Only 6.3 percent of the people eligible to take part in this year’s neighborhood board elections actually participated, the Neighborhood Commission Office said today in announcing the results of the first-ever all-digital election.

Of approximately 115,000 voters eligible to vote, only 7,289 people went online or phoned in to vote. To be eligible, a person had to be a registered voter living in the district, and living in a neighborhood board district in which there was a contested race.

Neighborhood Commission executive director Joan Manke said she was “very disappointed” with the results, and said it was largely the result of voters getting used to a new way of doing things.

There was a 28 percent turnout in 2007, the last neighborhood board election. Paper ballots were issued to registered voters, who had the option of using them or going online.

Whether future board elections will give eligible voters the option to mail in ballots is a decision that will be up to the Neighborhood Commission. The Honolulu City Council instructed the commission to go all-digital in the 2009 election as a cost-saving measure.

Voting was conducted May 6-22.