Kauai mayoral candidates ponder call for recount or audit
LIHUE » Kauai mayoral candidate Jesse Fukushima said yesterday he is considering a recount or audit of the mayoral election after consulting with attorneys.
Third-place finisher John Hoff said he is also likely to contest the election.
Both acknowledged it would be impossible to disagree with County Clerk Peter Nakamura's opinion not to count blank and nonvotes toward Mayor Bryan Baptiste's majority. But they said an audit of the vote-counting system should be done.
Fukushima said fighting the legality of the election by contesting the blank and nonvotes is "like running up against a 100-foot wall."
Baptiste was declared the winner in Saturday's primary. Because he received 50 percent plus two votes of all votes cast for the five candidates, there will not be a need for a general election race.
Fukushima, who acknowledged he has no specific example of fraud or vote tampering, said any possible glitches in the electronic voting machines and absentee ballots could be enough to swing the results by a couple of votes, forcing a runoff.
"We are seriously looking at it," Fukushima said. "There needs to be at least an effort to see if (the election) was done in a proper manner."
Any challenges to the election must be filed with the Supreme Court by the close of business this afternoon.
According to state law, the challenge has to provide a specific reason the vote totals should not be accepted, state voter services coordinator Rex Quidilla said.
"Since it was such an important election, it has to be a clean win," said Hoff, citing one reason for a possible recount. "It's like winning the World Series on a technicality."