Kaua‘i County gets bragging rights with the highest voter turnout of all counties, with 51 percent of registered voters actually casting their vote. Hawai‘i County was second with 49.3 percent, Honolulu third with 48.9 percent, and Maui was last at 45.7 percent.
Actually, Kaua‘i County has had those same bragging rights for the past three election cycles, and had the highest voter turnout of all counties also in 2020 at 72.1 percent (versus 66.4 percent for Maui) and in 2018 with 58.1 percent (Maui was 52.4 percent).
Drilling down deeper, we find that District #16 (Wailua to Puhi) had a 52 percent turnout, #17 (Koloa to Kekaha) was 51.7 percent, and #15 (Kapa‘a to Ha‘ena) was at the bottom with 47.4 percent.
What else do the numbers say? For those with time on their hands, go to the Office of Elections “Results” page https://elections.hawaii.gov/election-results/, select 2022 “Statewide Precinct Detail” and scroll down.
Kaua‘i voters showed the least amount of enthusiasm for the Green/Luke gubernatorial ticket of any county with 57.5 percent voting in support. Hawai‘i County with 65.1 percent showed the strongest support, followed by Maui with 64.7 percent, and Honolulu at 61.5 percent.
Another interesting tidbit: 3.4 percent of Kaua‘i voters left the gubernatorial selection blank. All other counties had 1.5 percent or fewer blank votes for this choice.
Kaua‘i has a history of being the renegade, the separate kingdom, and the island that was never conquered. Where else does Kaua‘i County stand out when the election numbers are tallied?
Three percent of Kaua‘i residents chose to vote on Nov. 8, the final day of the election. Hawai‘i County was next at 2.4 percent, Maui had 2 percent and Honolulu was at 1.7 percent.
If the election for governor and lieutenant governor were decided by Kaua‘i residents that voted in-person, then Duke Aiona and Seaula “Junior” Tupa‘i would soon be moving into the fifth-floor suite at the Capitol. They won the in-person vote in every single precinct.
The voters of Ni‘ihau also voted overwhelmingly for the Aiona/Tupa‘i Republican ticket, with 80 percent of their 61 votes (mail and in-person) going for that duo.
If the in-person voters were selecting our U.S. senator, it’s also likely that Republican Bob McDermott would have defeated incumbent Democrat Brian Schatz.
Conventional wisdom would say that many but certainly not all of the in-person voters are those who do not trust the “all mail voting system.”
These would tend to fall into the categories of “election deniers”, Q’anon, MAGA Republicans, independents, and other procrastinator types who may or may not have drunk the Kool-Aid.
When analyzing the data, it is interesting that each of the three Republican candidates running for state representative: Greg Bentley, Steve Yoder, and Michael Wilson, each received about 23 percent of the votes. This would lead one to believe that the Republican-leaning base equals about this same number. However, the gubernatorial Aiona/Tupa‘i Republican ticket garnered 39 percent of the vote. Translation: About 16 percent of the voters chose Aiona/Tupa‘i but did not choose the other Republicans.
What does this all mean? Frankly, it’s troubling to think that nearly 40 percent of voters are willing to support two individuals positioned so far to the right. Both Aiona/Tupa‘i oppose marriage equality and a woman’s right to choose. They would prefer the church control the decision on marriage and the government control a woman’s choice over her own reproductive health.
The next thing you know, they will be telling us what books we may or may not read. Oh, I forgot, they are already doing this.
And yes, the Green/Luke ticket was imperfect as well, and I’ve not shied away from saying so.
If there is a silver lining, it’s that the vote was 57.5 percent to 39 percent and not the 49.7 percent to 49.5 percent we are seeing in other places.
Fortunately, we live in a place where though we may have our differences, we can discuss them without vitriol — occasional snarkiness and sarcasm perhaps, but without the vitriol. For at the end of the day, we are neighbors who count on each other.
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Gary Hooser is the former vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Council, and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action and is executive director of the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative.
