By Yiming Fu, a Report for America corps member
South Maui council candidate Kelly King and 30 Maui County voters filed a lawsuit to challenge the election results in the Hawai’i Supreme Court Monday. This could lead to a new election for the council seat and shape the island’s priorities as it rebuilds from the Lahaina fires.
Incumbent Tom Cook narrowly beat King on this year’s November 5 election by 97 votes. King and the voters sued because the County Clerk returned 1,069 “deficient” mail-in ballots, rejecting 1.9% of ballots for signature deficiencies. This is an abnormally high number of rejected ballots — double the state average and four times the national rate.
The suit alleges five different ways the County Clerk did something improper.
“It is very important that every lawfully cast vote be counted,” King said.
King, who won all precincts in South Maui, previously held the seat for three terms and beat Cook in 2020 before leaving to run for unsuccessfully mayor in 2022.
This race may shift the balance on Maui’s County Council.
Cook is seen as part of the five-member council majority that is pro-development. Before being on the council he was a carpenter. Cook raised nearly $100,000 more than any other candidate for this year’s county races. The Super PAC For a Better Tomorrow spent nearly $104,000 in advertising for Cook in the month before the election. Cook said he wants to reduce hurdles to building, which includes hurdles to building affordable housing.
King ran on a slate called the Ohana candidates, which hopes for slower development and putting locals and the environment first. She is funded by the Pono Network, which says they fund candidates that serve people instead of “big-moneyed” interests.
There is precedent for King’s contest. The Hawaii Supreme Court invalidated results of the Tommy Waters vs Trevor Ozawa race for Honolulu City Council’s fourth district in 2018 and held another election. The court invalidated the results in January 2019, and a special election conducted mostly by mail took place in April. While Waters lost in the initial race by 22 votes, he won in the new election by more than 100 votes.
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