Hawaii

Hawaii is an outlier twice over. Getting on the ballot as a candidate is trivially easy by national standards — 15 to 25 valid signatures and a filing fee — while getting a policy question in front of voters statewide is impossible, because Hawaii has no citizen initiative, referendum, or recall at the state level. All genuine measure petitioning in Hawaii happens at the county level, under four separate county charters with four different thresholds.

Signature and Fee Requirements

Nomination Papers Are Short but Exacting

The signature counts are small, but each signer must supply name, signature, residence address, and month and day of birth, and all of it must match the statewide voter registration record. Signers must be registered in the district the candidate seeks. Because the requirement is so low, campaigns tend to under-collect; officials advise gathering several times the minimum, since a handful of registration mismatches can sink a filing.

One Filing Window, No Extensions

The candidate filing period opens in early February of the election year and closes at 4:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday in June. State law bars any exception or extension. Nomination papers include an oath of loyalty that must be sworn before a notary public or another officer authorized to administer oaths, and once papers are filed a candidate cannot add signatures to fix a shortfall.

No Statewide Initiative — Confirmed

Hawaii's constitution provides no mechanism for citizens to initiate a statute or a constitutional amendment, and no popular referendum to veto legislation. Proposals to create one have been introduced repeatedly and have never been adopted. Everything that appears on a Hawaii statewide ballot as a question was placed there by the Legislature or by a constitutional convention.

How the Constitution Actually Changes

The Legislature may propose an amendment by a two-thirds vote on final reading in one session, or by a simple majority in two successive sessions. Ratification requires a majority of votes cast on the question, and that majority must equal at least 50% of the total votes cast at the election — so blank ballots effectively count as no votes. At a special election the alternative bar is 30% of all registered voters.

The Constitutional Convention Question

Article XVII requires that the question of calling a constitutional convention be put to voters at least every nine years. Voters last rejected it in 2018, which puts the next mandatory submission on the 2028 general election ballot. A convention is the only route by which a broad rewrite of the constitution can originate outside the Legislature.

Ballot Measures in Hawaii

Hawaii has no statewide citizen initiative, no popular referendum, and no statewide recall — it is one of a small group of states where voters cannot originate a ballot measure at all. Constitutional amendments reach the ballot only through the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote in one session or a simple majority in two successive sessions, or through a constitutional convention, and ratification requires that the yes votes amount to at least 50% of all ballots cast at that election. The convention question itself must be submitted to voters at least every nine years; it was last rejected in 2018, making 2028 the next required appearance. Real petition work in Hawaii is therefore county work: all four counties — Honolulu, Hawai'i, Maui and Kaua'i — provide charter-based initiative and charter-amendment petitions, with thresholds ranging from 5% to 20% and different bases in each county. Honolulu, the largest, requires 10% of the registered voters at the last mayoral election for both ordinance initiatives and charter amendments, a figure that has run near 55,000 signatures in recent cycles.

What Trips Campaigns Up in Hawaii

Sources

• Hawaii Office of Elections — 2026 Candidate's Manual
• Hawaii Revised Statutes 12-6 — Nomination Papers and Fees
• Constitution of the State of Hawaii, Article XVII

Other State Guides