Hawaii’s Primary Election Day

It’s tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 11, a little more than a month earlier than it used to be. Changes in the election laws dictated that Hawaii’s primary elections be moved to August. Which isn’t such a big deal for me, but I know political strategists had a whole new ball field to consider.

Not only is the field-reducing election earlier, the pols have to give more consideration to running their advertising early because of the burgeoning number of absentee voters. The wife and I began casting absentee ballots quite a while ago; I like not having to drive to the polls and fighting traffic and long lines of voters on Election Day.

Okay … so it’s time for the political supporter sign count that I do. I admit I’d forgotten about it this year – when you’re retired, these things tend to skip one’s mind – but I had a chance to drive the mile between my house and Manoa Marketplace, this time keeping my scratch pad handy so I could take a tally.

A general observation: The number of signs for this primary is greatly diminished from the number of signs I’ve seen in the past, a bit curious because of some of the hot races.

Anyway, here’s what I saw:

Honolulu Mayor (non-partisan): Former City Manager Kirk Caldwell leads with 3, incumbent Peter Carlisle has 2 , and former Governor Ben Cayetano has 1.

U.S. Senate: U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono (D) has 3, former U.S. Rep. Ed Case (D) has 2.

U.S. House: Charles Djou (R) has 1, incumbent Colleen Hanabusa (D) is nowhere to be seen.

Hawaii Senate 11^th District: Incumbent Brian Taniguchi (D) has 3, incumbent Carol Fukunaga has 1.

Hawaii House 24^th District: Challenger Kimberly Case (D) has 2 (I think those were hers that I saw), incumbent Isaac Choy has 0.

Honolulu Prosecutor (non-partisan): Deputy Atty. Gen. Kevin Takata has 1, incumbent Keith Kaneshiro has none. There’s a “Cal Lee Prosecutor” sign up, but I can’t find him listed anywhere as a candidate.

In the past, road signage along Manoa Road has proved prophetic more times than not. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow when the polls for the Hawaii Primary Election close.