Background
The 2026 Republican primary for Hawaiʻi State Representative District 43 ended in a 842-842 tie between Kanani Souza and Sheila Medeiros. The Chief Election Officer used a drawing involving names placed in plastic capsules and drawn from a lau hala basket to select Medeiros. Because no other party’s candidate filed for the seat, the winner would be deemed elected.
Souza challenged the result after election records showed that Precinct 43-03 counted 56 early-voting ballots while crediting only 54 voters with casting them. County records traced the two-ballot overage to two District 40 voters who were mistakenly issued District 43 ballots. The record did not establish whether either voter cast a vote in the District 43 Republican race or, if so, for whom.
The Court’s Holding
The court held that the two out-of-district ballots made the tied result unreliable. In a race with no margin, the court explained, even one improperly counted ballot could affect the outcome. Souza established by a preponderance of the evidence that the overage could change the result and that the correct result could not be determined because election officials could not show how the two voters voted.
The court also held that the Chief Election Officer’s tie-breaking procedure was an agency rule adopted without the rulemaking required by Hawaiʻi’s Administrative Procedure Act. The egg-and-basket drawing method was therefore invalid, as was Medeiros’s selection under it. The court did not reach Souza’s remaining claims.
Concluding that no candidate was validly nominated, the court ordered a new election between Medeiros and Souza on the November 3, 2026, general-election ballot to complete the Republican primary. The winner is deemed elected under Article III, Section 4 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution.
Key Takeaways
- A ballot overage can unsettle an election when it could affect the outcome; a tied race has no margin to absorb an unexplained improper ballot.
- Election officials bore the burden of rebutting records showing two out-of-district ballots entered the tied race.
- An agency’s pre-established procedure for breaking election ties is a rule and cannot be used if it was adopted without required rulemaking.
Why It Matters
The decision requires Hawaiʻi election officials to account for ballot discrepancies that could decide an election, particularly in races decided by narrow margins or ties. It also confirms that agencies cannot create generally applicable election procedures outside the statutory rulemaking process.
Rather than allowing an unlawful drawing to resolve an unreliable tie, the court returned the nomination decision to District 43 voters.