Hawaii’s state Legislature may be on the forefront of a quiet revolution in American politics: voting exclusively with mail-in ballots.

Senate President Donna Mercado Kim kicked off her opening day speech with a reference to Peter, Paul and Mary’s "Where have all the flowers gone?" that segued into the question Hawaii leaders need to ask.

"Where have all the voters gone?" queried Kim.

Saying now was the time to take down both the barriers and excuses to voting, Kim announced that a strong consensus in the Senate wants everybody voting in Hawaii to do so by mail.

"Here the absentee mail-in vote has done so well. I think they have worked out the kinks, plus the city has used it for Neighborhood Board elections and the special elections, so why not vote all mail?" Kim said in an interview after her speech.

Recent statistics back her up. In the 2014 general election, more voters — 189,000 — voted with absentee mail-in ballots than those who walked to a polling place in person (180,500). So voting by mail is becoming something we are increasingly comfortable with, Kim said.

To move the bill, Kim said Maui Democratic Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran, who is Judiciary Committee chairman, will start working on it.

"We are hoping that, at least on our side, we will be able to pass something out early and let’s see what the House does," Keith-Agaran said in an interview.

Years ago, Hawaii used to top the states in voter turn-out; now, it is usually in the cellar in those national turnout stats. It is so bad that Gov. David Ige even mentioned it during his inaugural address, saying, "We saw our participation in elections tumble once again. That is not only alarming, it is terrifying."

Asked about Kim’s idea, Ige was encouraging.

"It is something we should definitely look into. I think any efforts to get people to vote would be well worth it," Ige said.

Research from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) shows that vote-by-mail is making new friends, because voters in the three vote-by-mail states — Oregon, Washington and Colorado — can track their votes after they are mailed.

"The system allows voters to receive status updates of their ballot as it enters the mail system, while it is being processed by the U.S. Postal Service and when it has been returned to the elections office," the NCSL said.

After the general election last year, The New York Times reported that one of the few bright spots in the stories on voter turnout was vote-by-mail.

"When voting is made easier, more people vote. Colorado switched to a mail ballot system this year, and it had the fourth-highest turnout in the nation, substantially larger than in 2010," reported the paper.

And the Presidential Commission on Election Administration agreed that this is a popular idea.

"Nationwide, there is rapidly increasing demand from Americans to be able to vote by mail," the commission said after the last election.

Hawaii’s Senate has toyed with vote-by-mail before, but this year could be the moment the state Legislature causes the entire state to move forward.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.