2012 Election Snapshot: Hawaii

Article January 16, 2014 Read time:

Projects: Election Initiatives

2012 Election Snapshots

Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week.

2012 Election Snapshot—Hawaii

In 2012, Hawaii was the only state to report to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission that it rejected no military or overseas ballots. The state sent 2,995 ballots to military and overseas voters; election officials reported that 2,018 were returned, and all were counted. Hawaii’s most populous election jurisdiction, Honolulu County, accounted for 88 percent of the military and overseas ballots transmitted, returned, and counted.

During the 2012 election, Hawaii had the lowest turnout in the country. Only 45 percent of the state’s voting-eligible population cast a ballot, more than 14 percentage points below the national turnout of 59 percent. Hawaii’s turnout was also the lowest in 2008, at 49 percent, compared with 62 percent nationally.