Voter registration increased statewide this year for the fourth primary election in a row.
A total of 687,500 people are registered for the Aug. 11 election, up from 684,481 in 2010, according to spokesman Rex Quidilla of the Office of Elections. Registration has steadily increased in the last four primary elections.
But voter turnout has been low. In 2010, 42.8 percent of registered voters cast ballots, a jump from a record low of 37 percent in 2008.
"To improve turnout, we need to bring down barriers to voting and make it easier for people to participate," said Nikki Love, executive director of Common Cause Hawaii, an advocacy group.
Love said the group is glad that online voter registration was enacted this year and will be implemented by 2016.
"Another important reform that Hawaii lawmakers should consider is Election Day registration, so that citizens can register and vote on the day of election," she said. "Hawaii’s existing 30-day registration deadline is really old-fashioned and unnecessarily prevents eligible voters from participating."
Registration numbers broken down by county are 461,896 in Honolulu, 101,728 in Hawaii County, 84,042 in Maui County and 39,834 in Kauai County. Honolulu and Maui saw a slight drop in registered voters from the 2010 primary election at 460,244 and 84,386, respectively. Hawaii island and Kauai saw a slight increase from that same election year at 100,061 and 39,790, respectively.
A total of 375 military and overseas absentee ballots have been mailed or emailed from the City Clerk’s Office. Hawaii was forced to move up the primary election from the traditional dates in late September because of a federal law that ensure overseas voters receive absentee ballots in plenty of time for the general election.
The primary will include races for U.S. senator, U.S. representatives, Honolulu mayor, state legislators, county prosecutors and County Councils.
In Honolulu the City Clerk’s Office is continuing to mail out and accept daily requests for absentee ballots from registered voters. The deadline to send a request for an absentee ballot is Aug. 4.
As of Monday there were about 93,000 absentee ballot requests. Of that figure, about 82,000 were permanent absentee ballot requests, according to City Clerk Bernice Mau.
Mau urged registered voters to mail in their request for an absentee ballot as soon as possible.
About 10,000 absentee ballots were mailed out in Maui County, and 7,856 were mailed out in Kauai County. The number of permanent, military and overseas absentee ballot requests for both counties was not available.
Absentee ballot figures for Hawaii County were not available as Clerk Jamae Kawauchi could not be reached.
