The Maui County Clerk today filed its opposition in the election challenge brought by former Council member Kelly King, who lost the race for the South Maui Council seat to incumbent Tom Cook in the 2024 General Election.

The matter has now been fully briefed and is before the Hawai‘i Supreme Court.

King and a group of 30 voters sought to invalidate the results of the 2024 General Election, requesting that the Hawai‘i Supreme Court order a new election. The lawsuit claims the Clerk’s Office failed to follow the law related to the review of voter signatures on return identification envelopes, thereby improperly invalidating signatures. The Clerk’s Office asserts that all laws and administrative rules were followed.

“The vast majority of Maui County voters returned their ballot envelopes by mail or by depositing in an official dropbox,” said County Clerk Moana M. Lutey.

Elections in Hawai‘i have been conducted by mail since 2020, although voter service centers are open for voters needing additional assistance. Upon receipt of the return envelopes, the Clerk’s Office ran the envelopes through the Agilis scanning and sorting machine, which captured an image of the voter’s signature that was compared with reference signatures in the statewide voter database. Envelopes with signatures that match a voter’s reference images were securely transmitted to the State for counting and tabulation.

Return envelopes that were not signed by the voter, or where envelope signatures did not match any of the reference images in the voter’s file, were separated for further action.

“First, the Clerk’s Office immediately mailed any affected voter a notice with instructions on how to ‘cure’ the deficiency. Voters with emails or phones in their record were also contacted by these methods,” according to a news release from the Clerk’s Office

“I am extremely proud of our hardworking staff,” said Lutey. “We work very, very long hours during the election cycle and are diligent in our duty to provide voters with every opportunity to exercise their right to vote.” At the end of the cure period, 939 return envelopes remained uncured out of the 57,713 mail-in total.

The County’s memorandum in opposition asks the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court to uphold the will of the voters of the County of Maui and dismiss the complaint with prejudice. The Court may decide the matter on the motions and evidence, or may hold oral argument. A copy of the County’s memorandum is available at www.MauiCountyVotes.gov.

US Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College system by allowing the direct election of presidents through popular vote alone.

“In an election, the person who gets the most votes should win. It’s that simple,” said Schatz. “No one’s vote should count for more based on where they live. The Electoral College is outdated and it’s undemocratic. It’s time to end it.”

“In 2000, before the general election, I introduced a bipartisan resolution to amend the Constitution and abolish the electoral college. I still believe today that it is time to retire this 18th century invention that disenfranchises millions of Americans,” said Durbin. “The American people deserve to choose all their leaders, and I am proud to support this effort with Senators Schatz and Welch to empower voters.”

“Our democracy is at its strongest when everyone’s voice is heard—and right now our elections aren’t as representative as they should be because of the outdated and flawed electoral college. I’m excited to partner with my friends and colleagues Senator Schatz and Chair Durbin on this important constitutional amendment, which will help empower every voter in every state,” said Welch.

In all but five presidential elections, the winner of the election received the most votes. Two of those five times came in the last 19 years, handing the presidency to candidates the majority of voters rejected, according to a news release from the senators. Schatz says the constitutional amendment would address inequality by abolishing what he called an outdated Electoral College system. Specifically, the constitutional amendment would provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States by a popular vote among voters in each state and the District of Columbia.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have joined a national plan to bypass the Electoral College by agreeing to allocate its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the nationwide popular vote. The constitutional amendment is supported by the NAACP and Common Cause.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees elected Trustee Kaialiʻi Kahele as board chair on Wednesday. Kahele succeeds Trustee Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey of Maui who has served as chair for the past four years. The board and administration recognized and thanked Lindsey for her service as board chair.

“I am both humbled and honored that my fellow trustees have placed their trust and confidence in me to lead the board,” said Kahele. “I look forward to leading transparently and in collaboration with the board, staff, community and our beneficiaries. Together, we at OHA will commit our efforts to improving the lives of our Native Hawaiian beneficiaries with the energy and passion our people deserve.”

in a social media post, Lindsey said, “I am really good with this transition and wish our leadership all the blessings and guidance that Akua has to offer. It was quite a journey, and I loved every minute of it. There is still more work to do, but now I look forward to a little more concentration on Maui’s needs and spending more time with our Maui beneficiaries. Mahalo all for all the kōkua while in leadership.”

