I guess I was surprised by the results in the special election for the Honolulu City Council District 4 seat, which finally wrapped up last night.

The results were posted just before 9 p.m.

They were quite sparse. They tell us who won, but not much else. Lots of data that is normally available is missing, and these are data that both journalists and campaign strategists rely on.

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In a regular election, precinct-level data are available. This means that data for each polling place are reported.

Looking at the 2018 General Election results, for example, we know that a total of 1053 ballots were cast at Kahala Elementary School for either Tommy Waters or Trevor Ozawa, with 80 additional ballots were blank. In addition, the data show that 165 people registered to vote at Kahala School (District 19, Precinct 2) voted early and are reported as absentee walk-in votes. And, finally, the data show that 1,890 people mailed in their absentee ballots.

By comparing the results for precincts in different parts of a candidate’s district, it’s relatively simple to see where they were strongest, where they were trounced, and where they were competitive. That kind of information is essential for evaluating the campaign’s efforts and targeting campaign resources in future elections.

What isn’t clear at this point is whether similar data are available but not included in the campaign results posted by city election officials last night, or whether this information is simply lost. There’s nothing on the city’s Elections Division website to indicate that additional data will be forthcoming.

And, further, what data will be reported in future all-mail elections? Is there any technical reasons why these results were stripped of all precinct-level data? Does anybody else see this as a problem?