Separate House and Senate Democratic Party primary races were decided by fewer than 100 votes in the Aug. 10 election, underscoring the importance of each vote cast, the small size of some voting districts and how few votes it takes to get elected to the state Legislature.
The small margins of victory in Democratic primary races for House District 30 (Kalihi-Kalihi Kai-Hickam Village) and Senate District 22 (Nanakuli-Waianae-Makaha) would historically have triggered an automatic recount, which would have had to be completed by last week.
But the first legislative bill signed into law by Gov. Josh Green this year, in February, eliminated the need, resulting in Shirley Templo beating incumbent Rep. Sonny Ganaden by just 46 votes, and former state Rep. Cedrick Gates defeating Stacelynn Eli by 84 votes to represent the Leeward side in the Senate.
Only 1,460 votes were cast in the House District 30 primary, with Templo receiving 753 of them, or 43%.
Democrats cast 3,500 votes in the Senate District 22 primary, and Gates received 1,792 of them, or 45.8%.
The difference between victory and defeat in both races means that “every vote really does count,” Templo told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
She contacted the state Office of Elections after some media incorrectly reported that her margin of victory over Ganaden automatically triggered a recount.
“It’s been a very overwhelming election result,” Templo said. “I was confused. So I’m just glad I got that cleared away.”
This year, a single word change in state law prevented both primary races from automatically being recounted.
A previous close primary race — also for House District 30 — triggered this year’s change.
In 2020, Ganaden won by just 20 votes in a race that saw only 648 votes, leading to an automatic recount.
Before, recounts had to be automatically conducted in races where the difference was 100 votes or fewer — or the percentage of victory was less than one-quarter of 1%, whichever was “greater,” according to the old law.
House Bill 129 changed the word “greater” to “lesser,” meaning no automatic recount was triggered this year because the percentages of votes that Templo and Gates received were not “lesser” than 100 votes or fewer to determine the winners.
“Now it has to truly be a close vote to trigger an automatic recount,” Scott Nago, the state’s chief elections officer, told the Star- Advertiser.
In testimony in support of HB 129 this year, Nago wrote that, “The vote difference between the two candidates (in the 2020 House District 30 primary) was 29 ballots, however, the percentage difference, excluding blank and overvotes, was 53.3% to 46.7% for a difference of 6.5%. This contest was automatically recounted because the vote difference was less than 100 which represents the greater of the methods of determination.”
The League of Women Voters argued in support of HB 129, saying, “The recount threshold should be strict so that it correctly identifies races that are genuinely close, allowing for both a percentage difference and a ‘number of votes’ difference. It appears that inadvertently the word ‘larger’ than one-quarter of one percent instead of ‘lesser’ than one-quarter of one percent found its way into our current law, and this measure corrects this oversight.”
The change was needed, especially in small voting districts with small margins of victory, said Colin Moore, who teaches public policy at the University of Hawaii and serves as an associate professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.
“This seems like a common-sense fix,” he said. “There’s no reason to trigger a recount in races won by 100 votes. The percentage of the vote is more important.”
Templo understands that many people don’t vote in Hawaii because they’re more focused “on trying to survive” and do not see a connection between their needs and the Legislature.
As she campaigns toward November, Templo plans to talk to constituents about why they don’t vote.
“Apathy could be our worst enemy,” she said.
Templo will be joined by a handful of other freshman legislators who — if they win in the Nov. 5 general election — would bring fresh, perhaps more progressive, ideas into the next legislative session that also will see new leadership in the House with the primary defeat of House Speaker Scott Saiki.
In her third challenge to Saiki’s House District 25 seat covering parts of downtown, Ala Moana and Kakaako, former Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto beat Saiki in the Democratic primary by 254 votes, 2,649 to 2,395.
With no Republican candidate, Iwamoto won outright.
In the 2023 legislative session, the House welcomed a record 16 freshmen and saw two more appointed by Green to fill vacancies: Reps. Luke A. Evslin (D, Wailua-Lihue) and Trish La Chica (D, Waipio-Mililani).
This year Green added to the newcomer class with two more appointments to fill House vacancies: Reps. May Besario Mizuno (D, Kamehameha Heights-Kalihi Valley) and Tyson K. Miyake (D, Wailuku-Waikapu).
In the primary, Mizuno lost her House District 29 seat to Ikaika Hussey by 614 votes, 1,592 to 978. He goes to the general election.
Both Hussey and Iwamoto are considered progressives and their influence — if any — on the House under new leadership remains to be seen, Moore said.
“There will be a slight increase, probably, in the number of progressives in the House,” Moore said, “but it’s not going to be a dramatic change.”
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