Seventy-two days. It’s a long stretch for voters to travel blind, unable to see how much money candidates are spending or who is giving it to them, particularly during the period leading up to the Nov. 6 general election.

Hawaii’s earlier-than-normal Aug. 11 primary this year prompted a change to the timetable for filing campaign finance reports to avoid back-to-back deadlines.

On the front end, the public got an earlier peek at the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on all the political races. But on the back end, the calendar change created a blackout period twice as long as normal.

State Sen. Les Ihara said the change impacts both the voters who want to know who is pouring money into what campaign and the candidates who want to know where their competitors stand financially.

“It doesn’t allow for any discussion about who’s backing who during the campaign period,” he said.

The primary used to be the second to last Saturday of September. This would’ve been Sept. 22 this year, making the “pre-general” reporting period from Sept. 23 to Oct. 22.

Since the primary was moved to Aug. 11 this year, the reporting period instead covers Aug. 12 to Oct. 22. That’s a difference of 42 days.

The deadline for candidates to file their pre-general campaign finance reports is Oct. 29 — just about a week before Election Day. Absentee and early walk-in voters will be able to start casting their ballots for the general election before candidates have to file their reports.

Some are already talking about addressing the issue next legislative session, which starts in January.

Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Kristin Izumi-Nitao said she is meeting this week with concerned parties to see what ideas they can come up with before crafting a concrete proposal.

“We want disclosure and transparency, but have to weigh that with when the elections occur,” she said, noting there are some 600 candidate committees who have to file spending reports in Hawaii. “We want that information so voters can look at it before an election, yet have them spaced out enough so they make sense.”

Ihara said this is the first time at least in recent history that he can recall there being such a long blackout period. He said he hopes it can be addressed next legislative session so voters and candidates can have more timely information to use in the process of political debate.

Campaign finance reports detail how much cash candidates have on hand, how much they’ve spent, what they’ve put the money toward and who gave it to them.