52% of petition signatures in anti-GMO effort rejected

The Maui County clerk has rejected more than half of the 9,768 signatures on an initiative petition submitted by the SHAKA Movement seeking a moratorium on genetically modified crops.

"We have determined that 4,720 registered voters in the County of Maui have signed the petition while 5,048 signatures have been deemed invalid," County Clerk Danny Mateo said in a news release.

The rejection touched off a 20-day period during which the group may gather the 3,745 additional valid signatures needed to place the initiative on the ballot.

To get on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, an initiative petition must secure 8,465 valid signatures, or 20 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the last mayoral general election.

Reasons cited for deeming signatures invalid included illegible handwriting, unregistered Maui County voter signatures and insufficient or incorrect information provided.

The release noted that when the Hawaii County Clerk’s Office received initiative petitions in 2006 and 2008, about 45 percent of submitted signatures were deemed valid in each year. About 48 percent of the signatures submitted by the SHAKA Movement were deemed valid.

The group’s initiative aims to put a moratorium on future plantings of GMO crops in Maui County.

The former state health administrator, Lorrin Pang, is among those leading the initiative. The Maui County Farm Bureau has opposed it.