‘Zero margin’: Ballot overage behind challenge in deadlocked primary race
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – State Rep. Kanani Souza filed a Hawaii Supreme Court challenge Monday over the outcome of the primary election in House District 43 after she said she discovered a discrepancy in the state’s post-election report.
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Souza and challenger Sheila Medeiros finished tied with 842 votes each. Medeiros was declared the winner after the chief election officer drew her name out of a basket.
Overage found in precinct report
Souza said the report shows an overage specifically from Precinct Three.
The report shows two more ballots were cast, 56, than the number of envelopes that came in, 54.
Souza said that while overages typically would not shift the outcome of most races, a tie means every vote matters.
“There’s a zero margin between myself and my opponent,” Souza said. “Those things which may be commonplace in other races where there’s a larger gap between votes, when it comes down to a zero margin, every vote matters. And so reconciling this prior to the tiebreaker would have been very prudent.”
Election officer says overages not unusual
Chief Election Officer Scott Nago said overages happen.
“Sometimes that’s due to people putting in two ballots in one envelope,” Nago said. “We try and catch that, but, you know, human error. It’s not an unusual occurrence.”
Nago said no election is perfect but agreed that normally the number of ballots to envelopes doesn’t usually make a difference because the gap between the winner and loser is greater.
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Analyst says situation is not evidence of fraud
HNN Political Analyst Colin Moore said the overage does not point to wrongdoing.
“In no way is this evidence of fraud or anything like that,” Moore called it part of the bookkeeping process, “Sometimes it just doesn’t quite match for a variety of reasons.”
“But when you have a situation like this where it’s perfectly tied, then it becomes a problem,” he said.
Ballots cannot be traced to a candidate
Because ballots are kept secret, there is no way to determine which candidate could have benefited from the overage.
“This is obviously a very unique situation and we need to make sure that at the end of the day, the legally elected representative is in that seat,” Souza said.
The Hawaii Supreme Court will decide whether it will take up any of the challenges filed from the primary election.
Sheila Medeiros declined to comment on the challenge filed by Souza Monday. But Medeiros also said she disagreed with the tie breaker by lot and would fight to have legislation changed.
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