An election for City Council District 4 was held on Nov. 6, in which Trevor Ozawa won by 22 votes over Tommy Waters. The state Supreme Court invalidated the election because 350 mail-in ballots were delivered to the City Clerk, by the U.S. Postal Service, after the 6 p.m. deadline. These 350 ballots were counted and gave Ozawa the 22-vote win.

The court found that because these ballots were “received” by the City Clerk after 6 p.m., they were invalid.

As a result, a ballot that was correctly completed and mailed prior to the deadline by a lawfully registered voter was invalidated because of an administrative snafu. The voters in District 4 had their constitutional rights violated by a snafu over which they had no control, and a Supreme Court placed a state law ahead of the constitutional rights of the voters.

Bert Oshiro

Hawaii Kai

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