Hawaii Judge Issues Injunction Against Use of E-Voting System, Internet Transmission of Votes

The suit (Babson v. Cronin, Civ No. 08-1-0115(3) ) was brought by attorney Lance Collins on behalf of five citizens of Maui against Hawaii’s Chief Elections Officer (see background on Disappeared News in these articles). The suit challenged three aspects of the voting process, according to attorney Collins:

1. The use of electronic voting machines was not adopted through lawful rulemaking in accordance with the Hawai’i Administrative Procedure Act (HAPA).

2. The use of the Internet and/or telephone lines to transmit vote counts was not adopted through lawful rulemaking (HAPA).

3. The use of the Internet and/or telephone lines to transmit vote counts is not allowed under current state law.
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An administrative hearing officer last year, in a ruling that was “extremely critical of Kevin Cronin, the state’s chief elections officer” (Honolulu Advertiser,Voting-machine deal in jeopardy, 8/10/2008), found that the Office of Elections acted in bad faith in awarding the contract for voting computers to Hart. The contract was to be cancelled at the end of the year. This new ruling by Judge Cardoza adds that the machines were used in a way that is contrary to Hawaii law.

The Office of Elections awarded a $43.4 million contract to Hart InterCivic last year for paper eScan and electronic eSlate voting machines through the 2016 elections, with an option to extend the contract to 2018. Election Systems & Software, which bid $18.1 million for the contract, challenged the award.

An administrative hearings officer determined the contract was actually worth $52.8 million and was “clearly unreasonable.” The officer found it was too late to cancel the contract before the 2008 elections but ruled the contract should be voided at the end of last year.