South Maui Council race contested at state Supreme Court

Former Maui County Council Chair Kelly King and 30 Maui County voters have filed an election contest with the Hawai’i Supreme Court seeking to void the results of the South Maui County Council race and to order the holding of a new election.

By election day, the County Clerk deemed the return envelopes of 1069 mailed in ballots “deficient.” According to state law, a return envelope can be deemed deficient if the voter fails to sign the envelope, the signature on the envelope does not match the signature on file or some other condition of the envelope prevents the ballot from being counted.

After ballots were cured, incumbent Council Member Tom Cook came away with 26,423 votes (41.6%), which is 97 more than King’s 26,326 votes (41.4%), according to results finalized by the state Office of Elections.

Many voters who discovered their ballots had not been counted learned that their return envelope had been deemed deficient despite the signature they put on their envelope being the same as their ordinary signature, according to a news release issued by attorney Lance D. Collins. The voters are also represented by attorney Bianca Isaki.

“Furthermore, the 2024 Maui rejection rate for signature related deficiencies is nearly double the 2022 state average and more than four times the 2022 national average. The national rejection rate for signature related problems in the 2022 election was .4% of ballots mailed in. The state rejection rate for signature problems in the 2022 election was 1%. Maui County’s 2024 rejection rate was 1.9%,” according to the release.

Dr. Brian Richardson, a Honolulu based expert in statistics and large data, opined that “it is statistically improbable that this level of return envelope deficiencies were indeed caused by individual voter signature discrepancies.”

The Maui County Clerk’s office issued a news release on Monday evening saying all envelopes are initially processed by ballot envelope signature and sorting equipment, which identifies and segregates envelopes that are not signed or have signatures that do not match reference signatures.

“Election staff, who have received training on signature verification, then visually compare envelopes to the voter’s reference signatures following the procedures and criteria in Section 3-177-652 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules. If upon election official’s further review, the signature still is unable to be validated, the voter is immediately mailed a letter with detailed instructions on how to address the deficiency,” according to the County Clerk.

The challenge alleges the County Clerk failed to comply with standards and erroneously deemed return envelopes deficient. Challengers say their constitutional right of equal protection and due process were violated.

The County Clerk maintains that Maui County voters with email addresses on file received emails from Hawaii.BallotTrax.net, a service that allows voters to track the status of their ballots, as well as an email from the County Clerk’s Office. “These voters were contacted by email, phone and mail beginning in mid-October, once ballot envelopes began to be received and continued through election day, Nov. 5. Voters had until Nov. 13, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. to address the deficiency,” according to elections officials.

Approximately 1/3 of all voters who received deficiency notices timely cured their envelopes and their ballots were counted, the County Clerk reports.

Challengers say the Supreme Court is not permitted to further extend deadlines to cure erroneously deemed deficient ballot envelopes so it is not possible to know what the true result of the election is. As a result, challengers are asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results and to order a new election for the South Maui County Council seat.

“It is very important that every lawfully cast vote be counted,” said Kelly King.

The State Office of Elections reported that of the 63,573 turnout, 57,713 voters returned their ballots by mail, with in-person voting totaling 5,860 in 2024.