Hawaii's voter registration is at an all-time high with 691,356 voters eligible to participate in the Nov. 4 general election.

The new figure is a 3.6 percent increase over those registered to vote in the primary election.

“;This is a good jump in new voters,”; Glen Takahashi, the Honolulu city clerk's election chief, said yesterday.

The previous high for voter registration was in 2002, when Hawaii had 676,000 registered voters.

Oahu has the most voters with 466,499. The Big Island has the largest number of neighbor island voters with 99,337, followed by 85,197 on Maui and 40,323 on Kauai.

The interest in the heated presidential race is given as the reason for the voter registration increase, according to Takahashi.

“;We always see a jump in presidential year, but this is a lot,”; he said.

Also rising are the expected number of absentee voters, Takahashi said.

So far, there have been 77,000 requests for absentee ballots, according to Takahashi, who said that is also an all-time high.