A cautionary note from Honolulu's experiment in conducting voting for its municipal elections entirely by Internet and a phone system that fed into the web. The Honolulu Advertiser is reporting that turnout in what was billed as the world's very first entirely digital election came in at 6%, compared to 28% in the 2007 elections where voters could opt for a paper ballot.

But while it's tempting to chalk up the disappointing turnout to shortcomings in newfangled technology, this might instead be, in large part, a failure in old-fashioned voter education. One neighborhood commissioner suggested to the newspaper that "voters weren't used to a new way of choosing candidates. For one thing, the Advertiser reports that voters had to receive a password by mail to use the digital system. If the people of Honolulu are anything like me, there's a good chance that those mailers are stacked up on kitchen tables across the city, unopened.