Kahele is a Native Hawaiian from Miloliʻi, South Kona on Hawaiʻi Island. He graduated from Hilo High School in 1992, attended Hawaiʻi Community College and UH-Hilo. Kahele earned a BS in Education from UH Mānoa, where he balanced life as an NCAA Division-I student-athlete and UH Rainbow Warriors Men’s Volleyball Team member. Kahele also earned a MS in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College this past summer.

Kahele is a combat veteran, pilot, and commissioned officer in the Hawaiʻi Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force. He is also a commercial pilot for Hawaiian Airlines.

In 2016, Gov. David Ige appointed Kahele to the Hawaiʻi State Senate for District 1 following the unexpected death of his father, the late Sen. Gil Kahele. During his tenure as a state senator, Kahele served as the Majority Whip, Majority Floor Leader, and Chair of the Committees on Higher Education and Water and Land.

In 2020, he was elected to represent Hawaiʻi’s 2nd Congressional District in Washington, D.C., in the 117th Congress.

As the trustee representing Hawaiʻi Island, Kahele resides in Hilo with his wife Maria and their daughters.

“This is an exciting time for the agency, and I look forward to working with Chair Kahele and the entire board addressing the challenges within our Hawaiian communities as well as seizing innovative and transformational opportunities to better serve our beneficiaries,” said Stacy Kealohalani Ferreira, OHA Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive Officer.

The board also selected Trustee Keoni Souza as board vice-chair.

The Honorable Todd Eddins, an associate justice on the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court, administered the Oath of Office to the newly elected and reelected OHA trustees prior to the Board of Trustees meeting. In addition to Kahele, At-Large Trustee Keliʻi Akina, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi Trustee Luana Alapa, Kauaʻi & Niʻihau Trustee Dan Ahuna were sworn into office.

Former Maui County Council Chair Kelly King and 30 Maui County voters have filed an election contest with the Hawai’i Supreme Court seeking to void the results of the South Maui County Council race and to order the holding of a new election.

By election day, the County Clerk deemed the return envelopes of 1069 mailed in ballots “deficient.” According to state law, a return envelope can be deemed deficient if the voter fails to sign the envelope, the signature on the envelope does not match the signature on file or some other condition of the envelope prevents the ballot from being counted.

After ballots were cured, incumbent Council Member Tom Cook came away with 26,423 votes (41.6%), which is 97 more than King’s 26,326 votes (41.4%), according to results finalized by the state Office of Elections.

Many voters who discovered their ballots had not been counted learned that their return envelope had been deemed deficient despite the signature they put on their envelope being the same as their ordinary signature, according to a news release issued by attorney Lance D. Collins. The voters are also represented by attorney Bianca Isaki.

“Furthermore, the 2024 Maui rejection rate for signature related deficiencies is nearly double the 2022 state average and more than four times the 2022 national average. The national rejection rate for signature related problems in the 2022 election was .4% of ballots mailed in. The state rejection rate for signature problems in the 2022 election was 1%. Maui County’s 2024 rejection rate was 1.9%,” according to the release.

Dr. Brian Richardson, a Honolulu based expert in statistics and large data, opined that “it is statistically improbable that this level of return envelope deficiencies were indeed caused by individual voter signature discrepancies.”

The Maui County Clerk’s office issued a news release on Monday evening saying all envelopes are initially processed by ballot envelope signature and sorting equipment, which identifies and segregates envelopes that are not signed or have signatures that do not match reference signatures.

“Election staff, who have received training on signature verification, then visually compare envelopes to the voter’s reference signatures following the procedures and criteria in Section 3-177-652 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules. If upon election official’s further review, the signature still is unable to be validated, the voter is immediately mailed a letter with detailed instructions on how to address the deficiency,” according to the County Clerk.

The challenge alleges the County Clerk failed to comply with standards and erroneously deemed return envelopes deficient. Challengers say their constitutional right of equal protection and due process were violated.

The County Clerk maintains that Maui County voters with email addresses on file received emails from Hawaii.BallotTrax.net, a service that allows voters to track the status of their ballots, as well as an email from the County Clerk’s Office. “These voters were contacted by email, phone and mail beginning in mid-October, once ballot envelopes began to be received and continued through election day, Nov. 5. Voters had until Nov. 13, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. to address the deficiency,” according to elections officials.

Approximately 1/3 of all voters who received deficiency notices timely cured their envelopes and their ballots were counted, the County Clerk reports.

