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Voter turnout and registration in the 2022 midterm election reached a national . Yet, in Hawaii, voter participation was disappointingly low. Again.

±á²¹·É²¹¾±¾±â€™s voter turnout has hovered between 50% to 60% since Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential election drew 66% of Hawaii voters to the ballot box. So when of registered voters cast their ballots in 2020, many hoped the newly implemented all-mail voting system had finally helped our state break its dismal trend.

But no such luck. Our turnout numbers slid down to 48% in 2022, the lowest general election turnout in state history.

Every election, we go through the same list of reasons for our low participation.

Presidential elections draw more voters than midterm elections.

It’s true. General election turnout is higher when residents have a chance to vote for the top office in the country. In 2020, voter turnout broke records, in part, because people saw that it was a pivotal moment for the country.

But we also saw the without either presidential candidate appearing on the August ballot. Also telling is that the gap in turnout between 2020 and the 2022 midterm election was nearly double the usual drop-off, suggesting this wasn’t a normal non-presidential year lull.

Negative campaigning dampened enthusiasm.

Toxic campaigns can lower voter turnout. However, didn’t fluctuate significantly during heated gubernatorial races like the 2014 race between former Gov. Neil Abercrombie and then Sen. David Ige, or the 2018 race between then-governor Ige and former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa.

Our elections aren’t competitive enough.

If voters simply needed more competition, we should see a higher turnout in our primaries that allow any voter to participate regardless of party affiliation. Democratic dominance may make our general election races appear predetermined, but our primary races can be competitive.

That said, policymakers could do more to increase competition overall. Ranked choice voting is an innovation that could make a big difference – though not if it remains .

It should be easier to vote.

In Hawaii, it’s easier than ever to register to vote and to cast your ballot. Eligible voters can or while applying for a state ID or driver’s license. And, when it’s time to vote, the state will automatically mail you a ballot.

Of course, the system isn’t perfect. People may struggle to register online, find a long ballot intimidating, or opt-in to automatic registration without ever intending to vote. But, in theory, recent efforts to make voting easier should create a larger turnout if access is the biggest barrier in Hawaii.

Lawmakers should always be trying to make elections more accessible, more competitive and more engaging.

But we’re past simple policy fixes. It’s time to explore underlying factors so we can craft more effective (and complex) solutions.

In bestsellers like “” and “,” famous behavioral scientists make clear that human beings aren’t purely logical decision-makers. Influencers ranging from individual preferences to community belonging to government structures drive our decision-making forward before our rational minds can catch up.

So, our decisions to vote are not only influenced by government policies or personal choices. They’re also heavily influenced by our families, our cultural identity, our connectedness to our community and more. If we want change, that’s where we should look.

Our shared standards of behavior, or social norms, are an essential, powerful part of our decision-making processes. that registered voters are more likely to vote if their family or community has created and established a strong social norm about the value of voting. While most of us would outwardly say that we do believe people should vote, many of us can’t say why it matters. We might even secretly believe that it doesn’t matter.

If we do have a social norm about voting in Hawaii, it’s a weak social norm. In order to develop a strong social norm, we would each need to believe that other people are voting, that other people want us to vote too, and that we’ll experience social consequences if we don’t. We’re not there yet.

The good news is that we do have a lot of strong norms, and community-centeredness is one of them.

In 2020, the pandemic drew us together and reminded us that even a small thing like wearing a mask can have a major impact. I suspect that’s why voter turnout was higher. We were reminded that we were inextricably linked together. Government played a big role in our personal health, and our individual actions had consequences for the people around us.

So, we voted. We voted despite negative campaigns or a dull primary or ±á²¹·É²¹¾±¾±â€™s presidential choice seemingly like a foregone conclusion. We voted even if we didn’t fully know why it mattered. Because our sense of community was heightened.

If we want to get that level of participation again, we need to work together to counteract the harmful norms about voting and connect our existing values to political participation so we can build new ones.

And we can’t wait until the next election season begins. We need to start now.