697,000 registered to vote in Hawaii

Oahu residents lined up at Honolulu Hale yesterday, the last day to register to vote in the state primary election and Honolulu mayoral race.

At the end of the business day, there were a record 697,000 registered voters in the state, said City Clerk Bernice Mau. But that did not include people who dropped their registrations in the mailbox yesterday, the last day to mail in registrations.

"(Yesterday) was very busy," Mau said. "We had a lot of walk-ins."

She said about 1,500 registrations — including those mailed in — were received yesterday, up from the usual 1,000 a day.

The total is also a record for Oahu, which has about 469,000 registered voters. The numbers are up from the 2008 primaries, when there were 667,647 registered voters statewide and 450,522 on Oahu.

Hawaii County had 101,000 voters, while Maui County had 86,000 and Kauai County had 40,000, Mau said.

Of the registered voters on Oahu, 60,000 requested absentee ballots and 3,000 requested permanent absentee ballots. Voters have until Sept. 11 to request an absentee ballot.

The primary election is Sept. 18, when voters will cast their ballots in races for governor, Honolulu mayor, Congress, the state Legislature, the Board of Education and county offices.

Inspect library work

Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaii-Manoa will hold an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday to reveal repairs and renovations done in the wake of the October 2004 flash flood that slammed into the campus. Tours will start at the Circulation Desk every 15 minutes. For information, call 956-8688.