Challengers say the Supreme Court is not permitted to further extend deadlines to cure erroneously deemed deficient ballot envelopes so it is not possible to know what the true result of the election is. As a result, challengers are asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results and to order a new election for the South Maui County Council seat.

“It is very important that every lawfully cast vote be counted,” said Kelly King.

The State Office of Elections reported that of the 63,573 turnout, 57,713 voters returned their ballots by mail, with in-person voting totaling 5,860 in 2024.

The counting of nearly 300 more ballots in the race for the South Maui seat on the Maui County Council narrowed the gap, but incumbent Tom Cook remained in the lead and appears to have locked up the victory over challenger Kelly Takaya King. 

Cook came away with 26,423 votes (41.6%), which is 97 more than King’s 26,326 votes (41.4%), according to results released Wednesday night by the state Office of Elections.

The gap had been 117 after the Nov. 5 general election, but more than 1,000 ballots contained signature problems that had to be cured. Both campaigns spent the past week urging supporters to ensure their votes had been counted by the ballot curing deadline of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Of the 298 ballots that were added to the total on Wednesday, 128 went to King, 108 went to Cook and 62 were blank.

The state Office of Elections did not respond to multiple inquiries as to whether this finalized Cook’s victory, but with no recount triggered and the deadline for cured ballots passed, the only other option is a legal challenge.

According to the Maui County Clerk’s Office, the deadline to file an election objection is Nov. 25.

Deputy County Clerk Richelle Thomson said Thursday that the office is “not aware of any complaint or challenge filed to date.”

In the 2022 election, candidate Noelani Ahia and 30 Maui County voters lodged a challenge against the results of the Wailuku-Waihe‘e-Waikapū race. Incumbent Alice Lee led Ahia by more than 500 votes, but the plaintiffs claimed the county and state had failed to properly notify voters whose ballots had deficiencies.

Lee did not participate in the January 2023 swearing-in ceremony while a court ruling was pending. The Hawai‘i Supreme Court confirmed Lee’s win later that month.  

Cook said on Thursday that he felt like he’d gone through two elections. He said he hoped the results would stand and that the council could move forward with business. 

“I feel good,” he said. “One, relieved that basically the election process is over and we have a result, and two, excited and looking forward to the next term. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

King and Cook have faced off twice for the South Maui seat on the 9-member council. King won the last contest in 2020, and Cook secured the open seat in 2022 when King stepped down to run unsuccessfully for mayor. King served three terms on the council starting in 2016 when she unseated incumbent Don Couch. 

King did not respond to a request for comment from the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative on Thursday.

Since Hawai‘i went to a vote-by-mail system in 2020, registered voters have received their ballots in the mail with the option of dropping them off at deposit boxes around their home county or completing them in person at voter service centers. Voters are required to sign their ballots. If a ballot does not contain a signature or does not match the signature that the county has on file, it’s considered “deficient,” and the voter has five business days after the election to “cure” the issue. 

Maui County had a total of 1,239 deficient ballots prior to and on Election Day, according to the County Clerk’s Office. All cured ballots are securely transported to the Counting Center, where elections personnel open the ballot envelopes, remove the secrecy sleeves, and prepare the ballots for scanning and counting, all in the presence of official observers, the Clerk’s Office said in a news release Wednesday.

“We are gratified by Maui County voters’ attention to this ‘cure’ process,” County Clerk Moana Lutey said in the news release. “Many voters cured their ballot envelope issues prior to election day, and so their ballots were already counted. These additional cured ballot envelopes are the result of the diligent outreach efforts by dedicated County staff who immediately mailed voters, and followed up with emails and phone calls for voters who provided this information in their voter records.”

The hotly contested South Maui race could have shifted the balance of power on the council between one faction primarily known as pro-development and another known as pro-environment. Cook is among the five council members seen as pro-development who hold a majority on the council. With Cook’s win, all nine incumbents secured reelection to the council. 

King raised concerns last week over the “big money influence and how much luxury and high end development will be approved if the current council majority stands.”

Cook’s campaign was the most well-funded of the current election cycle, bringing in more than $170,000 in donations, the most of any council candidate, according to campaign spending reports as of Oct. 21, the final disclosures released before the Nov. 5 election. King received more than $46,000, according to reports as of Nov. 5. (Cook has not yet filed his Oct. 22-Nov. 5 report, which is due Dec. 5.)

