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Actual Vote in Hawaii

Observe the count

Information current as of October 2026

This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Hawaii for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.

Hawaii votes by mail and tabulates at four county counting centers, which are closed to walk-in visitors — no one may enter without authorization from the chief election officer or county clerk, and disclosing any counting-center printout before polls close is prohibited. Two real alternatives: anyone may apply to serve as an Official Observer (the public's “eyes and ears” inside the counting center, verifying zero reports and certifying summary reports), and the Office of Elections publishes a Statewide Precinct Detail report — every precinct's results in one document, the functional equivalent of every poll tape in the state.

Your participation is powerful: you join a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results — an independent check on vote reporting, which is vulnerable to error and fraud. We haven’t published an Actual Vote analysis from Hawaii yet, but see what a team achieved in the 2024 North Carolina primary. The process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public.

Poll closing time in Hawaii: 7 p.m. Anyone still in line at closing time is entitled to vote, so the closing procedure — and the tape — can run later.

Get the app How Actual Vote works See an example analysis

This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Hawaii as of October 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.

If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Hawaii is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.

Your ways to participate in Hawaii

See how the six ways to help compare →

  1. 1

    Record posted tapes at polling placesNot available in Hawaii

    Hawaii votes by mail and counts ballots centrally, so there’s no polling-place tape (see use case 2).

  2. 2

    Observe the count

    Hawaii counts at its counting centers, and no one may enter without the authorization of the chief election officer or the county clerk. The public’s route is the Official Observer program, whose volunteers watch the count on the public’s behalf; apply through the Office of Elections, and ask whether observers may video-record what’s printed.

    See observing central tabulation.

  3. 3

    Record early-voting tapes

    Hawaii votes mostly by mail. Voter service center scanners aren’t closed out on site: their data and ballots go to the counting center, where results are printed after the last voter statewide has voted (counting center manual). Volunteer Official Observers watch the counting center, and per-scanner reports can be printed there. Call your county elections office ahead of time and ask where and when the early-voting tapes will be printed, and whether you may observe and video-record them. If they don’t have a plan to show them, you can politely ask them to display the tapes.

    See a detailed example of recording early-voting tapes, based on Cobb County, Georgia.

  4. 4

    Become a poll worker or observer

    Working the polls or serving as an appointed observer puts you right at the source — the earliest point in the chain of custody, and the clearest view of the count and the tape.

    See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.

    Sign up to be a poll worker →

  5. 5

    Visit or book an appointment at your county elections office

    Election offices can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — a great way to cover a whole county on your own schedule.

    Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Hawaii county elections office
    To: [your county] County elections office
    Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes

    Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.

    We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct results tapes (summary statements) from the [date] election — Election Day, absentee/by-mail, and early voting — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.

    Everything on these tapes is public records under the Hawaii Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA) (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 92F-11), and already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]

    Offices are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier. See the full worked example for more.

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

  6. 6

    File a public-records request for poll-tape images

    Poll tapes are public records under the Hawaii Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA). You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — available in every state, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.

    Public-records request email — Hawaii counting-center results reports
    To: [your county] Elections Division
    Re: Public records request — [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election] counting-center results tapes, [your county]

    Dear [County] Elections Division,

    Under the Hawaii Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA), Haw. Rev. Stat. § 92F-11, I'm requesting copies of public election records — specifically the precinct-level results tapes and summary reports printed by the ballot tabulation equipment at the county counting center, meeting the following criteria:

    • From Hawaii's [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election]
    • Covering every precinct counted at [your county]'s counting center — I understand Hawaii votes by mail and tabulates centrally rather than at individual precincts, so these would be the counting center's tabulator tapes and summary reports rather than polling-place poll tapes
    • The tapes/reports showing candidate-by-candidate vote totals by precinct — I don't need the zero or configuration tapes, though including them is fine
    • If a consolidated Statewide Precinct Detail report covering all of [your county]'s precincts is more readily available than the individual tapes, that would also satisfy this request

    Digital scans (emailed or via a download link, in any common format such as .pdf or .jpg) would be ideal; physical copies for pickup or mail are also fine. These are public records, and the totals they show are already in the official published results. They'll be used for legitimate, non-partisan vote-reporting auditing with Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — you can see exactly how it works, and why it's non-partisan, at Start Here.

    If you must redact anything beyond precinct name and results totals, please go ahead. If you deny any part of this request, please cite the specific exemption and let me know the appeal options under the law. Please also tell me of any fee in advance — I request a fee waiver, as this analysis is in the public interest, contributes to election transparency, and is not for any commercial purpose.

    Because our analysis is most useful before results are certified, I'd be grateful for the data within about a week if possible; if you expect a delay, just let me know when to expect it.

    Thank you for considering this request. — [name], [email/phone]

    See a detailed example of how to do this.

Example Actual Vote Recordings

We don’t have any recordings from Hawaii yet — you could be the first! Here are some example poll tape videos by Actual Vote users in other states, all taken during scheduled visits to an elections office. America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. See this report from North Carolina in 2022 for an example.

Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.

How we know this — and how you can check it

This reflects America Counts’s primary-source review of Hawaii’s election statutes and Secretary of State guidance, most recently updated in October 2026; the summary at the top of this page and the early-voting card link the provisions it relies on. Procedures can still vary locally, so the surest way to confirm what applies at your polling place or elections office is to call them directly. Found something different? Tell us and we’ll verify it and fix the page.

Find your county's election website

County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Search "[your county], Hawaii elections" if a link 404s.

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Join the nationwide team independently double-checking how votes are reported — starting in Hawaii.

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