• Lowest voter turnout in the U.S. Lowest voter turnout in the U.S. Is it just apathy that keeps Hawai‘i voters away from the polls? Or is there something wrong deep beneath the surface in our Island society? The U.S.
• Lowest voter turnout in the U.S.
Lowest voter turnout in the U.S.
Is it just apathy that keeps Hawai‘i voters away from the polls? Or is there something wrong deep beneath the surface in our Island society?
The U.S. Census has released numbers that show Hawai‘i voters again had the lowest turnout in the entire United States in the 2004 presidential-year election. We were ranked 50 out of 50 among the states.
On Kaua‘i, according to numbers posted by the state’s election division, we had the highest percentage turnout of registered voter in all the counties of Hawai‘i. We hit 68.7 percent turnout of 36,685 registered voters, or about 24,000 people. If our population is about 60,000 today, that’s around 50 percent of our adult population who didn’t vote. Maui County had the lowest percentage turn-out of registered voters, at about 61 percent.
Is it that voters in Hawai‘i aren’t taught civics in high school? That could be a reason as the class isn’t emphasized as a basic necessity as it used to be.
Is it because we have a government that still overwhelmingly run by one party though we have a minority party governor and Kaua‘i mayor? This could be the reason, as to some it seems no matter who you elect an entrenched political network of county, state and federal politicians is going to run things.
Does this trend of low voter turnout go back to the plantation days, when how things were run was usually decided by someone else for the vast majority of workers? There is still some lingering signs that the Territorial Days, the golden age of the plantation, is still here in the form of a statewide public education system, the only one of its kind in the United States.
It’s apparent that this low voter turnout tradition isn’t about to change in the short-term despite well-run voter registration drives.
For it to change, Hawai‘i will need to change. This change may come from the influx of new Mainland residents, especially on Kaua‘i, who are arriving in larger numbers than in the past.
