State law offers
no remedy for
election-flaw

Recounts and new elections
cannot result from problems
with the process

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

In a response to petitions from candidates who lost close elections in the primary, the attorney general's office says state law does not allow for a recount or a new election as a remedy for alleged flaws in the primary election process.

Instead, candidates must prove that there are enough votes to change the outcome of the election.

In motions to dismiss the petitions, the attorney general and an attorney for the company that provided the ballots and election computers argued the only remedy allowed is for the court to decide who won the election. The filings argue the candidates have not proven the election would have come out differently.

"It's unfair," said Alex Sonson, who lost to Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl City-Waipahu) by nine votes. Sonson said current law makes it difficult for a challenger to unseat an incumbent.

"The people who created the law did it to protect themselves," he said.

Sonson said he is using a phone bank and has run ads on Filipino radio stations to get affidavits from 10 people who voted for him and whose ballots were invalidated because they voted in more than one party. He argues confusion over the new ballot system cost him the election.

The new ballot had all the candidates from all parties printed on a single sheet of paper. In the past, voters at the precincts were given punch cards from only one party.

Sonson said 196 ballots, or about 16 percent of the votes cast at a precinct at Waipahu High School, were disqualified because of multiparty voting. He said the votes that did count at that precinct were 488 to 244 in his favor.

Sonson contends a precinct official at Waipahu High School failed to tell people who voted in more than one party that they could get a new ballot to correct their mistakes.

"This is an unusual circumstance and we think a recount is warranted," Sonson said. He believes the attorney general's argument is based on two previous election challenges that were filed under different circumstances.

Zandra Amaral, who lost a Democratic primary for the House to Dee Brown by 90 votes, said she believes it was a mistake to change election systems this year and allowing a recount would restore faith in the process.

"If we cannot have confidence in the one right that allows us to become the deciding factor in who runs our state, then why are we voting?" she asked.

Cliff Laboy, who finished second in a City Council contest to incumbent Rene Mansho, said he is not asking for a recount or a new election. But he believes confusion over the new ballot may have caused people to not vote in his race. Laboy argued blank votes should be counted in his nonpartisan race. That would deny Mansho a 50 percent plus one vote majority and force a runoff election in November.

Gerald Hagino, who lost by 15 votes in his primary with Sen. Robert Bunda (D, Wahiawa), said he believes his petition for a recount is "an uphill battle". He said he thinks the law should provide for a recount or other alternatives in close elections.

The Supreme Court can decide the case with written arguments or schedule a hearing on the election petitions. Sonson said whatever the court decides, he will seek to change the election law during the next legislative session.

"I will be asking one of the legislators (to introduce a bill)," he said, "probably my opponent."

'So help me God' dropped from elections office oath The state Office of Elections has dropped the phrase "so help me God" from its oath of office for precinct officials. Chief elections officer Dwayne Yoshina agreed to remove the phrase after a volunteer precinct official from Kailua complained to a group called the Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church that she felt uncomfortable with the pledge. The old oath will be replaced by the standard oath of office set forth in the state Constitution.