Ad spending also highlighted how crucial many saw the South Maui race to be — from Sept. 27 to Oct. 21, the super PAC For a Better Tomorrow paid for nearly $104,000 into advertising for Cook, according to the latest available campaign spending records. And, in the stretch from Oct. 22 until the general election, For a Better Tomorrow put more than $355,000 toward ads for Cook and four other candidates, according to electioneering records, which are filed for any ads that run in public communications outlets. Until disclosures are filed, it’s unclear how much of that funding was spent on ads for Cook. 

Super PACs cannot coordinate directly with candidates.

Cook said he believes people support him because as a longtime general contractor, he understands what it takes to build housing from start to finish. He said development is seen as a bad word but that Maui County needs housing and the unions that backed his campaign represent a large portion of the local workforce.

“People give me money, they are not buying influence,” Cook said. “If anybody ever came to me and said, ‘I gave you a donation, and I need you to do this,’ I would contact my campaign committee to identify how much money they gave and send it back. Because that’s not what I’m about.”

As of 4:30 p.m. Nov. 13, 2024, 298 Maui County voters cured deficiencies with their ballot envelopes, according to the Maui County Clerk’s office. All cured ballots were securely transported to the Counting Center, where elections personnel opened the ballot envelopes, removed the secrecy sleeves, and prepared the ballots for scanning and counting. All of this work was done in the presence of official observers, according to the County Clerk.

Results were updated by the State Office of Elections at 7:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024 and are posted below. The slim margin in the South Maui Council race narrowed from 117 votes after the third printout to 97 votes in the final summary report, with incumbent Tom Cook defeating Kelly Takaya King.

“We are gratified by Maui County voters’ attention to this ‘cure’ process,” said Moana M. Lutey, Esq., County Clerk. “Many voters cured their ballot envelope issues prior to election day, and so their ballots were already counted. These additional cured ballot envelopes are the result of the diligent outreach efforts by dedicated County staff who immediately mailed voters, and followed up with emails and phone calls for voters who provided this information in their voter records.”

Voters can check the status of their ballots by visiting Hawaii.BallotTrax.net.

The Maui County Board of Ethics will get full-time staffing to help investigate complaints and Moloka‘i and Lānaʻi officials will have an easier time getting interisland travel reimbursed under two proposals that passed in the general election last week. 

The two charter amendments both received nearly 60% of the vote from Maui County residents who cast their ballots on Nov. 5.

But a third charter amendment was narrowly defeated with 43.1% voting “no” and 40% voting “yes” on a proposal to allow members of boards and commissions to serve consecutive terms without a waiting period in between.

It’s a decision that some elected officials and political observers believe is due in part to distrust in government. 

“The general public, I think, is very reluctant to have people serving for long periods of time without the ability to review who they are and what they’re doing,” said Dick Mayer, a retired Maui Community College professor who served on a panel that vetted people for boards and commissions during the 2007-2011 term of former Mayor Alan Arakawa. 

The Maui County Charter is the document that outlines the structure and organization of the local government. Every election year, the Maui County Council sends proposed charter amendments to the ballot for voters to consider. During the 2022 election, there were more than a dozen amendments proposed by the council and the Charter Commission that meets every 10 years.

Voters’ reasons for blocking longer terms may have also factored in to their decision to back independent staffing for the Board of Ethics. The charter amendment that passed with 57.6% of the vote will give the board three full-time staff members: an executive director who is a lawyer, an executive secretary/assistant and an investigator.

The Board of Ethics handles complaints from the community and queries from public officials about whether their actions could pose a conflict of interest. For example, the board could issue an opinion on whether a council member is allowed to vote on a bill related to an organization they once led or a tax cut that could benefit their business.

However, because the board only meets once a month, it can’t offer timely ethics advice, then-Chair Geraldine Lewis explained in a letter to the council earlier this year. Full-time staff would be able to give county employees advice on a daily basis to help avoid ethics violations, Lewis said.

The staff also would be able to independently investigate and prosecute ethics violations, which the board currently lacks the budget and staffing to do, and it would help review the dozens of financial disclosures and lobbying filings that currently take 80% to 90% of the board’s meeting time. Having independent staff would also help avoid conflicts for county attorneys who have to represent both the Ethics Board and county employees or agencies who have issues pending with the board, Lewis said.

