Two isles
lift voter turnout via
absentee balloting

Making it easier to vote pays off
on Kauai and the Big Isle

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

By encouraging voters to walk in and vote absentee, officials on the Big Island are getting more people to the polls.

A computer-aided review of the state's voter registration list shows that the Big Island and Kauai, both of which have active absentee voter programs, also lead the state in voter turnout percentages.

The result appears to be that the easier you make it to vote, the more people will do so.

In last year's general election, Hawaii and Kauai were the only counties to top 70 percent turnout. In that election, both counties saw more than 16 percent of their voters using absentee ballots. No figures are kept to readily tell if the increased number of voters came from walk-in or mail-in absentee voting.

In comparison, however, Oahu had a voter turnout of 67.7 percent, with absentee voters making up 10.3 percent of the total. On Maui, which had a turnout of 63.4 percent, 8 percent voted absentee.

All those figures are percentages calculated from the number of registered voters, not eligible voters.

Ed Kozohara, Hawaii County elections administrator, explained that five walk-in absentee centers were set up on the Big Island last year.

"It is a matter of convenience," he explained. "Even in a small place like Kohala or Kau, we have centers."

The center in Hilo is at the county building, which has a central location with lots of parking. So Kozohara figures that people use the Hilo polling place as an easy way to vote, without the lines on election day.

Changes in state law now permit voters to walk into an absentee voting location and pull ballots for all the races in a district. Voters need not give a specific reason why they are voting absentee.

Figures complied by the Star-Bulletin show it also paid off in plenty of voters.

The Big Island led the state in absentee voters, with all of the six House districts attracting more than a thousand absentee voters. The South Hilo District had the most absentee voters, 2,054.

The district with the smallest number of absentee voters, Waianae, also recorded one of the lowest general election voter turnouts last year.

Honolulu, with about 80 percent of the state's population, has been slow to make absentee voting booths accessible. City Clerk Ginny Wong considers increasing the number sites a good way to help voter turnout. "We have tossed it around, but we are just in the talking stage -- it would help cut the lines down here (at City Hall)," she said.

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OHA voters active, growing

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

There's a new group of voters in town causing election officials and political professionals to take note: the OHA voters.

While voter numbers are in decline, the number of voters registering for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is zooming.

And many of the OHA voters are young and more active than any other voters in Hawaii politics.

In 1993, 14.3 percent of all registered voters were also OHA voters. The latest figures, compiled by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, show 23.5 percent of the voters in the last election were OHA voters.

"Young voters of Hawaiian ancestry are much more likely to be registered, and registered for OHA participation, than any other group of young voters anywhere," said Wendy Kaleiwahea, with Voter Contact Services. Her firm specializes in analyzing voter lists for political office seekers. One of the largest voter service firms in the nation, it is based in Hawaii.

"We know of no other issues, activities or groups in the United States where young people have been attracted to political activism in this way," she explained in a special report on OHA.

"Young people will respond to things they care about and OHA is one of them," she said.

According to state law, a person is allowed to vote in an Office of Hawaiian Affairs election if the voter swears to be any descendant of aboriginal peoples inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands in 1778.

Last year there were 87,298 registered OHA voters, but only 52,102 actually voted. In 1994 when 75,766 voters registered for OHA, 55,424 voted.

Hawaiian political operatives like George Waialeale, business manager/financial secretary and political action committee chair for the IBEW 1357, sees OHA voters as an important group.

"OHA has taken a very positive role for Hawaiians," he said.

"There has been a lot of involvement because OHA has been out there, they will play a pivotal role as time goes by," he predicted.

Linda Kapuniai Rosehill, former Hawaii Democratic Party national committeewoman, and a key lobbyist at the state Legislature, doubts that the OHA vote today is solidified enough to have much political influence.

That, however, is changing, she added.

"I think the Hawaiian vote, in general, doesn't stick together," she said.

"I don't think it is a bloc. Actually Hawaiian voters are pretty independent."

But as Waialeale noted, the new power of OHA may draw more part-Hawaiian voters into the voting booth.

"There is a perceived belief that they are geting closer to sovereignty, and I think they want to be a part of that.

"Also now there is money and land on the table," Rosehill said.