{"id":496,"date":"2026-06-09T12:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=496"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:08:09","slug":"hawaiis-primary-election-unlikely-to-stir-voter-enthusiasm-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=496","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii\u2019s primary election unlikely to stir voter enthusiasm, turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There is little expectation that voters will turn out in droves for the upcoming Aug. 8 party primaries following the 2024 presidential election year, when only 32.3% of all of Hawaii\u2019s registered voters bothered to vote in the primary, a record low since widespread mail-in voting began in 2020.<\/p>\n

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The 2022 primary generated only 39.8% of registered voters in a race that ultimately gave Hawaii voters a choice in the following November general election race between then-Lt. Gov. Josh Green and former Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona following a bitter Democratic primary that included former first lady Vicky Cayetano and former U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele.<\/p>\n

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The turnout in the last two primary elections suggests that residents across the islands remain motivated to register to vote, but most do not bother to actually cast their ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people feel their vote doesn\u2019t count, which of course is not true,\u201d said Judith Wong, president of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii. \u201cBut that\u2019s how some people feel \u2014 that things are going to happen no matter what I do, whether I vote or I don\u2019t vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

With just under four out of 10 Hawaii voters bothering to vote in the last two Hawaii primary elections, Wong said that those who don\u2019t vote are abdicating their voting power to those who do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly not saying it is correct to think your vote doesn\u2019t count,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you don\u2019t vote, you are actually strengthening the vote of other people. So basically, the people who aren\u2019t voting are actually sort of giving away their votes to people who care enough to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voter enthusiasm across the state has jumped when the stakes are high.<\/p>\n

The anemic August 2024 turnout of 32.3% in the primary race soared to 60.7% in the subsequent November 2024 general election that saw then-former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris battling to become president.<\/p>\n

Before, in the November 2008 general election, a whopping 66% of registered Hawaii voters turned out when Hawaii-born Barack Obama beat Republican Sen. John McCain.<\/p>\n

But this year\u2019s August midterm primary and general election races offer few reasons for Hawaii voters to get excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat concerns me as a Republican and it should concern all of us as citizens,\u201d said Shirlene Ostrov, chair of Hawaii\u2019s Republican Party. \u201cIt goes to show that people don\u2019t think that their votes make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makai Freitas, the new chair of the Hawaii Democratic Party and an incoming University of Hawaii regent, said Hawaii voters need to engage in the electoral process because \u201cwe\u2019re in a pivotal time in our lives, across the world and especially here in Hawaii. You\u2019ve got to get out there and make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freitas grew up in a union family and now works as the head of government affairs for the Hawaii Longshore Division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.<\/p>\n

He wants voters to respect the sacrifices of prior generations of union members who were beaten and killed fighting for their right to vote to be represented by labor unions.<\/p>\n

Not voting, Freitas said, is a slap in the face to the sacrifices of those who came before.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re frustrated, if you\u2019re not happy, that\u2019s fine, that\u2019s acceptable, that\u2019s normal,\u201d Freitas said.<\/p>\n

But the response of registered voters, he said, should be to \u201cGet out there and make a difference. People fought for the right for us to vote. And it\u2019s disrespectful to all those people who came before us during the Democratic Revolution of 1954.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawaii\u2019s voter apathy comes as Trump last year issued an executive order aimed at limiting voter rights, followed by another executive order in March that would give the U.S. Postal Service the power to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots cast by anyone not on a new national voting data base that Trump is trying to create in the middle of this year\u2019s election cycle.<\/p>\n

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His executive orders remain the subject of court challenges.<\/p>\n

And in April, the majority of conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices overturned Louisiana\u2019s congressional map by eliminating a majority-\u00adBlack voting district.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a state nationally, locally, statewide right now where we have an administration that\u2019s actively attacking civil liberties, taking away people\u2019s rights and voting rights,\u201d said Amelia Sofos, the 20-year-old, deputy director of political affairs for the College Democrats of America, chair of the College Democrats of Hawaii and president of the College Democrats at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.<\/p>\n

Many of Hawaii\u2019s young Democrats, Sofos said, \u201cwant radical social change right now, but there\u2019s not a candidate that\u2019s going to check all of their boxes. (In Hawaii), we\u2019re not going to have a Zohran Mamdani. We\u2019re not going to have a Bernie Sanders or an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez running all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have to make these compromises and a lot of times young folks are just really tired of making compromises,\u201d Sofos said. \u201cAnd so it can lead to this kind of sense of disillusionment with electoral politics and voting in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rocklin Youngstrom, the 22-year-old president of the Hawaii Young Republicans, said Hawaii\u2019s history of low voter participation \u201cconcerns me as a Republican and it should concern all of us as citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis election should give voters a chance to hear from candidates who they think are focused on accountability and restoring trust in government when the highest levels of our government are caught up in corruption and not having accountability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke was looking at the likelihood of a relatively easy reelection during the Democratic Party primary in August that usually leads to the eventual winner if there\u2019s no strong Republican candidate.<\/p>\n

But that was before Luke dropped out of the race and went on indefinite unpaid leave in April after receiving a target letter from the attorney general\u2019s office that she was a subject of the AG\u2019s ongoing investigation into potential bribery and political corruptions allegations.<\/p>\n

Like young Hawaii Democrats, young Republicans are trying to get like-minded people their age to register to vote for perhaps the first time.<\/p>\n

Youngstrom is putting her words into action by making her first run for political office in the August Republican Party primary against fellow Republican Daniel Michael Gabriel.<\/p>\n

The winner will move on to the November general election showdown against incumbent Democratic state Rep. Amy Perruso (D, Wahiawa-\u00adWhitmore Village-\u00adMokuleia), who\u2019s running unopposed in the Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

For the 2026 primary and general elections, Hawaii likely will continue to see low voter turnout, said political analyst Neal Milner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re likely to be a low turnout state and, in the primary, we\u2019re likely to see even a lower turnout than in the general election,\u201d Milner said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t a presidential election. There\u2019s nobody running for (U.S.) Senate. There is a gubernatorial election, but it\u2019s a foregone conclusion. So there\u2019s little to get voters excited. We know politics has become very nationalized and we know that interest in local politics has diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camron Hurt, state director of Common Cause Hawaii, said the responsibility for Hawaii\u2019s apathetic voting record also lies with the candidates themselves.<\/p>\n

As Obama showed, Hawaii voters will get energized around candidates who draw their attention, enthusiasm and their votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople turn out if they\u2019re excited about a candidate or passionate about an issue,\u201d Hurt said. \u201cThe other part of it really come from the candidates making people excited.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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Hawaii\u2019s primary election unlikely to stir voter enthusiasm, turnout – Hawaii News | Hawaii Tribune-Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHawaii\u2019s primary election unlikely to stir voter enthusiasm, turnout - Moving to Hawaii Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=496\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hawaii\u2019s primary election unlikely to stir voter enthusiasm, turnout - Moving to Hawaii Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hawaii\u2019s primary election unlikely to stir voter enthusiasm, turnout - 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