������Ƶ

The 2024 Hawaii primary election has been widely panned as unexciting due to a lack of marquee races and fewer candidates to choose from.

Voters apparently agreed, if the turnout numbers for Saturday are any indication.

Just 269,912 of the 839,618 people registered statewide filled out a ballot. That works out to 32.1%.

It’s a significant drop from the 39.8% turnout for the 2022 primary and an even more dramatic decline from the 51.2% in 2020. The latter election was the first for the state to use an all mail-in balloting system, though voters can still cast ballots in person at select locations on each island.

According to final results released by the Hawaii Office of Elections on Sunday morning, the 2024 primary numbers represent in the history of Hawaii as a state.

Thirty years ago the 1994 primary turnout was 65.7% — double the current figure.

Hawaii County had the best turnout Saturday among the four counties at 34.2%. The Big Island had competitive contests this year for mayor and the County Council.

But the lackluster interest from the electorate was clear in Maui County (22%), Kauai County (25.2%) and the City and County of Honolulu (29.2%).

For example, the race for Honolulu mayor was a blowout, with Rick Blangiardi easily reelected to a second term. Statewide races for the Hawaii members of the U.S. congressional delegation were similarly won in landslides by Democratic incumbents.

Derek Turbin, chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, took a glass half-full view of the statewide turnout numbers. He noted several legislative races, including House District 20 and House District 50 on Oahu, managed to draw around 6,000 votes each.

“So turnout was high in the contested races, but it was the uncontested races that had relatively low turnout,” he said Sunday.

Seven House incumbents and four Senate incumbents faced no opposition and won their races outright.

Turbin expressed optimism that the presidential election will increase local turnout in November.

“I think with Kamala (Harris) at the top of the ticket, we’re going to have a really high turnout in the general election,” he said. “Tons of people are showing up to my office to volunteer. They’re emailing me, signing up to sign wave. We’re getting 40 to 50 people out for daily sign-waving.”

Reasons vary for Hawaii’s low turnout, but political scientists say it primarily has to do with the dominance of a single party, the Democrats.

While Republicans have made some inroads over the decades, they are far outnumbered in terms of holding elective office.