After having the election system buffed up by the state's only two-term lieutenant governor, Ben Cayetano, after turning the entire system over to an independent agency to avoid even a hint of impropriety and after complying with new federal laws designed to get every citizen up, out and voting, we have done a miserable job of it.
Not a miserable job of picking candidates. That was no better or worse than usual. But we have done a shameful job of voting.
The vote turnout Saturday was the lowest on record, with only 53 percent of Oahu registered voters visiting a ballot box.
The numbers are a bit strange this year, because federal voting laws require voters to be kept on the lists for two cycles. Previously Hawaii dumped voters who missed one general election cycle.
That change means more voters were being carried this year than in years past, so the base, according to election officials, was artificially inflated.
But the sad truth is that just in raw numbers fewer people voted this year than did two years ago.
On Oahu, some of the areas that needed representation the most, such as Waianae and Nanakuli, just opted out, with only 36 percent of the voters coming to the polls.
Perhaps most alarming was the turnout for Maui - 36.4 percent. There are more than 100,000 people living in Maui County, according to 1992 census estimates, but only 20,345 actually voted.
Statewide there were 275,464 voters. Big deal. In the 1978 primary election we had 289,029 voters.
The state elections office didn't have the money this year to run a public relations campaign to drum up support. The elections themselves were not very interesting. But the real reason we didn't vote this year was because of mud-smearing politicians who offered only reasons to vote against someone.
For the average voter the lack of confidence in government was heightened by campaigns of distortion and misinformation.
The result of such campaigning is a public that just decides voting isn't worth it, that all politicians are crooks, that politicians will not listen to the little guy and that the system is stacked against them anyway.
The hardest thing for a politician to learn is how to wage a positive campaign. The ones who can will travel far. The ones who spend their time calling everyone else a liar, the ones who question where someone came from and the ones who blame all our troubles on the other guy, will eventually lose and be forgotten.
SEVERAL years ago the Honolulu Star-Bulletin did a survey of persons eligible to but who were not planning to vote. The results showed that most nonvoters were not lazy or stupid. They had consciously decided not to go to the polls.
Politicians who run negative are politicians who have no faith in their own ideas and voters know it. The public has to know that elected leaders are willing to open up government, open the process and talk about changes to the status quo.
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris runs a fairly open shop at City Hall. But after appearing headed for a victory Saturday, he got his face slapped by voters who were displeased with his refusal to debate his opponents one final time.
Voters this year are a passive-aggressive lot. They may not be voting much, but poke them and they will bite.
