Across the state, people are already marking their ballots and mailing them in.

The selection of a new governor, U.S. senator and Hawaii congressional delegation is underway.

Neighbor island county clerks sent out absentee ballots last week, and Glen Takahashi, Honolulu elections administrator, reports that 127,417 Honolulu ballots go out Tuesday and Wednesday.

That is important because people who vote by mail love to vote. Takahashi reports that 82.7 percent of Honolulu absentee voters returned their ballots.

If you don’t think your vote is valuable, consider that the big campaign donors already have spent $3.37 per eligible voter trying to convince you to vote for their candidate. So far, the big boys have spent $3.3 million for local television ads for state offices in both the Hawaii primary and general elections.

The figures come from the Hawaii campaign spending breakdown by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity (http://goo.gl/IXKx04).

The data, which is updated every Thursday, reflects just the money spent buying television ads, so it does not include the money spent by candidates and others to coordinate the campaigns, conduct research and produce the television spots.

The big driver in local elections has been the race for governor, with an estimated total of $2.4 million spent, according to the center.

The Democratic primary race for the U.S. Senate added another $2.6 million, running some 7,500 TV commercials.

The winner in that race, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, spent the most, $1.7 million, buying 5,232 ads. U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, in comparison, spent $464,500 for TV ads.

In local races, outgoing Gov. Neil Abercrombie spent $871,100 in a losing effort.

The numbers then get complicated because the campaign committees set up by the Republican Governors Association (American Comeback Committee) and the Democratic Governors Association (Hawaii Forward) spent money both praising their candidate and attacking their opponent.

For instance, the GOP spent nearly a half-million targeting state Sen. David Ige, and the Democrats spent about $100,000 chewing on the GOP candidate, former Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona. The Democrats also spent $245,000 saying positive things about Ige.

As for the candidates, Aiona spent $360,000 saying good things about himself and Ige put down $174,000 to praise himself.

Besides the political parties and the candidates themselves, another big player in Hawaii politics is the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the union for UH professors. It spent $38,500 in TV spots for Abercrombie during the primary and another $22,600 for Schatz commercials.

With the election now just three weeks away, it is expected that the political television ads will only increase.

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