Hawaii elections officials have discovered as voting closes on the Big Island that about 800 mail-in absentee votes from Maui were not properly transmitted.

Hawaii elections spokesman Rex Quidilla said Friday night the results from Maui were reported along with the rest of the results from a makeup election for two precincts in Hawaii County.

Polls closed just after 6 p.m. 

“This is appalling and outrageous,” said U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, who was in one of the closest races in state history against U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa in their Democratic primary.

“It is unacceptable that the Office of Elections failed to count these ballots on Maui, and the voters of Hawaii are entitled to an explanation of how this occurred. We need to understand what measures will be taken to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”