The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court has ruled on the contested South Maui County Council seat.
In the November election, former South Maui Councilmember Kelly King lost to incumbent Tom Cook by just 97 votes. King and a group of 30 voters filed a lawsuit challenging the results.
This week, the Hawai’i Supreme Court upheld the election results and denied King's request for a new election.
In the election, just over 1,500 Maui County envelopes were determined to have a deficiency. That can mean missing a signature or having a signature that did not match the voter’s reference on file.
All voters with rejected envelopes were notified and given the opportunity to correct the issue. Nearly 600 voters did fix the problem by the deadline.
More than 900 ballots were not included in the results after they failed to correct the envelope deficiencies.
The court decision says that the county clerk followed all laws regarding the processing of ballots and verification of signatures.
The inauguration ceremony for the new Maui County Council will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
