comscore Hawaii voter turnout dropped below 2012 presidential election | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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Hawaii voter turnout dropped below 2012 presidential election

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  • DENNIS ODA/DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM

    Mark Noguchi holds his son Frame, 1, and his wife, Amanda Noguchi holds their daughter, Elee, 3, while casting their votes in Manoa.

Without a native son on the ballot for president, Hawaii’s voter turnout dropped below the last presidential election year in 2012.

With all but a handful of votes counted, 412,282 ballots were cast statewide, about 55 percent of Hawaii’s 749,917 registered voters.

In 2012, the last presidential election with Hawaii-born Barack Obama on the ballot, 436,663 voters, about 62 percent of registered voters actually voted.

This year’s turnout is still better than 2014, when only 52 percent of voters cast ballots.

Presidential elections generally draw higher turnout than non-presidential elections.

Hawaii has one of the nation’s lowest voter participation rates and it has been steadily worsening every election.

In 2008, when Obama first ran for president, 66 percent of Hawaii’s registered voters cast ballots.

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  • When you’re only worth 4 electoral colleges, and no matter who is running, such as crooked Hillary, will still win HI, you’re only kidding yourself by voting in HI nei. Especially if you’re (R), then you waste your time even existing in Hawaii, as you have zero say. If you’re truly Red, you should live where you can exact change, like PA did, this time.

  • They need to change to an all-mail in election system. With all the problems with the long lines at the election sites, people get turned off from voting after having to stand in line for over an hour to vote.

  • The real sad story is despite one party control for decades, essentially none of the States great problems ever get solved. Education, Traffic, homelessness, affordability, doctor shortages etc along with below average performance of all our state agencies still happens. Again Nago and his office of elections botched with ill functioning machines and long lines. Voter turnout is the poor in part due to lack of choices. Hawaii is becoming more and more third world and bucking trends of the rest of the nation.

    • IRT DtPro1, the Elections Office is controlled by the Elections Commission appointed by Democrat and Republican leaders. Placing the blame on Nago is miss directed. Many of the problems are created by us, the voter.

  • hmmm, quite a curious phenomenon, this low turnout! many probabilities as to reasons …. 1) many espoused “Democrats” crossed over to vote for the Donald, 2) the entrenched card-carrying Democrats, the “die-hard liberals”, who talk a good game, really took the “holiday” off and went fishing, 3) the fear of losing the values of our imperiled Constitution’s 2nd amendment under a certain candidate was too strong, 4) the losing candidate did not resonate with truth, humility, or true patriotism to the person on main street, 5) the fear of losing a resolute, fair, and balanced SCOTUS via a questionable appointment????

  • It’s was a state holiday, yet people still didn’t vote? Ridiculous! Maybe it’s time to take away the holiday, then people might actually leave work early to go vote instead.

  • The Elections Commission and the Elections Office must “Purge” the 2016 Voter Registration List of all names that did not vote. Then make certain to send a registered letter to the named individual “Purged” that to get back on the Voter Registered List, one must re-register. Hawaii will have a clean Voter Registration List for 2018.

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