While the numbers are still being sorted out, one thing about the 2020 election is for certain. Hawai`i voters came out (or mailed in) in huge numbers. We relinquished our position of being the most apathetic state in the country (when it comes to voting). “Ainokea” was replaced by “AiDOkea” as our voting ranks swelled to about 70% of all registered voters, a huge jump from the decades of weaker local election turnout. Our total vote count of about 580,000 was 27% higher than when Hawaii’s own Barack Obama first ran for the country’s top office back in 2008.
A full two-thirds of all local ballots were handled through the mail- simple, easy, convenient, and precedent-setting. Well, precedent-setting locally, but Union soldiers ramped up our country’s mail-in voting process way back in 1864 (they were a bit busy in the field, as you might imagine). Most states allowed soldiers to vote from afar during World War I, when the practice really took hold nationally. Bottom line- absentee voting is a centuries-old tradition in America. Oregon has been exclusively a vote-by-mail state since 2000, and Hawai`i now also joins Colorado, Washington, and Utah as vote-by-mail states. Yes, both red and blue areas do it without rancor in a purple world…
Some persist that there must be some gamesmanship (or worse) going on. According to TIME magazine, in the election year of 2016, “Despite claims of vote fraud when voting is conducted outside of polling places, only 0.00006% of the 250 million votes by mailed ballots nationwide were fraudulent, according to MIT political scientists who analyzed numbers from the Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database.” Thus, there were about 150 dubious votes cast out of 250,000,000 in 2016. Even in a skewed, jaded, divided, sometimes post-truth world, statistics can be revealing.
Emotions and stakes seemed higher this year, helping to drive up voting numbers, but the good news is that more people in 2020 participated in our hallowed hallmark of democracy rather than choosing to abstain and then whine. Numerous closely contested races suggest that every vote does matter- a truism in every election.
COVID-19 concerns made absentee voting easier to rationalize and a safer option for many, and the bottom line is that Hawai`i overcame its historically apathetic approach in experiencing the biggest percentage growth of voters of any state. Here’s hoping that spirit becomes a long-term habit.
Think about it…