PORTLAND, Ore. — There's more to this city and this state than quality artisan beers and beautiful roses. This is also the place where folks have given up the election day ritual of joining their neighbors at the local polling station. In Oregon, all balloting is done via U.S. Mail.

Is Hawai'i ready for this experiment in participatory democracy? In some ways, Hawai'i already has, through the backdoor route of absentee voting.

Since the rules for absentee voting in Hawai'i were liberalized, the number of people choosing to opt out of showing up on the polls on election day has surged. The Advertiser's Andy Yamaguchi recently crunched the numbers from several recent elections and came up with these statistics:

In the 1996 Hawai'i elections, absentee voting was around 15 percent. By the 2006 primary and general elections, when both voters and the campaigns began to understand the implications of the liberal absentee voting law, more than a third of all votes counted were absentee, either walk-in or mail.

Given Hawai'i's dismal voter turnout numbers in recent elections, this has to look like a good thing.

But there is a downside. When voting represents a period of time rather than a specific day, odd things can happen. Some worry about the possibility for electoral mischief, with campaigns "helping" confused or naive voters with their ballot. But there has always been cheating. There's no reason to assume candidates or their campaigns will be any more unethical simply because they have a different tool to use.

But what about the possibility that voters will send in their ballots before all the facts are in hand? That's not a theoretical question. One example: Texas allows voters to cast their ballot (at a polling place) up to 17 days before the election. This year, a lot of Texas voters did just that before Democratic candidate Barack Obama enjoyed his late-primary surge in a number of states, including Hawai'i.

Had they known what was happening in Hawai'i and elsewhere, might they have voted differently? Almost certainly they would have, either to join the bandwagon or to stop it.

Finally, campaigns have a natural rhythm. This fall the ballot will include a complicated question on a proposal for a Constitutional Convention. Most of the debate and discussion on that plan will come late in the campaign. Will those who vote early have enough information to make a sound decision?

Making it easy for people to vote is a good thing, obviously. But it is equally important that voters have all the facts before they cast their ballot. Almost any "reform" will put those two goals in some kind of conflict.

Jerry Burris' column appears Wednesdays. See his blog at http://akamaipolitics.honadvblogs.com. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.

Jerry Burris' column appears Wednesdays in this space. See his blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com/akamaipolitics. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.