A federal lawsuit over Maui and Kaua‘i 2024 voter rolls has been partially settled.
In August, the Virginia nonprofit Public Interest Legal Fund filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Maui and Kaua‘i county clerks — Moana Lutey and Jade K. Fountain-Tanigawa, respectively — arguing that the two had failed to comply with the National Voter Registration Act to make voter records publicly available.
That lawsuit claimed that PILF requested that both clerks release lists of registered voters who submitted ballots in the 2024 elections, as well as reports about the number of undelivered absentee ballots in those same elections.
According to the suit, both clerks claimed they were unable to provide those records, which PILF argued was a violation of the NVRA, which both requires the counties to maintain election records for at least two years and to make those records available for public inspection.
On Oct. 8, PILF announced that the Maui case has been settled, as Lutey has reportedly provided the records PILF had requested.
PILF’s communications director Amanda Fischer could not be reached for comment Friday, but she said in a statement that the settlement is “a victory for Maui voters,” and that the release of the records will help ensure Maui’s voter lists are accurate.
The Kaua‘i component of the suit remains open. At the start of the month, Fountain-Tanigawa submitted her initial disclosures, the critical information and documents she will provide for the case before a formal discovery process. Those disclosures largely will include her email correspondence with PILF earlier this year.
The case is tied to an ongoing case concerning the 2024 election. A co-plaintiff in the case is Hawai‘i Elections Commission member Ralph Cushnie, who has alleged that thousands of mail-in ballots were mishandled during the 2024 elections, and that the state’s Chief Election Officer, Scott Nago, has blocked the commission from meeting since June.
Cushnie’s petition for the Hawai‘i Supreme Court to intervene in the commission’s affairs will go to oral arguments on Oct. 16.
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