In Hawaiʻi, a legislative race can be over before the general election begins. If a primary leaves a candidate with no general election opponent, the Hawaiʻi Constitution treats that candidate as elected at the primary, and the seat never reaches the November ballot. After the 2026 primary, Civil Beat reported that several Democratic and Republican lawmakers had already won reelection outright.
A voter who would prefer someone not listed has no way to vote for that person. Hawaiʻi does not allow write-in votes, which let a voter choose a candidate whose name is not printed, and it is one of six states that prohibit them. The National Conference of State Legislatures counts 43 states that permit write-in candidates for most state and federal offices. In most of those, a voter cannot simply write down any name and have it count, because the candidate has to file a declaration of intent by a deadline.
Alan Burdick, a registered voter in Honolulu, ran into that system in 1986, when only one candidate filed for his state House district. Burdick did not want to vote for him and asked election officials whether he could write in somebody else.
Hawaiʻi law made no provision for it, so he sued. While the case was pending, the Legislature sent voters a constitutional amendment providing that an unopposed legislative nominee is elected at the primary, which voters approved in 1988…