Politicians make last From Chinatown to Portlock, the primary election sprint to the finish line has begun.
push before primary
How many will, in fact, vote
remains a big wild card in the raceBy Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comCandidates for governor have only today to get in the last minute sign-holding, hand-shaking and speech-making they hope will propel them into the general election.
The big unknown is how many people will turn out to vote. Hawaii had the lowest voter turnout in the nation in the 2000 general election, with only 44.1 percent of those registered actually voting.
Curtis Gans, vice president and director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a Washington-based nonpartisan research institution, says voters across the nation are declining to vote in this fall's primary elections.
"Right now, it is running at the level of 1998, which was a record low level," Gans said. "And Hawaii's turnout has been much lower than the national average."
Gans said the reason is a combination of "erosion in trust in elected leaders, cynicism in the news media and most profoundly, the rise in cable and satellite television."
Also, Gans said, schools are doing a poorer job of preparing students to vote, by failing to stress current events, school newspapers and community political activity.
"We are watching Hawaii, but the trend for Hawaii has been a turnout that is at the bottom or close to the bottom, and it appears to be continuing to decline," he said.
For those who are going to vote, the Republicans are waging a strong fight to get independent and marginal Democratic voters to cross over and vote in the GOP primary.
GOP front-runner Linda Lingle says a big Republican primary vote would indicate momentum for her campaign and "a willingness on the part of people who may not be Republicans to come over and express their voice early."
Her campaign manager, Bob Awana, said the campaign has had phone banks running 12 hours a day urging people to vote.
"We have get-out-the-vote programs, direct mail, door-to-door, and our phone banks have been going 12 hours a day for the last two weeks," Awana said.
On the state Office of Elections front, one question appears to have been answered: The state will be able to operate all the voting precincts.
State officials yesterday reported that 250 more volunteers from the National Guard, Civil Defense and their spouses and family members have ended a precinct-worker shortage at the polls.
"We appear to be in good shape," said Rex Quidilla, Office of Elections spokesman.
Also there appears to be a marginal increase in voters, with Quidilla reporting that about 14,000 voters have already gone to the polls to vote absentee. In the 2000 primary election, there were 12,600 walk-in absentee voters, Quidilla said.
City Clerk Genevieve Wong said 667,679 Hawaii residents are registered to vote, which is an increase of 5 percent.
Yesterday, Democrats Rep. Ed Case and Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono pushed their supporters for another round of sign-waving.
Case said his strategy remains dividing his time between Oahu and the neighbor islands.
"We want to show ourselves personally, to show that we haven't been hiding in our campaign office. We are talking to people and letting them size us up," Case said.
Case's campaign has won the editorial-page endorsements of both of Hawaii's statewide daily papers, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser. Case said he will wind up his primary race sign-holding in his Manoa Valley House district.
Case said his campaign, which was as much as 26 percentage points behind last month, is now close to even with Hirono.
Hirono is running her own phone-bank campaign and has spent much of the last two weeks mailing out "friend-to-friend" cards urging people to vote for Hirono.
"I am completely focused on making sure my supporters -- the rank and file, the working men and women -- come out and vote for me," Hirono said.
"I hope the working families understand the importance of this election," said Hirono, who has a string of local labor union endorsements.
Hawaii's Saturday primary election
>> When: Saturday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. All those in line at 6 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
>> Where: 350 precincts across the state. Check the yellow voter-registration card mailed to you for the address of your polling place.
>> What to bring: A picture ID. Be prepared to sign the voting poll box to verify your identify.
>> Remember: This is a single-party primary election. You will be able to vote for candidates in only one political party: Democrat, Free Energy, Hawaii Green, Libertarian, Natural Law or Republican. Voters can also choose a nonpartisan section of the ballot.