This comes in the wake of recent high-profile government corruption investigations that included former Department of Environmental Management officials being sentenced to federal prison for taking bribes.

The charter amendment was proposed by the Ethics Board and introduced on behalf of the administration by Council Chair Alice Lee, who won her reelection bid for the Wailuku-Waihe‘e-Waikapū seat last week. The council voted 7-0 in July, with two council members excused, to send the amendment to the ballot.

“The people handling the work before the board, they’re so underresourced, so shorthanded, so they have a hard time getting their opinions out on time, and so that’s the reason why the council members supported it,” Lee said. 

Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, who proposed the two other amendments on the ballot, believed that staffing the Ethics Board would be “a good move for our county government.”

“As a government we all need to continue doing a better job at inspiring faith and confidence in the electorate in the work we’re doing,” she said.

Rawlins-Fernandez, who won her reelection bid for the Moloka‘i residency seat on the council last week, also proposed a successful amendment that would put the Salary Commission in charge of determining salaries instead of compensation for elected officials and appointed directors and deputies. The goal was to make it consistent with the state constitution and remove fiscal barriers for officials living on Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i. 

The problem came up when Rogerene “Kali” Arce, a Moloka‘i resident who was sworn in as director of the new county Department of Agriculture in 2022, had to pay travel expenses to Maui out of pocket and couldn’t be reimbursed without having to first go through the Salary Commission. Rawlins-Fernandez said Maui officials do not have to worry about going through the same process. She also said travel barriers may be preventing qualified people from Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i from serving in government. 

With the change, compensation like travel reimbursement will now be managed by the council or the mayor. 

Rawlins-Fernandez also proposed the amendment to allow members of boards and commissions to serve for up two consecutive full terms or 10 consecutive years, whichever is greater. The goal was to help fill vacancies for seats representing places like Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i and Hana, where there is a smaller pool of people who are “available, interested and qualified” to serve as volunteers on boards that often meet for several hours during work days. Under current county rules, residents have to sit out for two years after serving their first term. 

Maui County has been trying to fill vacancies on boards and commissions, putting out multiple calls in recent years. Last month the county said it needed volunteers for more than 40 panels that oversee issues including planning, fire, police and liquor control. 

Even with the need to keep boards and commissions staffed, Mayer pointed out that voters may be wary of people serving for too long in government, especially at a time when there’s been growing concern over branches like the U.S. Supreme Court, which has lifetime appointments. 

In 2020, Maui County voters passed charter amendments that created stricter term limits for council members and the mayor. 

Rawlins-Fernandez recognized the concerns and said people may have been more supportive of the boards and commissions measure if it were geared only toward Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i residents as she’d intended it to be. 

“I think there’s such a distrust in government overall … so I think longer terms are not something that’s attractive to our electorate at the moment,” she said. 

Maui County voters who received notification of an issue with their ballot return envelope for the this year’s General Election have until 4:30 p.m. Nov. 13 to fix the issue so that their ballot may be counted.

As of Nov. 7, 2024, the total number of ballot envelopes that remain with deficient conditions is 1,069, according to the Office of the County Clerk. This number has been steadily decreasing because the Clerk’s Office began contacting voters with issues as soon as ballot envelopes began to be received in mid-October. Many voters have successfully fixed their ballots.

“Every voter with a deficient ballot envelope has been mailed a letter with an affidavit form and instructions,” said County Clerk Moana Lutey. “These letters were mailed out as the ballot return envelopes were received. The Clerk’s office followed up with emails, and voters who have not responded are being contacted by phone if that information is available in their voter record. We urge any affected voter to submit their completed affidavit as soon as possible.”

The deadline is 4:30 p.m. Nov. 13.

Voters can check the status of their ballots by visiting Hawaii.BallotTrax.net. For additional information, contact the Clerk’s Election’s Division at 808-270-7749.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from candidates following the release of election results.

Three seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ board of trustees were on the ballot this Election Day. All three were retained by incumbent candidates, each of whom bested challengers by comfortable margins.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a semi-autonomous state agency created in 1978 to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians, is made up of nine elected officials who serve four-year terms.

Incumbent Kaua‘i trustee Dan Ahuna on Wednesday thanked his constituents for their votes.

“I am deeply humbled by your support and extend my sincerest gratitude,” he said. “I will continue to do all that I can for our beneficiaries to help ensure the perpetuation of our people for the next generations.”

