The Hawaii Supreme Court rejected a bid to overturn results from the closest race in Hawaii’s Nov. 5 general election.
Hawaii’s high court upheld results of a state House of Representatives contest between Republican incumbent Rep. Elijah Pierick
and Democratic challenger Corey Rosenlee in which Pierick won by 11 votes.
Rosenlee, a James Campbell High School teacher and former head of the powerful Hawaii State Teachers Association, filed a lawsuit
Nov. 25 alleging that City and County of Honolulu election officials had mishandled aspects of the general election in ways that affected the outcome of the contest for the House District 39 seat representing communities including Royal Kunia, Village Park, Ho‘opili, Honouliuli and part of Waipahu.
The court’s unanimous decision, filed Friday, found that election rules were
followed and that Rosenlee failed to show a correct result of the contest wasn’t attained due to a mistake or fraud on the part of election officials.
“The burden was on Plaintiff to establish a mistake by the (City) Clerk such that the correct result of the election cannot be ascertained,” the court said in its written decision. “Based on the evidence submitted, we hold that Plaintiff failed to sustain this burden.”
Pierick received 4,712 votes in the election, compared with 4,701 for
Rosenlee.
The ever-so-slim margin triggered the only automatic recount for any Hawaii contest for office in the 2024 election.
In his legal complaint, Rosenlee argued that the election for the House District 39 seat should be redone because of improprieties with both in-person and mail-in voting.
Rosenlee alleged that more than 11 voters snuck into voting lines on Election Day after a 7 p.m. deadline to be in line and that other voters couldn’t vote on Election Day because of long lines. At Kapolei Hale, one of two places to vote on Oahu on Election Day, the last person in line waited close to five hours before casting his ballot.
Rosenlee also contended that many voters who cast mail-in ballots weren’t given enough time to correct ballot envelope signature deficiencies and that some signatures were not correctly reviewed.
The court said Rosenlee’s claim that voters improperly entered a voting line after the deadline on Election Day wasn’t supported by any admissible evidence.
Regarding long lines disenfranchising voters, the court noted that voters had two weeks, starting Oct. 22, to vote in person and could alternately vote by mail starting Oct. 19.
The court also ruled that city officials followed procedures to verify ballot envelope signatures and that it was sufficient to notify voters by mail about envelope signature deficiencies that could be corrected. Such letters were mailed within one business day of receiving a deficient ballot envelope throughout the election
cycle, the court noted.
In House District 39 there were 111 ballot envelopes with either a missing signature or a signature that didn’t match reference signature images on file, according to information submitted in the case. Of the 111 voters notified, 47 cured the deficiency, and 64 failed to do so by a statutory deadline of Nov. 13.
Based on vote tally updates, cured envelope issues added 15 votes for Rosenlee and six for Pierick.
Rosenlee had argued that voters with ballot envelope deficiencies should have been contacted by phone or email instead of only letters representing a “bare minimum” requirement for the City Clerk’s office.
The court disagreed, saying in its ruling, “We conclude that the Clerk’s actions in providing notice to these voters complied with the election laws.”
