Hawai`i County League of Women Voters volunteers registered over 500 voters in Hawai`i County this year. League members once again took part in the Wikiwiki voter registration efforts with the county before the close of registration for both the August Primary and November General Elections.

Sue Irvine coordinated voter registration sites in Hilo, Kona and Pahoa for two days in July and two days in October. 502 voters were registered on these four days.

The totals per site were:

• Hilo 110
• Kona 266
• Pahoa 126.

In addition, League volunteers registered a total of 84 voters during Black Lives Matter marches in Hilo in June and August.

Many thanks to the volunteers who help with these successful voter registration efforts!

Hawai`i Has Most Voters Ever in 2020 General Election

The 2020 General Election saw a record 579,584 people cast ballots in Hawaii. According to the Scott Nago, Chief Elections Officer, this was the highest number of voters in any election in Hawaii history. The closest election to this was the 2008 General Election when Barack Obama was elected to his first term as President and just over 456,000 voters cast ballots. Hawaii County also set a record with a 69.8% turnout and total of 88,608 total voters. The next highest number of voters in the county was also the 2012 General Election when 87,258 Big Island citizens voted. Both the interest in this election and the fact that this was the first General Election conducted entirely by mail helped push the record turnout.

Primary Election turnout was also much larger under the all-mail format. The last three primaries in presidential election years saw an average statewide turnout of 38%. The 2020 primary saw a turnout of 51.2% which represented an increase of over 100,000 total voters over the highest turnout in prior primary elections. The Hawaii County primary turnout also increased from an average of 40.6% to a 53.3% turnout in 2020.

-- Brad Clark