As of 2018, Hawaii County had an estimated population (those for whom the island is their primary residence) of 200,983.
The percent of the population, 18 and older, who would have been eligible to vote was 78.4%. This gives a voter pool of eligible by age of 157,257.
Of the 157,257, 115,406 registered to vote.
Of those who registered to vote, 59,482 actually voted.
Only 37.82% of those eligible to vote took the time to vote. Some 97,824 eligible voters did not participate or 62.20%.
Nearly two-thirds of eligible voters were “indifferent.”
I hear complaints all the time about the root of our problems as being Congress and the politicians who are members (House of Representative and Senate).
Make an effort. We are the ones who vote them in, at least one-third of us do. And of that third, how well-informed are we really. What percent of those of us who vote really take the time to discuss the issues. Many of us may argue, but how many of us really discuss?
There really is a difference.
How many of us grab our friends by the belt/collar and say get involved, vote and get others involved? In a country of over 320 million people, it is only our fault if the wrong people have been voted in year after year. We let them get there and stay there.
I took a poll the other day. I stopped at six intersections with my windows rolled down. The impeachment hearings were going on. The cars in front of me and on each side of me who were also stopped weren’t listening to HPR and the hearings but everything else (and I have to confess there were those listening to the greatest hits of the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s also). So, who really cares and is to blame for the mess we are in?
Rod Quartararo is a resident of Kailua-Kona.