Some deceased voters still got ballots, but officials say it’s not a sign of fraud

News admin July 23, 2026 0 Comments

Some deceased voters still got ballots, but officials say it’s not a sign of fraud

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Primary election ballots went out this week to Oahu’s 546,013 registered voters. But some are saying that at least a few of those ballots are going to people who aren’t able to vote at all.

A Facebook post sent in by a HNN viewer said a primary election ballot had been mailed to his mother who had passed away, and claimed it was proof of election cheating.

Elections officials said it’s simply proof that they cannot know everything in real time.

“The Department of Health regularly reports to us names of deceased people,” said city Elections Administrator Rex Quidilla. “We match them up with the voter registry and then we’ll remove them.”

“If no one notified them, or if the DOH notification hadn’t gotten there in time, the loved ones would get a ballot for the person that passed away,” said state Sen. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Elections officials are required by law to send a ballot to everyone who’s registered to vote.

They’re also required to wait two federal election cycles before they can purge people from the list, including people who haven’t voted, or who’ve moved and didn’t leave a new address. So it could be more than four years before a name is taken off the voter rolls.

“People get removed, purged from the list,” said Quidilla. “North of 30,000 in the early part of 2025, and we’ll do it again in 2027, after these elections have wrapped.”

The primary election ballot envelopes also say on the back, “Please return if voter is no longer at this address.”

“It’s on the envelope,” said Quidilla. “If the person is no longer there, just write it in, ‘deceased,’ ‘no longer lives here,’ put it back into the box and we won’t send them another ballot.”

Lawmakers said it’s not a sign of voter fraud or cheating if a ballot goes to a voter who’s no longer at that address, for whatever reason.

“It’s not illegal to receive a ballot like that. What is illegal is if you try to vote it,” said Rhoads. “Then it’s a class C felony, a $10,000 fine and/or five years in prison.”

“We wish we were omniscient, but we’re not,” said Quidilla. “We relay on the voters to let us know. We don’t want to mail ballots to someone who’s no longer there.”