With five seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees on the ballot this year, election officials and OHA leaders are urging voters to pay closer attention to one of the state’s least-understood contests.

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With five seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees on the ballot this year, election officials and OHA leaders are urging voters to pay closer attention to one of the state’s least-understood contests.

In the 2024 election, nearly half of Hawaii voters left the OHA section of their ballots blank, according to the state Office of Elections, despite trustees making decisions involving millions of dollars in programs serving Native Hawaiians.

Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago said roughly 49% of voters did not cast ballots in OHA races during the 2024 primary election, while 42% skipped those contests in the general election.

The consistently high blank-ballot rates have prompted renewed efforts to educate voters ahead of the 2026 election, when voters will choose five of the board’s nine trustee seats.

“We estimate we will spend a little over $700,000 on voter education in 2026,” Nago said. The spending includes statewide media campaigns and the Office of Elections’ digital voter guide.

While many voters recognize the OHA section on their ballots, fewer understand what the trustees actually do.

Established through the 1978 Hawaii Constitutional Convention, OHA was created as a semi-autonomous state agency charged with improving conditions for Native Hawaiians. The agency manages programs, administers grants and advocates on issues affecting Native Hawaiians while overseeing a portion of revenues generated from the state’s Public Land Trust.

Trustees do not run the agency’s day-to-day operations. Instead, they set policy, approve budgets, authorize grants, oversee investments and determine OHA’s legislative priorities.

According to OHA, trustee decisions have supported Hawaiian-focused charter schools, Native Hawaiian health initiatives, affordable housing grants, cultural preservation efforts and programs promoting homeownership, agriculture and leadership development.

Among OHA’s initiatives are the Access to Home Ownership program, the Mahi ‘Ai Micro Fund, grants to community organizations, research databases documenting Hawaiian history and genealogy, and congressional fellowship opportunities for Native Hawaiians.

Because the board governs collectively, individual trustees cannot unilaterally direct the agency.

“As for the Board of Trustees, they are a group of nine that must vote on any actions to take, so one person does not change the direction, initiatives or the policies,” said Kelli Meskin Soileau, OHA’s senior communications strategist. “Changes are made by the majority or the whole.”

The next board will inherit several significant issues expected to shape OHA over the coming years.

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Among them are developing a biennial budget, determining legislative priorities, continuing discussions surrounding military land leases scheduled to expire beginning in 2029, advancing plans for Kaka‘ako Makai and continuing work with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to inventory trust lands and improve accounting for revenues owed to OHA.

The agency has identified several ongoing challenges, including securing revenues from the Public Land Trust, addressing housing affordability, improving Native Hawaiian health and education outcomes, and responding to the growing number of Native Hawaiians leaving the state.

Soileau officials say increasing out-migration, driven in part by housing costs and other economic pressures, makes it more difficult to fulfill the agency’s mission of improving conditions for Native Hawaiians in the islands.

She said there is no single explanation for why so many voters leave OHA trustee races blank.

The agency has long advocated for Native Hawaiian rights, funded community programs and supported legislation on cultural issues while also facing legal challenges over who can vote in OHA elections and who can serve as trustees, according to Soileau. Those controversies, along with broader debates surrounding Native Hawaiian institutions such as Kamehameha Schools and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, have contributed to public uncertainty, she added.

Some voters also may view OHA as too political, may not understand the agency’s mission or the trustee responsibilities, or may believe it is not their place to vote because they are not Native Hawaiian.

OHA officials noted that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Rice v. Cayetano established that all registered Hawaii voters, regardless of ethnicity, are eligible to vote in OHA trustee elections. Before the ruling, voting was limited to Native Hawaiians.

“Rice v. Cayetano says all voters can vote. That is now the law,” Soileau said.

This year’s voter education efforts are intended to address those gaps.

OHA is providing candidate information through its website and social media platforms, while its newspaper — Ka Wai Ola — plans to publish candidate questionnaires before the general election.

The agency also plans to host candidate panel discussions this fall and is partnering with Kamehameha Schools, Kanaeokana, the Hawaiian Council and Hawaiian-language immersion schools through the “Our Kaiaulu Votes” initiative to encourage voter registration and ballot participation.

OHA said it will evaluate those outreach efforts through website analytics, social media engagement and voter turnout, and hope voters take time to learn about both the agency and the candidates before casting ballots.

One thing Soileau wishes every voter knew before filling out the OHA section of the ballot “is why OHA was created and who are the most qualified candidates to carry its purpose out.”

Trustees are elected statewide and are subject to Hawaii’s Sunshine Law, with board meetings generally held every other week and open to public testimony.

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