You couldn’t turn a corner or drive down a street in Kona last August without tripping over a street sign. The Big Island mayoral candidates had posted banners and there were signs on almost every street corner supporting the Hawaii County Council candidates.

But as General Election Day approaches, I can’t help but wonder: Where have all the signs gone?

In even years, most Americans expect to choose their representatives on the first Tuesday in November, but here on the Big Island the signs are gone. Candidate websites are closed.

And the holders? They are settling smugly into their second, third and fourth terms.

What happened?

I have a unique perspective on this because this year I helped recruit and support 10 candidates for Hawaii County Council. We ran candidates in six of the Big Island’s nine districts, and four of us ran in the same district.

Our goal? Force incumbents to answer to the public in general elections.

The results? Only two of the nine constituencies will appear on the general election ballot. The rest was decided in the August primaries.

In Hawaii County District 7, the incumbent was returned to the County Council, having received votes from only 11 percent of eligible voters. Eleven percent. In fact, a majority of voters either voted for a challenger or abstained from voting altogether.

The same thing happened in six other constituencies where failure to take into account the intention of voters who refused to vote awarded the seats to incumbent candidates.

Needless to say, our community will not engage in dialogue about the issues that plague us: lack of infrastructure, high taxes, out of control housing costs, lack of opportunity, and continued exodus. Instead, we will get two more years in the same way.

What about the voters who were looking to make a change in November? They will discover that their local elected officials are not even listed on the ballot.

Restricting access to the ballot is a common tool of the 20th century’s most despotic regimes, which found they could retain power simply by creating the appearance of free and fair elections.

By denying opponents access to the ballot, repressive regimes like China, Venezuela, and Russia can claim that their leaders enjoy broad support, even in the face of declining public opinion. Elections are a fiction that they use to legitimize their hold on power.

Here in the United States, primary elections are intended to reduce the number of candidates so that voters are not overwhelmed by dozens of candidates in the general election. Well, that and strengthening the two-party system. They are not intended to deprive general election voters of choice.

Here in Hawaii, the election system has been so rigged that incumbents don’t even need to run in the general election. Add to that the fact that mail-in voting shortens the primary election window to 44 days (from the end of the filing deadline to the day primary ballots arrive in the mail) and you begin to understand why our problems are not resolved. The incumbents are practically untouchable.

Hawaii politicians don’t answer to the public. They respond to unions, lobbyists and special interests who understand how the system is rigged and who recruit their members during the primary season. The rest of the audience is simply along for the ride.

Sure, it can change, but why would it? Why would incumbent operators who benefit from free access want to respond to challengers?

Here on the Big Island they just got a huge raise and they don’t answer to anyone. One of them, Holeka Inaba, even introduced House Bill 141 this session to extend their terms to four years and reset their term limits. He wants to stay in power for another 12 years. Honestly, after my experience this election cycle, I’m surprised this didn’t pass.

“Betrayal of democracy”

Last year I read “The Dawn of Everything,” which traces history through the lens of indigenous communities. One of the themes that struck me was that indigenous communities tended to vote with their feet. When they didn’t like a despot or dictator, they would simply pack up and leave.

One of the reasons Hawaii’s population is declining may be because people are fed up. They don’t see a path to meaningful change.

If the positions of the candidates closest to you aren’t even on the ballot, why bother voting? Why hope for change when change is structurally impossible?

If Hawaii is to create a future for our children, we need real change. And the first step toward that change is free and fair elections where the public has real choices.

At a minimum, the public deserves the opportunity to vote for every eligible office in every general election. Anything less is a disservice to the public and a betrayal of our democracy.

Here in Hawaii County, that means a primary system that forces incumbents to face a challenger in every general election. Incumbents would still have a significant advantage, but at least their offices would be on the ballot.

And the signs? They will stay until November.