Early walk-in voting begins today at five locations on the Big Island.
Early walk-in voting begins today at five locations on the Big Island.
Voters can cast ballots early until Nov. 1 in Pahala, Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Waimea and, for the first time, the Nanawale Estates subdivision in Puna. The general election is Nov. 4.
Hawaii County is providing early walk-in voting in Puna in case the June 27 lava flow interferes with Election Day.
As of September, 7,542 registered voters were identified as being potentially impacted.
County Clerk Stewart Maeda said lava might not impact the election since its advance toward Pahoa has slowed during the past several weeks.
In case that changes, the county has stored enough ballots on both sides of the flow so precincts can be consolidated, he said.
“We don’t anticipate that it will (impact the election), but in case it does, we have contingency plans in regards to that as well,” Maeda said.
The county also mailed permanent absentee applications to non-absentee voters in lower Puna to encourage more to vote by mail ahead of Election Day.
Maeda said the county mailed 25,388 absentee ballots islandwide and 2,272 in three lower Puna precincts. As of Monday, 8,066 absentee ballots had been returned, including 664 from those three precincts.