The push to conduct neighborhood board elections through strictly digital means — voting online and by phone — is a worthwhile experiment that can help Hawai'i move toward a more efficient, electronic polling system for all of its political contests.

But to get there from here, government leaders have to pay attention to the lessons that this grand experiment is already teaching.

In the city Neighborhood Board elections that continue through Friday, one lesson is that saving money by curbing access to ballots is a bad bargain.

Only 115,000 are eligible to vote in the elections — an appallingly low figure, given that there are approximately 420,000 registered voters.

The commission has mailed election passcodes — which entitle voters to an electronic ballot — only to those living in districts where there are contested board races, and only if they voted in the 2008 general election.

Almost half of the 33 boards have all uncontested races, which means that nearly half of those serving in this system of grassroots governance will do so without a single vote being cast for them. That seems singularly undemocratic.

Even worse is the fact that people who failed to vote in one election are disqualified from participating in another. There at least should have been a way for such residents to appear in person at one of three polling places, prove residency and be issued a passcode.

Some of the technical wrinkles can be ironed out with more experience. Some vote-by-phone users, for example, have reported being disconnected when trying to cast their ballots.

The city needs to budget enough funds to encourage maximum participation in local elections. That is, after all, the point of grassroots governance.