Thursday is the deadline to register to vote in the 2016 primary election, and elected officials and community leaders hope Hawaii sees an increase in participation.

Residents have until 4:30 p.m. Thursday to register for the Aug. 13 primary, where balloting will occur in the race for mayor on Oahu and Hawaii island, for Congress, the Legislature, County Councils, county prosecutors and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Residents can register, or update their registration, online at elections.hawaii.gov; in person at their respective county clerk’s office or at the Office of Elections; or mail in a completed Wikiwiki Voter Registration form — available at libraries, post offices and most state agencies.

Voters can also use the online system to check their registration status, locate their polling place and view a sample ballot.

According to Chief Election Officer Scott Nago, 700,000 Hawaii residents are already registered to vote in this year’s primary, “well over the 2014 general election rate.”

For those who miss Thursday’s deadline, there’s a late registration period Aug. 1-11 at absentee voting walk-in sites that will be open at Honolulu Hale, Kapolei Hale and other county buildings.

Hawaii’s voter turnout rate, based on the estimated number of eligible voters, is traditionally low. The 2014 general election saw a 35.6 percent turnout rate, Nago said.

To help boost the numbers, the NAACP Honolulu-Hawaii Branch has been working in collaboration with nonprofit, cultural and professional organizations to hold voter registration events at least once a month for the last nine months. The “Your Vote Matters” events have been held on high school and college campuses and at community events and cultural celebrations around the islands.

The goal of the outreach is to increase voter education, registration and turnout among specific targeted groups, said NAACP Hawaii Chapter President Alphonso Braggs.

“We want to increase voter participation among our youth, senior citizens and ethnic groups,” Braggs said. “Our approach is to meet people where they are, addressing the issue in a form that is commensurate with the event and engagement that is comfortable for each specific group.”

Braggs said he has met with a significant number of Oahu residents who were not registered voters, emphasizing that voting is a responsibility as well as a benefit.

“By not voting, you play a role,” he said. “Voting or not voting could truly make a difference.”

The NAACP’s efforts will continue until Oct. 10, the deadline to register to vote in the general election.

State Rep. Karl Rhoads (D, Kalihi-Palama-Iwilei-Chinatown) is a proponent of automatic voter registration for anyone applying for or renewing their driver’s license.

“It’s a constitutional right. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to do it,” Rhoads said. “But even if they’re registered, you still have the issue of people actually going to vote.

“From my perspective, people just aren’t interested because they don’t think government is doing anything for them,” Rhoads said. “But the ones who don’t vote don’t seem to understand that the way to make government interested in you is to vote. The way to protest whatever you see is a wrong decision by legislators is to vote.”