Four days after Hawaii’s primary election, a few races for elected office may still be too close to know who won.
The state Office of Elections on Tuesday completed a recount of results from six close contests where state law calls for races decided by fewer than 100 votes or 0.25% of votes cast to be counted a second time.
But the recount was performed on only three batches of ballots received from county election officials and tallied through midday Sunday. Excluded was a fourth, subsequent batch received and added to vote totals Sunday evening.
There were about 1,900 votes in the fourth batch, including a few for some of the extra-tight races subject to recount.
Nedielyn Bueno, spokesperson for the Office of Elections, said the recount was performed only on the first three batches of ballots because of a timing limitation in the state’s 3-year-old recount statute. It was also uncertain when the fourth batch of ballots, which needed extra ballot envelope signature reviews by county officials, would be
received.
“We had to make the call to go off the third report,” she said.
The state law mandating election recounts states, “Any initial recount provided by law shall include only ballots verified for the purpose of the initial tabulation. In no event shall a recount of an initial tabulation include ballots the validity of which could not be verified by 6:00 a.m. on the day following an election day.”
As such, the recount does not include some votes. But it’s still questionable whether a fuller recount would alter which candidates got the most votes in the close races subject to recount.
For instance, in the primary race between Democrats seeking election to the Legislature in a district covering a portion of Pearl City, Waipahu and Crestview, the recount showed no difference from initial results of the first three batches of votes tabulated. In this
comparison, Cory Chun received 1,166 votes, topping 1,161 votes for Nathan Takeuchi.
When adding votes from the fourth batch of ballots, Chun’s vote count rose by nine to 1,175 while Takeuchi’s rose by five to 1,166, which expanded Chun’s lead to nine from five.
Takeuchi was under the impression on Tuesday afternoon when recount results were posted online that his opponent’s lead actually declined to five from nine by comparing the last reported vote total to the recount report.
“It’s an improvement but I’m still down by five,” Takeuchi said before being informed of the recount
parameters.
Takeuchi later added that he was surprised by the recount rules and imagines that whoever is deemed the winner might end up challenging the results for House District 35.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” he said. “It’s really rough.”
All candidates may challenge results of an election by filing an objection with the Hawaii Supreme Court. The deadline to do so for Saturday’s primary is
Aug. 26.
Takeuchi also is holding out some hope that he could still pick up votes from voters whose ballots weren’t counted because their signatures on ballot envelopes did not match
records. Such voters have been contacted by county election officials and have until Monday to cure the
defect.
“I’m sure Cory is still kind of worried, too,” Takeuchi said. “This is a tight lead (he has).”
Four other races subject to the recount involved seats in the Legislature, and the other one was for Kauai County Council.
In the Republican primary for House District 45, covering Waianae and Makaha, candidate Tiana Wilbur’s vote count based on nearly all votes was 403 and was unchanged by the recount. The fourth batch of votes increased her total to 410.
The runner-up to Wilbur, Cherie Oquendo, gained one additional vote in the recount based on nearly all votes, bumping up that tally to 395 from 394. Based on all four batches of votes, her tally was 402, or eight behind Wilbur.
For one recounted contest, no difference showed up among the three-batch tally, the recount of those votes and all four batches of ballots counted.
Essentially, Shekinah Cantere sustained her 21-vote lead over Netra Halperin — 678-657 — in the Republican primary for House District 11, which covers parts of Maui including Kihei and Wailea.
In the Republican primary race for Senate District 24, covering parts of Kailua and Kaneohe, Antionette Fernandez received 1,510 votes to 1,468 for Adriel Lam based on all four batches of votes. From just the three batches, Fernandez had 1,491 votes to 1,447 for Lam, and based on the recount this total went down by one for Fernandez and went up by one for Lam.
In the Republican race for House District 20, covering Kahala along with parts of Kaimuki and Kapahulu, Jessica “Priya” Caiazzo had an 86-vote lead over Consuelo “Liz” Anderson based on all four batches of votes, which was only a few votes more than the total from the first three batches. The recount of the three batches of votes resulted in Caiazzo losing two votes and Anderson
losing one.
On Kauai the top 14 candidates with the most votes proceed to the general election, where seven winners will take office. The recount was run to determine the cutoff spot, where 14th-place finisher Roy Saito received 1,394 votes that didn’t change from the three-batch count, the recount or the four-batch count. The 15th-place finisher, Jakki Nelson, had 1,261 votes from the three-batch count that got reduced to 1,260 in the recount, while her tally for all four batches of votes was 1,261.
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