Kelii Akina said he would push to stop the Office of Hawaiian Affairs “from continuing to waste tens of millions of dollars on creating a divisive, race-based sovereign nation.”

One of his opponents for an at-large seat on the OHA Board of Trustees, Kealii Makekau, proposed “a complete, independent fiscal forensic audit of all holdings and resources” at the agency.

Marilyn Lee said voters should return her to the state House post she held for 16 years because her Central Oahu district has suffered in her absence: “Although we look like a middle class community, many are struggling economically, due to the high cost of housing, and the high cost of higher education.”

But new blood is the answer, said another candidate for the seat, Zuri Aki, a former Civil Beat columnist. Right now, said the political novice, “legislation can be bought and sold before the public is even aware that a special interest railroaded an idea through under the guise of public interest.”

Those were just one recent day’s installments of Civil Beat’s Candidate Q&A, in which about 275 people running for office throughout the islands have been invited to explain in their own words why they should be elected this year.

Additional responses arrive daily, but so far more than two-thirds of the candidates statewide have not been heard from. We’ve reached out to this silent majority by telephone and email. Any candidates who haven’t received an emailed questionnaire are invited to let us know at news@civilbeat.com.

We tried to be more creative with our questions this year to elicit more than just stock answers to predictable issues:

• How should government respond to citizens’ increasingly loud demands for change?

• Should Hawaii have a voter initiative process?

• Is it a good thing that the Democratic Party dominates public life in the islands?

And as usual, we asked for their views on some of the issues Civil Beat covers: how to strengthen lax lobbying, ethics and financial disclosure laws, and what to do about high fees for access to public records.

If the early returns are any indication, candidates are responding with compelling and highly diverse viewpoints.

Thirty Q&As have been published so far, including the cases for re-election from high-profile incumbents like Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz.

If the early returns are any indication, candidates are responding with compelling and highly diverse viewpoints.

We’ve heard from Colleen Hanabusa about why she deserves to be sent back to Congress. And readers have been introduced to numerous legislative candidates, as well as two of the 13 hopefuls for Hawaii County mayor.

This is the first year we’ve emailed our questionnaires to neighbor island candidates and responses have arrived from Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties.

We even invited candidates to produce 1-minute videos of themselves explaining who they are and why they should be elected. So far only congressional candidate Javier Ocasio has taken us up on that offer.

There’s still time for candidates to respond, but remember that mail ballots for the Aug. 13 primary are starting to go out and will be in voters’ hands soon.

You can find our elections coverage in a number of places. Click on the Elections 2016 tag near the top of our home page or go directly to the Politics section. That’s where the candidate Q&As will accumulate as well. You can also find tagged pages listed on our Archive page; it’s an easy way to search by subject matter.

And click on the Commentary section to read what our columnists and Community Voice authors have to say about politics.

For general information about the upcoming primary, check out our Hawaii Elections Guide 2016.

And for information specific to the Aug. 13 vote, go to our Hawaii Elections 2016: Primary Election Ballot. This site includes a list of all the candidates statewide, and their names will be linked to their Q&As when they’re published.

Get engaged! Join in the discussion of candidates and issues in the 2016 elections in our new Facebook Group, Civil Beat Politics. Connect with others and learn how to get involved in community issues that are central to this year’s elections.