Keli‘i Akina has served the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as an at-large trustee since 2016. He also thanked voters for their support, as well as his opponent, Lei Ahu Isa, for her years of public service.

Akina, president and CEO of conservative think tank Grassroot Institute of Hawai‘i, has campaigned on a platform prioritizing financial accountability within the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The greatest challenge now facing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is the economic empowerment of the Hawaiian people, according to Akina.

“People should be able to earn a decent living and purchase a decent home,” he said Wednesday. “Otherwise we’ll continue to see our children, as well as the older generation, move away from Hawai‘i.”

Five seats represent the islands of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, O‘ahu, Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i, and Hawai‘i Island. The remaining four seats are at-large positions.

Three seats were on the ballot in this year’s general election on Nov. 5. Hawai‘i Island trustee Kai Kahele won his election outright with 56.7% of the vote in the August primary.

Office of Hawaiian Affairs campaigns are nonpartisan.

Incumbent Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau trustee Dan Ahuna, a youth sports coach and educator who has held his seat since 2012, on Election Day defeated Laura A. Lindsey, a political newcomer and reported employee of the Kauaʻi County Department of Finance.

Ahuna received 134,814 votes (30%) statewide, while Lindsey pulled in 106,418 votes (23.7%). Most Hawai‘i voters did not cast a ballot in their race, nor any other Office of Hawaiian Affairs contest year.

Insurance agent Luana Alapa, who has represented Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i on the board of trustees since 2020, also retained her seat in this year’s election. She received 145,689 votes (32.5%) while her opponent, former police officer and Moloka‘i resident R. Kunani Nihipali, received 98,462 votes (21.9%).

At-large trustee Akina received 170,345 votes (38%) to best challenger Ahu Isa, a former trustee who has also served on the Board of Education and the state House of Representatives. Ahu Isa received 109,053 votes (24.3%).

Ahuna and Lindsey on Kaua‘i ran notably small campaigns. Ahuna received no contributions and intended to spend no more than $1,500 on his race, according to Hawai‘i Campaign Spending Commission data. Lindsey raised $2,100 in her unsuccessful bid to unseat him.

Ahuna last month told Hawai‘i Public Radio the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ role in developing its land in Kaka‘ako Makai on O‘ahu is a pressing issue.

“We can’t even make decisions on our own land,” Ahuna said in a Hawai‘i Public Radio story published Oct. 28. “Legislation won’t even allow us to give us the permits to do the things that we want to do.”

Lindsey’s campaign website does not include specific policy goals. It states Lindsey would “triage our community’s needs, identify the critical issues, and apply the necessary solutions” if she had been elected.

Incumbent Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i trustee Alapa on her campaign website promised to spearhead efforts addressing mental health services, home repairs and the public land trust.

“An economic realignment” and greater public awareness would overcome historic and cultural “dislocations and disenfranchisement,” her challenger Nihipali’s official campaign platform reads.

At-large trustee Akina’s opponent Ahu Isa had told Hawai‘i Public Radio she ran because outgoing trustee Mililani Trask asked her to.

“I have history. So people know me … If they don’t want me back in there, that’s fine,” Ahu Isa told the news outlet in early October.

The first polls closed at 2 p.m. Hawai‘i time in 6 states on Tuesday. The last poll, in Alaska, closed at 8 p.m. island time.

It wasn’t until about 1 a.m. HST that former US President Donald Trump was declared by most media outlets as the winner of the 2024 presidential election.

The Associated Press reported Trump cleared the necessary 270 electoral college votes to become the nation’s 47th commander-in-chief with 277 after a victory in Wisconsin.

By the time the race was called he also had an overall 70,952,259 ballots cast in his favor, or 51% of the popular vote.

Trump’s path to victory included wins earlier in the night in the key swing states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

His challenger US Vice President Kamala Harris garnered 224 electoral votes and 66,048,716 ballots in her favor, or 47.5% of the popular vote.

While the nation waited nearly 11 hours after the first polls closed to hear the outcome of perhaps one of the tightest presidential races in history, Trump wasted no time claiming his victory.

He appeared on stage at about 9:30 p.m. Hawai‘i time on Tuesday in West Palm Beach, Fla., to address supporters and the nation.

He walked out to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” after his win in Pennsylvania, putting him within 3 electoral votes of victory with a total of 267, according to the Associated Press.

