Voter registration at record high

WAILUKU - Maui County has set a record for the number of people registered to vote in the Nov. 4 general election, but what portion of the 85,197 registered voters actually shows up to cast ballots will be another question entirely.

There was also a record high number of voters registered in Maui County for the Sept. 20 primary/first special election, but voter turnout was a record low of 25.5 percent.

That was a marked drop from the previous two primary elections - 42 percent in 2006 and 40 percent in 2004.

The county's voter registration for next month's general election represents a 5.7 percent increase over the 80,638 registered for the same election in 2006. In previous election years, registration for the general elections was 77,488 in 2004, 79,045 in 2002 and 73,331 in 2000.

Statewide, more voters are registered to vote in Hawaii than ever before, with 691,356 people registered for next month's election, election officials said.

The figure represents a 3.6 percent increase over this year's primary election. The last day to register to vote was Oct. 6.

The previous high for voter registration was in 2002, when Hawaii had 676,242 registered voters.

Honolulu Elections Administrator Glen Takahashi said interest in the presidential race has boosted the number of registered voters.

Oahu has the most with more than 466,499. The Big Island has 99,337 voters and Kauai has 40,323.

Takahashi said there have been 77,000 requests for absentee ballots, which is also an all-time high. The Maui County Clerk's Office reported there are more than 9,500 requests for absentee ballots.

Absentee walk-in voting begins Tuesday.