Registration made easy

LIHUE — Sierra Fernandez registered to vote for the first time Thursday. The experience of registering at the drive-through registration booth was super easy, she said.

“I literally didn’t even need to stand up,” she said.

Voting is a necessity and as soon as someone turns 18, they should register, Fernandez said.

“I feel like every vote counts and it’s important for us as Hawaii to increase the amount of voters so we have a bigger voice as a state,” she said.

In the parking area behind the Historic County Building annex, Elections Division workers assisted Kauai residents who were registering to vote Wednesday and Thursday, using their drive-through registration services.

It was the last day to register to vote in the upcoming primary election, that will decide which 14 of the 24 County Council candidates will move forward in their race and which two mayoral candidates will remain to duke it out in the polls in November.

By the end of the day, there were a total of 43,466 registered voters on Kauai, 31 people registered to vote using the drive-through voter registration services on Wednesday, while 48 people utilized the services on Thursday.

The primary election is Aug. 11, the general election is Nov. 6. The last day to register to vote in the general election is Oct. 9.

Lihue resident Richard Peters, who moved to Kauai a year ago from Pennsylvania, said he was grateful for the drive-through service because he’d been having problems finding information on how to register to vote in Hawaii.

“I’m really glad. When I came in here, I drove past where I was going and then I saw the sign that said drive-through register, I said, that’s great, I’ve been trying to register and now it’s just been made very convenient,” he said.

Peters said voting is important.

“I realize I’m not going to agree with everything and I’m fine, but I’d like whoever’s making the decisions to realize that what we’re talking about is a financial impact on me and I don’t take that lightly,” he said.

Kapaa resident and veteran Frances Kamoku said she wished there was drive-through voter registration 50 years ago. The service brings in more people who don’t want to get out of their cars, she said.

“This is America and I’m a veteran so I want all these kids to come out,” Kamoku said.

Rowena Pangano runs a nonprofit organization and said the drive-through voter registration service offers access to people with disabilities.

At her agency, she said she always asks everyone if they’re a registered voter and if they are not, she encourages them to register.

“I say, ‘this is America, vote for who you want to, but you should be a voter,’ because my mom was in the military, my sisters were in the military and my brothers were in the military and coming from bureaucracy, too, you’ve got to know this is an awesome opportunity to be an American citizen so you can say what you want to say,” she said.

“We just take it for granted as American citizens, but when they (her family members) were away, they didn’t realize how important it was and everybody’s, ‘oh, you’re worshiping the American flag,’ I said, ‘I don’t go there and bow down to the American flag, but the American flag gives me the right to preach and worship how I want to,’” she said.

Elections Division Administrator Lyndon Yoshioka said when people drive up, staff greet them with a clipboard and voter registration affidavit and they can complete that in the comfort of their cars, or most people will come up to the table and complete the process here.

The goal of the service is to try and make registering to vote convenient for people, he said.

“Of course this is just one facet in other registration services that are out there,” Yoshioka said. “Voter registration forms are in phone books, they’re at post office, we have them online and individuals with a Hawaii driver’s license or state ID can also register online through the online voter registration system,” he said.

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Bethany Freudenthal, courts, crime and county reporter, can be reached at 652-7891 or bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com.