HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Thousands of voters across Hawaii faced long lines on Election Day, with some in West Oahu waiting up to six hours to cast their ballots. At locations like Honolulu Hale and Kapolei, frustration grew as voters endured hours of waiting to fulfill their civic duty. Get Hawaii's latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You “That’s the only time I had time, the only day I had time,” said Adrienne Mauai, a voter at the Kapolei service center. “It sucks, but we want to vote. We want our vote to count,” said Tiane Marciél, another voter in Kapolei. On Tuesday, voters joined tens of thousands across the Hawaiian Islands who opted to vote in person, including more than 22,000 on Oahu, over 7,000 on Hawaii Island, nearly 6,000 across Maui County, and nearly 3,500 on Kauai. In total, nearly 40,000 people voted in person, with more than 15,000 casting their ballots on Election Day alone. “I’ve been standing up all day, so what’s a couple more hours being able to do your civic duty?” said Cory Haines, another voter at Kapolei. “It’s a little frustrating. But you know what? Now that we’re at the end, I’m excited,” said Beverly Ani, who finally cast her vote late Tuesday evening in Kapolei. The last in-person ballot was cast just after midnight at the Kapolei voter service center, marking the close of a marathon day for election officials and voters alike. However, the long waits have raised concerns among lawmakers and voters, many of whom say the process needs reform. Gov. Green on Trump win: “we’re gonna be fine” House Minority Leader Diamond Garcia expressed frustration with the long lines, saying, “A lot of people walked out of line because it was way too long, five, six-hour waits. That is ridiculous. It is unacceptable.” When asked about solutions to reduce wait times for future elections, election officials acknowledged the challenges. “We’re going to do an after-action review and take a look at all of our options,” said Glen Takahashi, Honolulu County clerk. “But you’re only as good as your site that is going the slowest. So even if we ran five sites, we could still have one that had to go until midnight, and we’d be in the same place.” Maui County Clerk Moana Lutey added that more education might help voters better understand why waits are so long. “Is it a matter of more education, so people understand that this was not COVID-related? Because unfortunately, those seem to coincide,” she said. ʻMost interesting race is South Maui, pro-development wonʻ Scott Nago, the state’s chief elections officer, noted that many delays stemmed from people updating their voter registration at the service centers rather than beforehand. “Voter education, letting people know that they should update their voter registration. If they're going to register to vote, they should do it beforehand, before going to the voter service center rather than doing it there, because (that's) a lot of what we saw with the taking up time." However, some voters, especially those who prefer in-person voting, bristled at the suggestion that the public needs to learn to vote differently. “Allow me to educate you as an African American male whose ancestors fought, died, been tortured, bombed for the right to vote in person, so I don't have to adjust to mail in voting,” said Camron Hurt, a voter rights advocate with Common Cause Hawaii. “I deserve to have as many options to vote as possible, and so do all my kama'aina residents here in the state.” Lawmakers and voter rights advocates are calling for changes to improve the voting process. Garcia, who reintroduced a bill last year to expand the number of polling places, vowed to continue pushing for reform. “We, the people, are not going to stand by and let this happen again,” Garcia said. Hawaii could see changes coming to State Constitution While the state’s transition to a vote-by-mail system was expected to save the state money, the cost of elections has actually risen. According to a recent review by Always Investigating, Hawaii’s elections have cost $1.5 million to $2 million more than originally projected, with savings of $750,000 a year not yet realized. If there are more service centers, the costs will mount even more. Lutey noted that opening additional polling places could help reduce wait times, but at a significant cost. “It’s significant, but it’s also very difficult to staff,” she said. “We had a really hard time staffing this time, and I don’t think we’re alone. So getting that manpower and funding, that seems sort of contradictory to what the goal the legislature had in going to the vote-by-mail.” Kimo Alameda reacts to mayoral poll results Another hope before the switch was to boost participation, but overall turnout is stagnant -- in the 50- to 60-percentile in presidential elections the old way, about the same range the new way. Meanwhile the number of folks devoted to election day in person is surging -- and critics say would be even more if it weren't made so inconvenient. “How many more might have (voted)? I mean, this is a situation that our officials were warned about specifically” said Hurt. It's not just an Oahu issue. Hawaii Island and Maui saw a same-day groundswell too after weeks of trickle-in voting on site when service centers opened in late October. “Come the 5th (of November), Wailuku had a long line, it went out toward the baseball park,” Lutey said. “The wait was over an hour for some people, and we ended up closing somewhere around 10 o'clock last night.” Always Investigating asked the state's chief election officer, couldn't you spike up resources with extra voter service centers on every island one day for election day? "You could do that," Nago said, "but unless you find a way to balance that, balance the load, all it takes is if anybody can go to any voter service center, you're going to have a line. If one voter service center is more popular, you're still going to have a line which will still hold up the results." Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news