Raising Cane
By Rob Perez
Mail-in ballot system
might help stem
Hawaii’s laughable apathyThis is getting embarrassing. Somebody, do something. Please. We've got to figure out a way to get more voters to the polls.
Saturday's turnout was dismal, 41.1 percent, another in a string of embarrassingly poor showings in recent elections.
Just two years ago we had the lowest general-election turnout in the country at 44 percent. In the primary election that year, it was even worse: 39.9 percent of the state's registered voters.
Hawaii is in danger of becoming a national joke. We're steadily gaining a reputation as a place where people have about as much enthusiasm for going to the polls as they do for going to the dentist.
Never mind the Aloha State. Make way for the Apathy State.
There are many reasons to explain why fewer residents are taking the time to help select our political leaders.
People don't believe their votes make a difference.
They believe the political system is too corrupt or too one-sided to warrant their support.
They can't get excited about any candidate or campaign issue.
They don't have time to vote.
They'd rather go to the beach or a football game or a party than to a polling place.
Or they simply don't care.
Micheal Lee, a 46-year-old former hotel worker, says he has never voted.
"There's nobody I want to vote for," he said. "If there was somebody I was excited about, I would vote. But somebody has to motivate me to vote."
Lawrence Ciszewski, a 48-year-old bus driver who voted Saturday for the first time in six years, believes turnout could be boosted by making it easier to vote, such as switching to a mail-in system or allowing people to cast ballots via the Internet.
"They should try to do something to encourage people in a variety of different ways," Ciszewski said.
In one respect, Hawaii already has a vote-by-mail system that is growing in popularity. Any voter can request a mail-in absentee ballot.
In the 1998 primary election, 21,000 such ballots were requested on Oahu. For Saturday's election the number surged to 32,000, a 52 percent increase.
In a pure vote-by-mail system, like the one used in Oregon, the entire election is handled by mail, eliminating the need for polling places.
Bills to establish a vote-by-mail system only for special elections have been introduced at the state Legislature, but they typically have gone nowhere. Lawmakers passed an omnibus elections bill this year that included the special-elections provision, but the measure was vetoed by Gov. Ben Cayetano.
Studies indicate that vote-by-mail systems have varying degrees of success in boosting turnouts.
A University of Michigan analysis of Oregon's system showed it increased turnouts roughly 6 to 8 percentage points.
"A small increase in turnout is better than no increase in turnout," said Michael Traugott, the political science professor who headed the study.
In addition to being convenient, a mail-in system is less costly and eliminates the perennial problem of having to find enough poll workers, proponents say.
To detractors, such a system would increase the potential for fraud and enable people to be pressured to vote a certain way.
"You gotta go to the poll," said longtime voter Paul Casaquit, 64. "That's the fair way. That's the American way."
If not a vote-by-mail system, Hawaii has to consider other ways to get more people involved in selecting our political leaders. Otherwise, turnouts will continue to be a major embarrassment for the state.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.
