox along South King Street. She said she was undecided until the last minute and that she understood why people felt safer voting in person to avoid the potential of fraud.
“The potential for it (fraud) is high,” she said. “I got my ballot in the mail. Nobody checked my ID. I wrote what I wanted.”
Still, she handed over her ballot and watched it go into the ballot box, and was pleased with the convenience, reassured that her vote would be counted.
During the 2020 election the majority of ballots were sent in by mail or dropbox before Election Day, with just 5% of voters turning out on the day itself.
Hawaii Elections Chief Scott Nago said, “We don’t know the exact number yet, but I don’t expect it to be much different from that 5%.”
Several voters waiting in line said they came to vote in person because they never received their ballots in the mail.
One of them was Yoojeong Kim, a first-time voter who became a citizen in December. She said casting her first ballot in a U.S. election was particularly important for her. She said after registering to vote she checked her status online, which told her that a ballot had been created for her.
“I just checked my mailbox every day, and I didn’t get it,” Kim said. “So I called (and) nobody answered, so (today) I just showed up.”
Kim arrived at 4 p.m. and waited 3-1/2 hours to vote before finally leaving after dark. She said that despite the long wait it was a good experience to see so many people coming to participate in the democratic process — though she added that she hopes next time to vote by mail.
Many have called Tuesday’s election one of the most consequential in U.S. history.
At stake Tuesday was the selection of America’s next president, Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, along with three of Hawaii’s congressional delegates — currently U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono; U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who represents urban Honolulu; and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, whose district includes rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
There are also two state constitutional amendments, along with various county charter amendments and the final runoff for Hawaii County’s mayor, along with selections for state legislators, County Council members and trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Quidilla described the day as “peaceful” and “damp,” without any major hiccups.
“It’s been mostly incident-free,” he said. “There’s been a couple cases of electioneering — in other words, campaigning within the 200-feet zone, but nothing persistent. Once we told individuals to cease, they stopped and moved out of the 200-foot zone.”
At Kapolei Hale the line wound around the building, and back and forth along a maze of switchbacks on the lawn outside.
At Honolulu Hale, officials reconfigured the line to the back side, away from South King Street, for safety, according to Quidilla. Many entered through a short tunnel that had been erected in preparation for Honolulu City Lights.
On South King Street, meanwhile, drivers were able to hand off their ballots to several workers lining the street before Honolulu Hale in a drive-thru configuration.
There was a much higher volume of residents registering for the first time, according to Quidilla, which requires more time to process.
As of about 4:30 p.m., Quidilla estimated that returns, including mail-in ballots and the turnout at voter centers, were “north of 300,000.”
At 7 p.m. the line continued to stretch along the walkway to the Fasi building, with voters waiting after nightfall for their turn to vote.
“We were actually surprised people were joining the line at the very last minute, undaunted by the length of time they may be facing,” Quidilla said.
Officials expected the time it would take to honor all voters in line by 7 p.m. would be several hours, until at least 11 p.m. Final voter turnout results for the state were not available by press time.
In the previous presidential election, which pitted the incumbent Trump against then-former Vice President Joe Biden, 69.6% of registered voters in Hawaii cast ballots, for a total turnout of 579,784.
By state law, anyone eligible to vote who is in line before the scheduled 7 p.m. close of island voting locations must be allowed to vote. The last people in line finished voting at about midnight at Kapolei Hale.
“We thank all the voters for their patience,” Quidilla said.
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