Barack Obama's popularity in Hawai'i apparently did not translate into higher voter turnout.

Although official results have yet to be released, the state Office of Elections put turnout for the general election at 66 percent, slightly less than the 67 percent of registered voters who cast ballots during the last presidential election in 2004.

Democrats and Republicans had thought turnout would be higher this year because of interest the Hawai'i-born Obama's historic campaign for the White House. A Honolulu ballot question on rail transit and three mayoral runoffs also provided late incentives for voters after what looked, earlier this year, to be a lackluster local ballot.

"It doesn't seem right," said state Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), an Obama supporter who thought, based on anecdotal evidence, that more new and infrequent voters were participating.

"I know there were a lot of new voters. And I can't imagine the old-timers — the core — not coming out."

The lack of detailed exit polls in Hawai'i makes it impossible to create a demographic picture of who voted. Political analysts, however, believe two factors could explain the lower-than-expected turnout.

First, Obama was favored to win Hawai'i over U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, so the presidential campaign was not competitive locally. Infrequent voters, or voters who lean independent or Republican, could have stayed home because the outcome in Hawai'i was not in doubt.

In 2004, late polls that showed a potentially close race between President Bush and U.S. Sen. John Kerry in the Islands drove voter turnout substantially higher than the 2000 presidential election. The Honolulu mayoral runoff in 2004 between Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum was also closer than Hannemann's re-election Tuesday over City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi.

Second, more than two dozen state House and Senate campaigns were decided in the primary and several others were not competitive, which likely depressed turnout in those districts for the general election.

'VOTING IS A HABIT'

Analysts also noted that the record number of early and absentee mail voters did not lead to higher turnout overall. The trend, this year at least, meant only that people were changing their voting behavior, not turning out in a greater percentage to vote.

Neal Milner, a University of Hawai'i-Manoa ombudsman and political analyst, said without demographic data it is difficult to explain the state's lower turnout for presidential elections over the past few decades.

"Voting is a habit," he said. "And, of course, like any other habit, the first time you do it is in some ways the most formative. People who register, they are not necessarily going to go. I suppose that had the presidential election here been seen as more competitive, like it was in 2004, it may have made a difference."

Dan Boylan, a University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu history professor and political analyst, had predicted higher turnout this year because of Obama and the interest young people had in his campaign. Like Milner, he believes fewer competitive local races kept turnout down.

"There was no juice in this election except for rail and for Obama," he said.

In raw numbers, voter registration increased 44,118 statewide since 2004, to 691,356 voters. The number of people who voted in the general election increased by about 24,000 from four years ago, to about 455,650 voters.

Andy Winer, Obama's state director, said he was pleased with the campaign's get-out-the-vote operation, which focused mainly on 40,000 to 45,000 likely Democratic voters. Obama pulled down more than 325,550 votes statewide, compared with 231,708 for Kerry in 2004.

"I am a little bit surprised it wasn't higher," Winer said of overall turnout.

Democrats had hoped that higher turnout because of Obama would help with state House and Senate campaigns. Even though the higher turnout did not materialize, Democrats believe Obama's overwhelming victory contributed to the party picking up one seat in the House and one seat in the Senate on Tuesday.

Democrats had feared they would lose up to three House seats to Republicans.

"Exciting contests in individual communities drive turnout in those communities, and there was very little happening at the legislative level in most places," said Brian Schatz, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawai'i,

Willes Lee, the state GOP chairman, said he believes Obama was a factor in the two losses by Republican incumbents and in several other close House and Senate campaigns.

"They certainly got their Obama vote out, and we believe that affected us," he said. "I believe that, had Sen. Obama been the senator from Kansas, that we would have won those races."