Hawaii had been scheduled to hold its primary on April 4, 2020, along with the
Alaska and
Louisiana primaries and
Wyoming caucuses on the same day, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic the state party decided on March 27, 2020, that all voting had to occur by mail instead and that ballots received by May 22 would be counted. The
Hawaii Democratic Party's draft delegate selection plan published on March 25, 2019, had called for a shift away from caucuses as in previous years to a party-run primary, also known as a
firehouse primary or officially a "presidential preference poll", with a limited
ranked-choice voting system allowing voters to select their top three choices. Mail-in ballots would have been accepted from March 3 to March 28, 2020. Voting with paper ballots originally was to take place throughout the state from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m on a Saturday. Candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 22 pledged delegates to the
2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, 7 and 8 were allocated to the two
congressional districts, respectively, and another 3 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 6 at-large delegates. Originally planned with 22 delegates, the final number included a 10% bonus of 2 additional delegates on the 14 district and 5 at-large delegates by the
Democratic National Committee due to the original April date, which belonged to Stage II on the primary timetable. Before the primary, precinct meetings were held on March 4, 2020, to choose delegates for the state convention. As the state convention, planned for May 23 to May 24, was postponed until September, the state convention delegates voted on national convention district delegates online on June 8, while the state central committee voted on the at-large and pledged PLEO delegates online on June 13. The delegation also included 9 unpledged PLEO delegates: 4 members of the
Democratic National Committee, 4 members of Congress (both senators and all two representatives), and the governor
David Ige. ==Candidates==