The primary election is taking place from July 29th to August 10th 2024. Election Day is August 10th, 7 am - 7 pm. It is important to register to vote (y'all are, but tell your family, friends and neighbors to do so too). Voting is our civic duty as Americans and it is very important to vote in the primary so that the stronger candidates can move towards the general election. Below are some of the other reasons to vote in the primary.*
Ok, so your mail-in ballots have arrived, now what? Below are some ideas for you to consider:
1. Do your research on the candidates. Don't rely on anyone else to make this important decision for you. Go to the sources (i.e. the candidates themselves) to find out what they stand for. Many of the candidates have websites with contact information. Another option are the following: Civil Beat has a section on candidates (
here) and the Election's office has an interactive voter guide for you to try (
here). Use your own discernment. Ask yourself if those in office now have been serving you.
2. Do your best to
vote in-person on Election Day. Why? you may ask. Because YOUR help is needed. By voting in person, you are sending a message. We all know that life gets in the way and it may seem convenient to vote by mail. The problem with this approach is that convenience doesn't always result in best outcome. Voting used to be
conveniently held in our neighborhoods, on
one day, in person, with paper ballots and hand-counted in the same location that the ballots were cast. People counted in front of spectators and "official observers" for transparency. No machinery or software necessary.
In recent years the integrity of our elections has come into question. What is different is the mail-in voting and the multi-week voting at voter “service” centers, which are,
inconveniently, too few and far between. We now have a centralized counting center - not open to public viewing - and a third-party company, Hart Inner Civic, that is in charge of controls. Hart uses propriety software and hardware, that even the election workers are not privy. Hart sends our ballot images to their HQ in Texas to be counted. Yes, you read this correctly, our ballots are NO longer counted in Hawaii.
This non-transparent process has decreased confidence in our elections. No amount of mail-in convenience is worth not knowing the answer to the following questions: Are our elections accurate? How do we ensure the chain of custody with mail-in voting without the "official observers" present during many parts of the process, and no chain of custody records are presented to the public? How do we know our ballots are being counted? How do we know the early ballot information is kept secure? How can we know that the numbers of ballots printed, sent out and returned are all accounted for? How do we know that the intended recipient of the mail-in ballot receives and returns that ballot? How are the signatures on the returned ballots verified?
The process is no longer transparent and nobody has been held accountable for violations of election laws. No investigations by the Election Commission has taken place - EVER!
If you are unable to vote in-person on Election Day, do your best to vote in-person or drop you mail-in ballot in a drop box as close as possible to Election Day.
No matter what, you must vote!!! Do not sit this one out.The goal is to return to common sense elections.
3. Try your best to
keep your ballot sealed. See the civil beat ballot sample (
here) to do your research.
Bring your unopened ballot to the voting center when you vote as proof you have not voted before arriving. (this applies when voting in-person. if you have already opened your ballot, bring it with you to the voting center anyway).
4. Use a
blue pen to vote (the machines use black to print).
5. Be prepared to wait in long lines - bring an umbrella, water, a snack, your blue pen. Go with friends and neighbors to make the waiting fun. This inconvenience of the current process - the too few voting "Service" centers is inconvenient to you the voters, but not to the Election Office. Let that sink in. Remember, these are OUR elections. By voting in-person, you are helping reclaim our election process.
Some useful Election-related links below:
Register to vote (
here)
Hawaii Family Forum (
here)
Check your voter registration status (
here)
See the candidates page (
here)
See Star Advertiser Q & A with Candidates: (
here)
