Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Hawaii legislature to provide that special elections should be conducted using Instant Runoff Voting. The House bill, HB 638, was to have had a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on February 1, but that hearing has been postponed to February 15. The identical Senate bill, SB 667, doesn’t have a hearing date yet.
Hawaii special elections include party labels on the ballot, but parties don’t have nominees. There is only one round in special elections. On May 22, 2010, Hawaii had held a special U.S. House election, in which the three leading candidates were Republican Charles Djou, and Democrats Colleen Hanabusa and Ed Case. Djou won with 39.4% of the total vote cast. The two leading Democrats, together, polled 58.4%, but they were both defeated since Djou polled the most votes. In November 2010, under a normal system in which parties have nominees, Djou was defeated.