Hawaii primary set for Aug. 8 with statewide races and Senate vacancy contest

Hawaii’s Office of Elections has formally proclaimed the state’s Aug. 8, 2026, primary election, setting the date for a mail election that will cover statewide offices, congressional seats, the Legislature, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and a vacancy in the 19th Senate District.

The proclamation is dated May 11, 2026, and was jointly issued by the chief election officer and Hawaii’s county clerks. It applies throughout the state. The primary is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 8.

For Hawaii voters, the date is the next major statewide election deadline identified in the proclamation. The election will determine which contests advance within the 2026 cycle, although the approved election materials do not include candidate lists, ballot-return figures or results.

Races included in the primary

The ballot includes races for governor and lieutenant governor, along with contests for two U.S. House seats. It also includes 13 state Senate seats and 51 state House seats.

Voters will also consider contests for five Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee seats. Those races appear alongside the executive, congressional and legislative contests in the primary proclamation.

A separate vacancy contest will be held for Hawaii Senate District 19. That contest is limited to the district with the vacant seat; it is not a statewide election in which voters across Hawaii select a replacement.

The distinction matters because the same primary includes both statewide or broad legislative contests and a district-specific Senate election. Voters need to identify which races apply to their ballot rather than treating every contest listed for Aug. 8 as a statewide choice.

Mail voting and voter service centers

Hawaii conducts this election by mail. The election structure is organized around ballots sent to voters, but the state also provides voter service centers for people who need or prefer in-person election services.

According to the proclamation, those centers provide accessible in-person voting, same-day registration and ballot collection. The options are relevant to voters who need an accessible voting setting, need to register on the same day or want to return a ballot through a service center.

The approved materials do not provide the current locations or operating hours for voter service centers. They also do not provide ballot-return totals. Voters should rely on the Office of Elections’ current instructions for those operational details instead of assuming when or where a ballot can be returned.

The proclamation confirms mail voting, but it does not support saying that every voter must use mail delivery or that ballots must be postmarked by Aug. 8. The available in-person services remain part of the election process.

What happens after the primary

The general election is scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026. The Aug. 8 primary is therefore an early, scheduled stage of the broader election cycle, not a final account of who will hold any office.

The proclamation establishes the dates and identifies the contests. It does not provide candidate names, participation estimates, ballot-return statistics or election results. Those details are not included in the approved election information.

For now, the key practical information is the scope of the ballot and the available ways to participate: the mail primary on Aug. 8, voter service centers offering accessible in-person voting, same-day registration and ballot collection, and a Senate District 19 vacancy contest that applies only within that district. The next scheduled statewide election step is the general election on Nov. 3.