Hawaii Supreme Court Confirms South Maui Election Results
The Hawaii Supreme Court has upheld the South Maui election results, dismissing a challenge from Kelly King and local voters.
Hawaii, Maui, Election, Tom Cook, Kelly King
Wailuku: The Hawaii Supreme Court just backed the results of the 2024 general election for the South Maui Council seat. This came after Kelly King and a group of voters challenged the outcome.
King lost to the current Council member, Tom Cook, by just 97 votes. She wanted to throw out the results and push for a new election.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened in Hawaii. It’s the second election in a row where a candidate has claimed that Maui County officials didn’t handle votes properly. King, who was on the Maui County Council from 2017 to 2023, filed her complaint with the Supreme Court last November.
She argued that a lot of mail-in ballots were rejected because of signature problems on the envelopes. King pointed out that Maui County’s rejection rate was 1.9%, which is almost double the national average of 1% from 2022 and higher than Hawaii’s average of 0.8% to 1.2% in recent years.
But the court ruled in favor of Maui County Clerk Moana Lutey, saying the Clerk’s Office followed the rules correctly. They based their decision on clear facts showing that the office handled everything properly.
The court said that the plaintiffs didn’t prove any mistakes were made by the Clerk. They also didn’t show that the issues they raised affected the final results. Every voter with a rejected envelope was notified and had time to fix the problem.
The case mainly focused on 1,556 mail-in ballots that had issues with their identification envelopes. The Clerk’s Office confirmed that 594 voters fixed their problems in time, while 23 decided to vote in person. Unfortunately, 939 ballots were left out because the issues weren’t resolved by the deadline.
In some cases, voters claimed they didn’t even mail the envelopes that were linked to them. Those claims were sent to the Maui Police Department to check for possible election fraud.
The court also ordered the clerk to sign and deliver the election certificate to Cook, confirming his position on the Council.
Lutey expressed relief, saying that while election lawsuits are common these days, they take a toll on the staff who work hard to ensure everyone can vote. She thanked the Court for resolving the issue quickly so they can start the new Council term without delays.
The Supreme Court’s ruling confirmed the election results, allowing the new Council term to kick off as scheduled, with the inauguration set for Thursday.