Common Cause Continues to Advocate for Modern Elections in Hawaii During 2018 Legislative Session

(Honolulu, HI)— With the 2018 legislative session on the horizon, Common Cause Hawaii remains committed to prioritizing Automatic Voter Registration and Voting By Mail. There is a growing pro-democracy movement afoot and Common Cause intends to capitalize on this momentum by continuing to support legislation with the ability to make voting more accessible and secure.

“We should be reducing barriers to voting by implementing proven solutions like Automatic Voter Registration and Voting By Mail in order to increase overall participation,” said Corie Tanida, Executive Director, Common Cause Hawaii, alluding to voter turnout trends in states like Washington and Oregon that are already using some of these tactics. “When Hawaii has the lowest voter turnout in the nation we must do what we can to push voter reform to the top of everyone’s agenda,” she concluded.

 Hawaii has been dead last in voter tournout among all 50 states for the last five presidential elections with only 43% of eligible voters casting ballots in the last presidential election. 2017 marked the third consecutive year that a vote by mail measure made it to conference and did not become law, while Automatic Voter Registration was deferred and carried over to the 2018 regular session. This occurred despite data confirming an increase in voter turnout in states already using a vote by mail system and an opt-out registration approach. 

Automatic Voter Registration and Voting By Mail complement previously successful efforts such as online voter registration and same day voter registration. More information on election modernization and how to support these initiatives is available at www.modernelectionshi.org.   

Common Cause Hawaii is a state chapter of the national Common Cause organization. Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to protecting and improving Hawaii’s political process and holding government accountable to the public interest. For more information, please visit hi.commoncause.org.

 

 

 

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