Saturday’s primary was the first time Krizel Tomines and Elsa Sheehy, both 24, had voted in person, and it was a lot more fun sharing the experience with a friend.
Sheehy, who works in the athletics department at Kamehameha Schools, and Tomines, who is in information systems, are both originally from California. They cast their votes a little after 4 p.m. at Honolulu Hale.
They were motivated by recent federal political events, and a strong desire to support younger candidates to upset the status quo.
“As someone who is not originally from here, I definitely want to see representation of Native Hawaiians in government,” Sheehy said.
Tomines said she studied the ballot guide before she voted and put a sticky note alongside candidates she wanted to support, as well as others she wanted to avoid. She also shared her candidate research with other friends.
Other voters who turned out in person to vote Saturday said they were driven by a sense of duty, and an ongoing belief that their votes matter.
Like Tomines, Kerrine Akiona on the Big Island did her homework before she voted. She said she read candidate Q&As, watched interviews and did online research to decide which boxes to fill.
“You want to see change? You have to vote,” Akiona said.
That sense of obligation appears to be pushing the turnout in Saturday’s primary over the dismal total in 2024, when turnout was the worst since statehood. Mayoral contests on Kauaʻi and Maui also appeared to be translating into stronger turnout.
The first report after polls closed showed 239,737 votes, or 28.3% of the registered voters cast a ballot. By the second report that had risen slightly, to 29% and by Sunday to 33%.
“You want to see change? You have to vote.”
Kerrine Akiona, Hawaiʻi island voter
At the sweltering voter service center in Kailua-Kona, temperatures ran into the 90s and people trickled in from far and wide to vote outside at tables set up under an outdoor gazebo. The security guard on duty shooed away anyone who got between him and his personal fan.
Ed Comstock, a Hilo resident, said he voted because he is worried about the state of the world.
As he dropped his and his wife’s ballots off, he said, “I just wanted to make my own wishes known and feel like I’ve done my civic duty.”
On Maui, a steady stream of people showed up to vote at the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center in Wailuku throughout Saturday morning and afternoon. Many slipped their mail-delivered ballots into the official dropbox in front of the building, while others cast their votes behind dividers set up in a row inside the auditorium.
Several said they were particularly interested in not just the county mayor’s race – where the incumbent Richard Bissen has been outraised by longtime council member Yuki Lee Sugimura – but the lieutenant governor’s race, which was thrown wide open after Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke decided not to seek reelection as she faces bribery allegations.
About a block away, Cindy Albury and Paul Deslauriers spent most of the day sign-waving for local progressive candidates. Albury, a Wailuku chiropractor, said she had never been motivated to campaign for a local candidate until this year’s primary election.
“It’s impossible for me to just stay at home, sitting on the couch and doing nothing,” Albury said, as she threaded puakenikeni flowers into a lei. “A little bit of effort could go a long way toward making a difference, but I think most people don’t understand how important it is that you participate in our democracy.”
She said she felt like many of Maui’s leaders, including on the council, were not paying attention to or ignoring the concerns of the general public.
“The County Council members, they decide how things are going to go forward,” she said. “It’s critical that we have people in those positions that are going to do the right thing by us.”
Deslauriers, who serves as the executive director of the Maui Pono network — a grassroots political organization — said he didn’t believe the lack of long lines at voting centers indicates declining interest in local politics. Most residents are as engaged in Maui elections as they have ever been, he said.
“I think part of it is because there’s a lack of confidence in the system,” he said.
Some people have lost faith because of the growing influence of mainland money and spending by PACs and super PACs, he said.
About $900,000 in funds from political action committees went into the Maui mayoral contest and the council races, twice as much as PACs put into the Kauaʻi races, and three times the totals for Oʻahu and Big Island candidates.
Renee McCook, who lives in Wailuku, arrived to put her ballot in the dropbox at around 2 p.m. She said she was particularly interested in the gubernatorial and mayoral races and said she voted for people who share her morals.
Angelina Abapo was all smiles as she left the community center. She had moved to Kihei from the Philippines, she said, and was over the moon to be voting in her first U.S. election.
“They sent me something that I can mail in, but I told my husband, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. I have to experience really real voting’,” she said. “I wanted to experience going in here so I can have story to tell to my Filipino friends about how I voted.”
“They sent me something that I can mail in, but I told my husband, ‘No, I don’t want to do that.'”
Angelina Abapo, first-time Hawaiʻi voter
Voting is a much more complicated and time-consuming process in the Philippines, she said, while in Wailuku, it was very quick and organized.
Rochelle Thomson, the Maui County deputy clerk, said about 775 people had voted in person in Wailuku as of about 3 p.m., not including those who slipped their ballots in the dropbox.
“It’s pretty typical,” she said of the turnout. “It’s been pretty steady for several years.”
