East Honolulu voters file Supreme Court election challenge supporting Tommy Waters
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A group of East Honolulu voters has filed an election challenge in the Hawaii Supreme Court seeking to have Tommy Waters reinstated as an eligible candidate and placed back on the ballot with Trevor Ozawa.
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The challenge argues Waters should not have been disqualified.
Voters organize challenge
Waters said numerous people contacted him after he was declared ineligible.
“Numerous people contacted me and said, ‘Hey, I’m with you. I want to challenge it as well.’ We actually have a list of over 30 voters,” Waters said.
Waters spoke of the possible challenge the day he launched his appeal of being declared ineligible for another term by Judge James Ashford.
The challenge lists East Honolulu activist Natalie Iwasa, a supporter of Waters and critic of Ozawa, at the top of the list of voters.
“Well, you know, the determination about ineligibility from Judge Ashford came out right in the middle of voting, which isn’t fair to anybody in the district,” Iwasa said.
Complaint claims errors by court and clerk
Waters was on the ballot because the city clerk had declared him eligible. The complaint says the court was wrong to allow anyone to challenge Waters’ eligibility, stating, “The statutory protections were circumvented, and the resulting chaos was unnecessary and preventable.”
The complaint says the second error was the clerk telling voters that Waters’ votes were invalid. “By declaring Waters ineligible,” the complaint says, “the Honolulu Elections Division changed the primary election results and disenfranchised voters.
“If he’s ruled eligible, then we should have a new election,” Iwasa said. “Probably even if he’s ruled ineligible, have a new election because there are just so many votes out there, thousands of them, right, who voted with one thing in mind and then learning, oh, that’s not going to work.”
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Ozawa said in a statement, “Every step in this process has been public, followed the law, and been decided by a judge, not by any campaign. I trust the Supreme Court to bring this to a fair and final resolution, and in the meantime I’m staying focused on earning the votes of East Honolulu this November.”
Attorney says outcome uncertain
“The only way that they can change who is on the ballot is through an election contest. That has been settled law in Hawaii for over 100 years,” attorney Lance Collins said.
Collins says the challengers may not get the outcome they want, because the court could agree Waters is ineligible and also find that his votes should have been considered blank, which would mean Ozawa won outright with well over 50% of the valid votes.
“There is an outside chance that the Supreme Court could just simply say, Judge Ashford got it right. And as to the election contest, Mr. Ozawa outright won the race,” Collins said.
Asked how she would feel if that happened, Iwasa said, “I would feel, I would be really upset, honestly, with you. Because that, in my opinion, would not be fair at all.”
The court is on a tight deadline and could hear arguments on the appeals and challenges a week from Tuesday.
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