Long wait for Hawaii vote spurs call for more voter centres
HONOLULU — Voter advocates say Hawaii should set up more voter service centres after a last-minute surge of interest led to hours-long lines for in-person voting on Election Day even as the state switched to a vote-by-mail system for casting ballots.
Overall, the state’s vote-by-mail election appears to have been a big success, leading to record numbers of voters participating. More than 69% of registered voters cast ballots, the highest ratio for the state since 1994. The overwhelmingly majority voted by mail.
Even so, there were hundreds of people in line at Oahu’s two voter services centres when polls were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Tuesday. It took about four hours for the line at the Kapolei centre to clear, delaying the release of election results until about 11:30 p.m.
Honolulu’s election administrator and lawmakers expressed skepticism that more facilities would make the difference. Sen. Chris Lee, one of the authors Hawaii’s vote-by-mail law, said increasing the number of voter service centres is something that could be considered, but boosting education to get voters to act before Election Day would be effective to prevent a recurrence.