Five days before the polls close, more than 115,000 votes had already been cast via mail-in or early walk-in voting.

The absentee turnout for Tuesday’s election is an early indicator that the state is on track for a year much like 2006, but far short of the record set in 2008.

The deadline for election officials to receive mail-in ballots isn’t until 6 p.m. Tuesday, and walk-in voting continues through Saturday. But the number of absentee voters won’t touch the 175,526 absentee ballots that were cast in the 2008 election that saw Hawaii-born Barack Obama elected president.

Historically, Hawaii has seen better general election turnouts in presidential years than in gubernatorial years, and the current trend puts Hawaii on track to surpass the 118,823 absentee votes cast in 2006. It will also likely surpass the 129,980 absentee ballots cast in the 2010 primary election.

The number of mail-in ballots requested increased to 135,772 from 111,484 in the primary election, according to county election officials. And the overall voter registration is up from 684,481 to 690,748, according to the Hawaii Office of Elections — though that’s down about 600 from the 2008 registration total of 691,356.

In Honolulu alone, more than 83,000 voters had already made their choice as of mid-day Thursday. Honolulu City Elections Administrator Glen Takahashi told Civil Beat Thursday afternoon that more than 68,000 mail-in ballots had already been processed and 15,476 walk-in votes cast. The city sent out 104,781 ballots after sending out about 87,000 for the primary, he said.

Hawaii County Elections Program Administrator Pat Nakamoto said Thursday that 6,921 mail-in ballots had been received as of the end of the day Wednesday. The Big Island mailed out 10,909 ballots, up from 7,910 in the primary. Nakamoto said 7,464 Big Island voters had participated in walk-in voting with three full days remaining.

A Maui County official in the elections division of the county clerk said Thursday that 7,299 of 9,715 mail ballots had been received. In the primary, 8,897 mail ballots were sent out. THe official said 2,416 Maui voters participated in walk-in voting.

Kauai County Clerk Peter Nakamura said 6,216 of 8,064 mail ballots had been received as of the mid-day Thursday. There were 7,677 ballots mailed for the primary. He said 1,848 Kauai voters participated in early walk-in voting as of Wednesday.

Source: Hawaii Office of Elections and county elections officials

All told, more than 27,000 voters cast a ballot during early walk-in voting since Oct. 19. More than 88,000 mail-in ballots had been processed, with nearly 50,000 outstanding.

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