Isle Democrats can pick presidential favorites by mail

HONOLULU — With the probable cancellation of walk-in voting due to COVID-19 concerns, FairVote, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for electoral reform in the United States, is urging Hawai‘i Democrats to vote by mail and learn about a new, game-changing feature of the local presidential primary election, called ranked choice voting.

Over 50,000 Hawai‘i residents are eligible to vote in the Democratic presidential primary election.

“Given walk-in voting may be canceled due to limits on large gatherings, voters in the April 4 Democratic presidential primaries have few options to ask questions and understand a new feature in Hawai‘i’s election — ranked choice voting”, said Maria Perez, a national expert on RCV and consultant to FairVote.

“Thankfully, the Hawai‘i Democratic Party had the foresight to establish a vote by mail program, but this is the first time ranked choice will be used in an election in the islands, so it’s important to understand how it works and why it matters,” she said.

Registered voters who are also members of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i are eligible to vote. Residents can register to vote and enroll with the party through Saturday, April 4. Vote by mail ballots were sent to eligible voters at the end of February.

RCV is straightforward for voters: rank candidates in order of choice. In Hawai‘i’s presidential primary, voters can rank up to three candidates without fear that ranking others will hurt the chances of their favorite candidate. It’s important to vote properly to ensure voters’ preferences are correctly counted.

In Hawai‘i, RCV has already proved vital, according to FairVote. The Democratic Party of Hawai‘i sent mail-in ballots for the presidential primary at the end of February, just as elections were getting underway in other states across the country. The ballots listed 10 candidates for Hawai‘i voters to choose from. Since that time, however, the Democratic field of presidential candidates has significantly narrowed, as many have dropped out of the race.

As a result, millions of votes in other states that didn’t have RCV were simply wasted when voters cast their ballots for candidates who had withdrawn. With RCV, voters rank their choices, so if a candidate drops out, their ballots will still be counted with tabulations for their second or third choice.

Nationally, FairVote reports that 1,637,271 Americans have officially cast votes for Democratic presidential candidates who had withdrawn from the race before their state’s primary. This number does not include another 300,000 estimated lost votes yet to be recorded by primary states once their tallies are complete. By the end of March, FairVote expects this number could swell to up to three million votes “wasted” by early voters on dropped-out candidates.

FairVote is updating its wasted vote tracker on a daily basis this month as part of a project where it also reports on voter turnout and cumulative vote totals for candidates.