Hawaii Elections Commission accepts PIG findings, votes to hire independent audit of Kauai ballots; subpoena motion falls short

The Hawaii State Elections Commission on Wednesday received a synopsis of a permitted interaction group (PIG) investigation into ballot-chain-of-custody and vote-count discrepancies and voted to hire an independent accounting firm to audit ballot envelopes collected on Kauai. The commission also considered, but did not adopt, a motion to subpoena after-hours entry and exit logs for ballot storage.

Lindsay Kam, who presented the PIG synopsis to the commission, said the group "determined that the complaints were valid, that the county officials were not in compliance with the law, and that the final count of mail ballots was not verifiable." Kam read a response from the Office of Elections that said, in part, it "could not replicate the discrepancy of 661 ballots and noted that the pig may not have accounted for electronic ballots or considered other factors." Kam urged further independent review.

The PIG report summarized multiple issues raised by public commenters and its review of county records, including differing totals in county logs and the statewide voter registration system (SVRS), omitted or corrected entries on county collection forms, and missing daily collection records in some counties. The document identified a 661-ballot discrepancy on Kauai in earlier PIG calculations (later revised in the PIG accounting as records were rechecked) and a roughly 19,000-ballot difference between…