Hawaii Republicans and religious conservatives wanted to significantly increase voter registration for the November elections to potentially help Republican candidates in a state dominated politically by Demo­crats, but the drive has fallen flat.

The state Office of Elections said Monday that voter registration is at 706,890, a marginal, 0.17 percent increase from the 705,668 registered in 2012 and a 2.3 percent bump from 690,748 in 2010.

Pat Saiki, chairwoman of the Hawaii Republican Party, had said at the party’s state convention in May that the GOP wanted to register 25,000 new Republican voters. The drive was part of her "back to basics" message to build up the minority party.

Miriam Hellreich, the state’s Republican National Committeewoman, was even more candid, cautioning that Republican candidates could not win in Hawaii with the existing pool of voters.

While the GOP did not reach its voter registration target, the party does believe it has engaged potential Republican voters. "When you take the combined results of our aggressive grassroots efforts though phone-banking, canvassing and community outreach, we have substantially surpassed that benchmark by registering new voters and reengaging Republicans who previously felt like they did not have a voice in our government," Saiki said in a statement.

Conservative activists and several pastors also made expanding voter registration a priority after learning that many of the thousands of people who went to the state Capitol to protest gay marriage at a special session last year were not registered to vote.

Garret Hashimoto, state chairman of the Hawaii Christian Coalition, who observed some of the grass-roots voter registration effort, said he is "kind of shocked and surprised that the voter registration is what it is."

He said it is "just mind-boggling to me."

Political analysts are skeptical that voter turnout in November will match the 55.8 percent that voted in 2010, the most recent gubernatorial election. Turnout was a record low 52.7 percent for a general election in 2006. Voter participation is usually higher in presidential election years.

State Sen. David Ige, the Demo­cratic candidate for governor, former Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, the Republican, and former Hono­lulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a member of the Hawaii Independent Party, could win with a plurality.

A low-turnout election, combined with a winner who earns less than 50 percent of the vote, could limit the next governor’s ability to claim a mandate for his policy agenda.