The low voter rates continue a trend. Hawai'i had the lowest voter turnout of any state in the 2000 general election.

"The people don't think voting matters," said Grace Furukawa, president of Hawai'i Clean Elections, a nonpartisan group working for campaign finance reform. "They don't see any point to it. They don't feel represented. They just don't feel they have much of a voice in the decisions being made by the Legislature."

Furukawa said if elections were publicly financed, special interests would no longer "own" the election, and issues people care about would get equal attention. "That may not be the whole reason, but it plays a big role," she said.

Donna Ting, a Maui Realtor, said three members of her family of five adults are not registered to vote, including two sons she described as hardworking homeowners in their 20s.

"They're just too busy with their lives," she said. "Somehow young people don't believe their vote makes a difference."

Jeff Galon, 22, of Wai'anae said he has no plans to register to vote. Galon is a medic in the Navy, is stationed at Camp Smith.

"It's not really important to me right now," Galon said. He added that he generally doesn't trust politicians.

"To me, they're all the same," Galon said. "People aren't really truthful to themselves."

Of the 801,000 citizens eligible to vote in Hawai'i, only 425,000 registered, or 53.1 percent, according to the Census. Approximately 363,000 people went to the polls — 45.4 percent of the state's adult citizens.

A state elections official said it is the responsibility of political parties, candidates and special interests to motivate people to register and vote.

Rex Quidilla, voter services coordinator with the state Office of Elections, said his agency's job is to make the election process available and accessible.

"I think we've done that," he said. "It's like the old saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

Quidilla said the state's voter education budget could be larger. On the other hand, he noted, elections officials have spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads with no apparent effect.

Jean Aoki, legislative chair with the League of Women Voters of Hawai'i, said allowing voters to register on election day, as six states do, would boost voter participation. "You know how many people call in after the registration deadline asking if they can vote?" she said.

But the state Legislature has rejected that proposal at least twice in recent years.

The Census Bureau report noted that higher voting rates in 2002 were seen in states with same-day registration.

Low registration levels weren't always the norm in Hawai'i. In the early 1960s, when the Democrats were working to push the Republicans out of control, union officials drove field workers to polling sites in pineapple and sugar towns across the new state. The 1964 election saw an astounding turnout of 96 percent of registered voters.

The census data showed that 41.6 percent of women in Hawai'i voted in 2002, virtually identical to the percentage of men. But those percentages translate to approximately 190,000 women and 174,000 men.

A greater percentage of whites in Hawai'i voted compared with Asians and Pacific Islanders, who were lumped into one census category.

Nearly 48 percent of white adults in Hawai'i voted in 2002, compared with 39.6 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders. But that translated to 250,000 Asian and Pacific Islander voters, compared with 107,000 white voters.

Older people also were more likely to vote in Hawai'i, the census said, mirroring a national trend. Fewer than 30 percent of eligible voters in the state between the age of 25 to 44 went to the polls, compared with more than 55 percent of those between 45 and 64.

Nationally, a record number of people for a nonpresidential election — 128 million — registered to vote in the 2002 election. Another record number — 89 million — reported voting in the election, according to the Census Bureau.

About 123 million people were registered to vote in 1998, the previous high. The previous record turnout was 86 million in 1994. Reported turnout by registered voters was 69 percent in 2002, higher than the 68 percent who cast ballots in 1998.

Excluding North Dakota, which has no voter registration, Maine and Minnesota had the highest levels of voter registration in the country, about 80 percent. The highest voter turnouts were in Minnesota and South Dakota, at around 67 percent each.