2020 Hawaii Democratic presidential primary

Hawaii was to be one of four states holding presidential primaries on April 4, 2020, along with Alaska, Louisiana and Wyoming. All four states moved their dates back in order to make the primary all mail-in ballots.[2] The Hawaii Democratic Party's draft delegate selection plan published on March 25, 2019, called for a shift away from caucuses as in previous years to a party-run primary, also known as a firehouse primary (officially referred to as a "presidential preference poll"), with a limited ranked-choice voting system allowing voters to select their top three choices, in addition to accepting mail-in ballots from March 3 to March 28, 2020.[3]

Voting with paper ballots originally was to take place throughout the state from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m; due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawaii, in-person voting for the primary was cancelled and voting by mail was extended until May 22. In the closed party-run primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 22 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, 7 and 8 were allocated to the two congressional districts, respectively, and another 3 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 6 at-large pledged delegates.[4] Originally planned with 22 delegates, the final number included a 10% bonus of 2 additional delegates by the Democratic National Committee due to the original April date, which belonged to Stage II on the primary timetable.[5]

Before the primary, precinct meetings were held on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, to choose precinct level delegates for the state convention. As the state convention, planned for May 23 to May 24, was postponed until September,[6][7] national convention district-level delegates were elected on June 8 online, and the state central committee also elected online the 5 pledged at-large and 3 PLEO delegates for the Democratic National Convention. The 24 pledged delegates Hawaii sent to the national convention were joined by 9 unpledged PLEO delegates (4 members of the Democratic National Committee; 4 members of Congress, including both Senators and U.S. Representatives; and the governor David Ige).[4]

The following individuals appeared on the ballot in Hawaii:[8]

Running

• Joe Biden

Withdrawn

Michael Bennet, John Delaney and Kamala Harris also qualified but withdrew early enough to be taken off the ballot. There was also an uncommited option.

The primary was conducted by ranked-choice voting. Voters were instructed to mark their top three choices on paper ballots. Any voter with a first choice other than Biden or Sanders had their ballot count in the final round if ranking one of those candidates as a second or third choice.

• The Green Papers delegate allocation summary
• Hawaii Democratic Party delegate selection plan
• 2020 Hawai’i Democratic Presidential Primary Voters Guide, Democratic Party of Kauai.