Hawaii noted for its lack of political engagement

Hawaii, with its history of low voter turnout, ranks third among the least politically engaged states in the country, according to a new online study.

Regarding political engagement of citizens, the study conducted by personal finance website WalletHub.com ranked Hawaii as 49th out of all states and Washington, D.C., highlighting an age-old apathy problem that some observers say is not likely to improve.

"I see it continuing," said John Hart, chairman of the communications department at Hawaii Pacific University. "Asking why there’s voter apathy is like asking, Why is there homeless?"

The WalletHub study, released Monday, sizes up states in categories such as percentage of citizens who registered to vote in the 2012 election; percentage that actually voted in the last two elections; the change in percentage of those who voted in the past two presidential election years; total political contributions among adults; and civic education.

Hawaii ranked last in the percentage of registered voters in 2012 and in the percentage change of those who voted in 2012 compared with 2008.

During the 2012 presidential election, with Hawaii-born President Barack Obama at the top of the ticket, 44.5 percent of the isles’ registered voters turned out, the lowest turnout nationwide, according to WalletHub and the U.S. Elections Project.

Voter turnout in the primary in August was 41.5 percent.

One figure that bucks the downward trend is the tally of absentee voters, which has risen steadily in recent years.

In the August primary, 163,675 of the 289,367 ballots cast statewide, about 57 percent, were by absentee mail or early walk-in voting, continuing an upward trend from 44 percent in the 2012 primary, and up from 41 percent in the 2010 primary.

"The fact that absentee voting is going up as a percentage indicates that there are ways to get people to vote," Hart said.

Same-day voting registration, which lawmakers passed this year with the goal of further increasing turnout, begins in 2016 at early voting sites and at assigned polling sites on Election Day in 2018.

The complete WalletHub study rankings can be found online at WalletHub.com.