Election Day registration could increase voter turnout

You already know the answer to this question: What state had the lowest statewide voter turnout in 2012?

Hint: It was the same state as in 2008.

If you said "Hawaii," you win.

The new definitive report on national voting trends came out this month. It was compiled by Nonprofit VOTE (www.nonprofitvote.org) from data collected by the U.S. Elections Project at George Mason University.

The first bullet point in the study is, "Minnesota first in turnout, Hawaii last."

Trudging around in the November snow must make you civil-minded, because Minnesota has been first in eight of the last nine national elections, with Wisconsin coming in second and Colorado third.

In terms of the big picture, Hawaii has several statistical trends going against it.

First, it is not a "swing state" — that is one of the 10 battleground states that saw more than 90 percent of the presidential political advertising last year.

Those states had all the attention because they were considered "swing states," meaning they could tip the balance in the Electoral College. Those states had an average turnout of 65 percent; the national average was 58 percent. The Hawaii turnout was 44.5 percent.

Besides spending 90 percent of the money, out of 253 campaign stops by presidential and vice president candidates, only two took place outside of swing states, the study reported.

Remember how everyone said Ohio was a state both Democrats and Republicans had to win? Well, it got 73 campaign visits. Hawaii got a tip of the presidential golf cap, but that was all.

With just four electoral votes, Hawaii is never going to be a swing state. But there is another factor we could change to boost voter participation: Election Day registration.

This permits voters to register to vote on Election Day, when they go to the polls. Today, Hawaii voters have up to 30 days before the election to register to vote.

"Election Day registration leads to increased voter turnout. States that let voters register or update their registration on Election Day have turnout that averages 10 points above states that do not," reports the national study.

Minnesota, our gold star voter-turnout state, reports that Election Day registration accounts for between 5 and 10 percent of its voter turnout.

Hawaii still has a chance to change the statistics before the next presidential election tally because a bill to allow Election Day registration is moving at the Legislature.

It has not exactly been hoisted up and marched around the building by cheering Democrats, but House Bill 321 did move from the House to the Senate and is expected to be heard in the Senate.

When the bill was before the House, it won broad support. The state elections office gave it a thumbs up with some suggestions to tweak the details.

The county clerks, however, were not impressed, saying that more training, computer equipment and procedures are needed before joining the Election Day bandwagon.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Clayton Hee says he is exploring ways for the bill to work, but wants more numbers filled in on the costs.

"This is the sort of thing that would have to be set up with much lead time," Hee said.

Already 12 states have adopted the new system — the first one was Maine in 1973 — so this is not really some hazy experiment open to the unseen hand of vote fraud.

If Hawaii is serious about encouraging its citizens to creep out of the voting cellar, Election Day registration would be a good first step.

———

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