He was accompanied by family members and campaign allies.

In his speech, Trump promised he would “not rest until we have delivered the strong safe and prosperous America.”

“Every single day, I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body,” he said.

The man whose career in politics has been devisive and acrimonious also told those at the early election night shindig that now is the “time to unite” the nation.

“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump said. “We have to put our country first for at least a period of time. We have to fix it.”

Harris did not concede or speak Tuesday night. She plans to address supporters and the nation today from her alma mater of Howard University.

The Associated Press and NBC News called Hawai‘i for Harris as soon as polls closed at 7 p.m. island time in the Aloha State, without any votes counted.

The AP based its decision on the fact that the state last picked a Republican for the nation’s top office 40 years ago, when Ronald Reagan emerged victorious in 1984.

It also said Hawai‘i is a solidly blue state, with Democrats controlling all statewide elected offices and the state’s two US House seats.

The second results from the Hawai‘i Office of Elections at 12.24 a.m. on Wednesday showed Harris handily defeating Trump in the state with 276,296 votes (61.6%) vs. the former president’s 160,513 votes (35.8%).

The other candidates on the ballot each received less than 1% of the vote statewide.

The vice president also won the Hawai‘i County results with 44,580 votes (65.3%), over Trump’s 22,902 (33.6%).

Green Party candidate Jill Stein was the only other presidential hopeful to get at least 1% of the vote from Hawai‘i County voters with 666 ballots in her favor.

While Harris looks to claim victory in the islands, that doesn’t change the fact that the nation is giving Trump another shot at the White House.

“We got our butts kicked tonight,” former US President Barack Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told MSNBC on Tuesday night, adding the Democratic Party has a “real rural problem” and communication challenges with “a whole bunch of groups.”

Those groups include young voters and Latinos, which they thought they had a better message but “didn’t at all.”

Messina managed Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. He said those groups no longer feel seen by Democrats, who need to do a serious analysis following the 2024 election.

“We’ve got to figure out how to move forward in a way that gets us back to being [the] majority party we used to be,” he said.

Meanwhile, California Democrat US Rep. Ro Khanna, while disappointed in the election results, remained optimistic for his party.

“I’m confident we’re going to rebuild in 2026 and we’ll win back the White House in 2028,” said Khanna. “And we’ve got to listen.”

This year’s general election was light on the ballot for other federal races, featuring just two others for Hawai‘i County voters to weigh in on other than the main event between Trump and Harris.

Incumbent Democrat Mazie Hirono easily won another 6 years in the US Senate.

After the second printout in Hawaiʻi at 12:24 a.m. Wednesday, Hirono received 283,454 votes statewide (63.2%). Her closest competitor was Republican Bob McDermott with 135,761 votes (30.2%), followed by We The People Party candidate Shelby Pikachu Billionaire who received 7,090 votes (1.6%). Green Party hopeful Emma Jane Avila Pohlman came in last with 1.4%, receiving 6,419 votes.

Hawai‘i County voters followed suit, with Hirono getting 71.3% of the vote, or 46,147 ballots cast in her favor, compared with McDermott’s 18,696 (28.9%); Pohlman’s 1,207 (1.9%); and Billionaire’s 1,088 votes (1.7%).

The AP also called Hirono’s race for her when polls closed at 7 p.m. Hawai‘i time, before any results were released.

Incumbent Rep. Jill Tokuda will again represent US Congress District II, which encompasses all neighbor islands and O‘ahu, except for Honolulu.

Tokuda received 139,982 votes (62.7%). Republican Steve Bond garnered 59,407 votes(27.5%), with Libertarian Aaron Toman getting 3,233 votes (1.4%) and nonpartisan candidate Randall Kelly Meyer got 2,901, or 1.5%.

Hawai‘i County voters also look to want Tokuda back in Washington, casting 45,225 ballots for her Tuesday, or 75.4% of the Big Island vote. Bond got 17,490 votes, or 29.2%, while Toman received 1,193 votes, or 2%, and Meyer got 3,027 votes (1.4%).

Democrat incumbent Ed Case also won another term in the US House for District 1 in Hawaiʻi with 149,244 votes (62.7%) to Republican challenger Patrick C. Largey’s 56,154 votes (24.9%).

Big Island Now news reporter Nathan Christophel contributed to the story.