Hawaii tied West Virginia for 49th place in voter turnout in the November election -- and I 'm pretty pumped about it . That may seem like a strange thing to be excited about , or even to know about , but hear me out on this : Since September , I 've been writing about Hawaii 's lowest-of-the-low voter turnout rate for a new CNN project called Change the List . The goal , as the project name spells out in even-Ke $ ha-can-understand terms ( sorry , Ke $ ha , I 'm sure you 're smart , but that dollar sign ... ) , was to bump Hawaii off the bottom of that list . And I wanted to do that with your help . Dozens -- probably hundreds -- of you responded , making online pledges to vote for the first time and sending sometimes-pestering , sometimes-sweet messages to six nonvoters in Hawaii whose stories we highlighted on this website . Change the List : 47 of your pro-voting arguments . In the end , both Hawaii and West Virginia registered turnout rates of 44.2 % * , according to Michael McDonald , an associate professor at George Mason University who runs a site called the United States Election Project . Both states -- and many others -- saw a decline in turnout from the 2008 election . Nationwide , turnout dropped by about 3 % , McDonald said by phone . ( It 's impossible to be more precise because several states still have n't submitted their certified turnout numbers ; blame funding and mail-in ballots for that , he said . ) Hawaii 's turnout dropped 4.6 % , by comparison . That sounds like bad news . And , in some respects , it is . The situation at some polling places did n't make it easy to vote . More than two dozen of them on the island of Oahu alone ran out of ballots on Election Day . A polling place volunteer at one elementary school told me he had to start handing out Japanese-language ballots to English speakers just to keep the line moving . The state should institute same-day voter registration and other reforms that would encourage new voters to go to the polls . But if the goal of this project was for Hawaii not to be ranked 50th out of 50 states , then a tie for 49th has to be seen as some sort of victory . If nothing else , it 's a step in the right direction . Plus , your participation in this effort resulted in several unequivocal successes . My favorite : A single message from a Facebook fan of CNN iReport persuaded Michael Remen , a sous-chef in Hilo , Hawaii , to vote . He told me he would n't have cast a ballot otherwise . Here 's the note that did the trick : `` Send him a free ticket to Arlington Cemetery and ( show ) him how many reasons there are to vote , since all those there died for that right , here and abroad . '' Three of the six nonvoters we featured decided to vote because of your messages . Of course , six people wo n't move the needle on a state 's voter turnout rate , but those three people 's voices were heard by their government when they otherwise would n't have been . CNN , of course , ca n't take credit for the people who woke up in Hawaii , way out in the middle of the Pacific , on November 6 and decided to vote . This project received ample coverage in local news , and for that I 'm very grateful to websites like Civil Beat and TV stations like KITV for spreading the word about Hawaii 's low voter turnout rate . But voting ultimately is an intensely personal act . The people who really can improve Hawaii 's voting record are those who live in Hawaii and who want to make a difference . They 're people like Elle Cochran , who never voted until an issue moved her so much that she decided to run for office . She now is a county councilwoman in Maui . And they 're people like Joe Heaukulani , who goes door to door on Oahu trying to persuade people to vote -- for any candidate , regardless of political party . There are people like that in every state , working to make the U.S. government more accountable to all of its people . Progress may be slow , but thinking back on this project I 'm reminded of something Heaukulani said while I was canvassing with him . `` Even if you convince one person , '' he said , `` that means you did make a difference . '' Thanks to all of you who were a part of that difference . We 'll do it again soon . *Data nerd note : The voter turnout rates are rounded to one decimal place because of a margin of error associated with voting-eligible population data and with prison population estimates , McDonald said . `` Really , all of it has a measure of uncertainty . ''
In Hawaii and Hawaii , about 3 % of voters cast ballots in 2008 . The two states tied for the lowest voter turnout rate . KITV 's Change the List was trying to boost Hawaii 's turnout . The state ranked first in 2008 ; it moved into a tie for 49th this year .