Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission
Hawaii elections are a mess and local patriots are trying to ensure the citizens there have free and fair elections.
Hawaii held its Primary Election on Saturday, 13 August, 2022.
During the Primary, Hawaii used an unconstitutional ballot which required the voter to select a political preference as a condition for voting, and despite the Hawaii Constitution provision that “no person shall be required to declare a party preference or nonpartisanship as a condition of voting.” Gary Cordery, as a candidate for governor, submitted a pro se case to the Hawaii Supreme Court (SCEC-22-504) challenging this question. The Court dismissed the case for failure to state a claim and would not acknowledge the state constitutional restriction. Mr Cordery appealed the case to the US District Court of Hawaii (CV-22-439) who cited Rooker-Feldman, 11th Amendment, and judicial immunity, along with lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim as grounds for a similar dismissal. Mr Cordery appealed to the 9th Circuit (22-16970) for exclusion of the state constitutional restriction on voting as a fact not in evidence, and the case was similarly dismissed for inextricably intertwined arguments and as a forbidden de facto appeal.
Following the Primary, a group of more than thirty concerned voters on the Island of Kauai filed a challenge in the Hawaii Supreme Court (SCEC-22-515) stating that audits were not conducted in accordance with the state statutes and which require the use of the actual paper ballot for comparison to the output of the electronic voting machine. Instead, the Office of Elections uses ballot images to reportedly conduct this audit. The Court dismissed the case for failure to state a claim.
Hawaii held its General Election on Tuesday, 8 November, 2022
Following the General, a group of near 200 voters from the Island of Kauai filed a challenge in the Hawaii Supreme Court (SCEC-22-703) stating that the audits were again not conducted properly and in accordance with the statute and which requires comparison of actual paper ballots to the output of the electronic voting machine. In this case, the Deputy Attorney General defending the Office of Elections acknowledged that the audit used scanned ballot images instead of the actual paper ballots, and then convoluted the argument stating that the electronic voting system is actually a mechanical tabulation system and the audits weren’t necessary at all. The Court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim.
Similarly, the Hawaii Republican Party challenged the Chief Elections Officers conduct of audits with a case in Hawaii’s 1st Circuit Court (1CCV-22-1499) and although the Chief Elections Officer Mr Nago admitted in court that he did not use the actual paper ballots in the conduct of audits and as required by the statute, the judge declared that the prosecution did not sufficiently demonstrate damages to the Chief Election Officer not following the law.
Following the Courts judgement and during the 2023 Hawaii legislative session, HB 1740 was introduced to rewrite the statutory language for post-election audits to allow the use of ballot images. Mr Cushnie from Kauai submitted a petition for a redress of grievances to the House of Representatives explaining the issue, and the bill was subsequently defeated.
Following the 2022 General Election, the Hawaii government moved forward with an inauguration ceremony on Monday, 5 December 2022 and presented a Governor and Lieutenant Governor as lawfully elected, and before the election was certified by the Chief Elections Officer for the Office of Elections. The Governor presided over the inauguration event and the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court administered the oath of office to the yet to be certified candidates. Following this inauguration ceremony, Mr Cordery, candidate for governor, submitted a case to the Hawaii Supreme Court (SCEC-22-734) challenging that the state had proceeded with an unlawful inauguration and violated their promissory oaths, while active legal election challenges were still being considered regarding post-election audits and the certification requirements for the election, and in violation of state statutes that requires the election to be certified before the inauguration. The Court dismissed the case by convoluting the argument stating that the complaint challenged the timing of the inauguration, entirely ignored the certification requirement, and also said the highest court in the state lacked jurisdiction.
Mr Cordery also challenged the inauguration before certification in the US District Court of Hawaii (CV-22-528) in denying the people a republican form of government as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, and for failures to defend the Constitution by oath, along with deprivation of rights, conspiracy to interfere with civil rights, and neglect to prevent. The Court dismissed the case for lack of standing and failure to state a claim.
This is but part of the Hawaii story.
During the 2022 election cycle, Hawaii grass-roots pro se litigants submitted more than twenty court cases challenging various issues identified during the election process. None of those complaints were ever afforded a public trial, nor heard by the court, and following these cases the people have seen a variety of bills introduced in the legislature to further dilute statutory election requirements. No court appears to be interested in these arguments nor willing to entertain nor apply any judicial jurisprudence.
A year later, during the 2024 Hawaii legislative session, the legislature introduced several election related bills to soften the management of election requirements. SB 2240 & HB 1609 enrolled Hawaii into ERIC, and SB 2333 was introduced to rewrite the statute and allow ballot images for the conduct of electronic voting system audits, and the made it through the legislature and was signed into law as ACT 27 by the governor on 23 May 2024.
For at least the past two years, grass roots efforts have continued to highlight a variety of election related issues to the Elections Commission. Since January 2024, the commission, who “advises” the Chief Elections Officer on matters relating to elections, has passed eighteen motions to close loopholes in the management of elections, but has failed to follow up in holding the Chief Elections Officer accountable for the actions they have advised him to do. In another example, one candidate has petitioned the Office of Elections for nearly two years to conduct a random post-election audit in one district, and this was finally approved by the commission but the Chief Election Officer is stalling on conducting any audits until after the 2024 election season.
In 2024 several commissioners have finally stepped forward in an effort to encourage some level of accountability to statutory election requirements, but are being slow rolled by the Attorney General’s office and insubordinate Chief Elections Officer. Thankfully their persistence has removed and replaced two Deputy Attorney General counsels to the commission for conflicts of interest, and the commission has held four votes to not reappoint or remove the Chief Election Officer, but which have been thwarted by the Chair of the commission.
Beginning with an unconstitutional ballot, and highlighted through failures to audit and certify – the inauguration of a de facto governor and lieutenant governor prior to the certification of the state election was the most egregious violation of the people’s public trust, and a capstone to this fraud.
Rolling into the 2024 election season; and with Hawaii’s primary on 10 August, ensuring the validity and reliability of elections in the islands remain a steady upwind battle.
Here is an example of what the meetings are like in Hawaii.
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