Bills would help turn out the vote

awaii is embarrassed virtually every election by low voter turnout and the state Legislature is grasping for ways to lure people to the polls. A proposal to allow voters to register on Election Day should bring a modest improvement in numbers but legislators are understandably nervous about a proposal endorsed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to require all residents to vote by mail.

Each of the last two presidential elections has been especially humiliating because Hawaii was the only state with a turnout of less than half of those eligible to cast ballots — in a race involving a homegrown candidate winning the presidency. Part of the history may include the fact that many polls on the mainland have closed, and the presidency declared, by the time many here have gotten off work — but that means an extra effort is needed to bolster turnout.

House Bill 321 would allow eligible voters to register to vote on the very day of the election instead of requiring registration 30 days before, as it now stands. That could increase overall turnout by nearly 6 percent and turnout among 18- to 25-year-olds by about 9 percent, according to a study by Demos, a national research and policy organization. (Many of those would be first-time voters, while older residents are automatically registered by voting in the previous election.)

The League of Women Voters of Hawaii points out that safeguards would be present against fraud. A voter applicant would be required to prove residence by showing the current address and a second document to back it up.

Jeffrey T. Kuwada, Maui’s county clerk, expressed “grave concerns” about such a change, predicting that his office would have to recruit and train at least 40 more personnel to staff the 34 polling places and provide a computer control center and computer connections at each polling place to handle new registers. That’s tough, but it’s only one day each for primary and general elections every other year.

Abercrombie’s proposal to require that all elections be via mail — eliminating election-day voting sites — is another matter. Such a system has increased registered voters by 10 percent in Oregon and voter turnout in Washington state by a modest 2 percent to 4 percent. Positive trends, indeed.

But while the League of Women Voters points out that voting by mail has worked in Oregon since 1999 and “provides a model for workable legislation and rules,” the change would be drastic enough without crucial safeguards for Hawaii legislators to back away — for now. The League acknowledges that the vote-by-mail-only system could jeopardize secrecy among household members.

Related bills seeking stronger controls around mail-in voting and the very foreseeable problems of voter intimidation and voter fraud are rightly advancing in the Legislature. SB 827 would prohibit a candidate from handling or possessing another person’s absentee ballots and voter registration forms; HB 1027 aims to tighten voter assistance laws to prevent election fraud. Such steps are certainly needed to preserve the integrity of Hawaii’s voting system, as more are already voting via mail.

As for converting to an all-mail election: Senate Bill 854 advanced to the Ways and Means Committee for further “dialogue” but has since stalled. Recent testimony expressed “serious concerns about whether it is feasible to implement a statewide mail-in voting program without sufficient funding and limited resources.” State and county clerks indicated that they were not up to the challenge on such short notice in the 2016 election, as proposed.

Naysaying aside, it’s a fact that local voters are increasingly turning to the convenient option of absentee voting. Hawaii should continue to consider a mail-only system, beginning with the League’s recommendation that legislators take a look at Oregon county, which consists of the Portland metropolitan area, about the size of Honolulu. While same-day registration and vote-fraud prevention are moves in the right direction, preliminary studies should be made for a smooth change in the near future to mail-in-only for Hawaii’s elections.