Organizers cancel Native Hawaiian election after court rules

HONOLULU (AP) — A unique election considered a major step toward self-governance for Native Hawaiians was terminated Tuesday because of litigation challenging the process that could take years to resolve.

Native Hawaiians were voting to elect 40 delegates who would meet at a convention next year to come up with a self-governance document that Native Hawaiians would vote on.

However, a group of Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians challenged the election with a lawsuit, arguing that Hawaii residents who don’t have Native Hawaiian ancestry were being excluded from the vote, in violation of their constitutional rights.

The challenge reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently granted an injunction to stop the counting of ballots. In response to the decision, election organizers extended voting by three weeks and asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to expedite its decision on the matter.

But on Tuesday, election organizers announced they would instead abandon the election and offer all 196 candidates seats as delegates for the convention, called aha in Hawaiian, which is scheduled to begin in February.

“Our goal has always been to create a path so that Hawaiians can gather and have a serious and much-needed discussion about self-governance,” said Kuhio Asam, president of Nai Aupuni, an organization created to guide the election process. “We anticipated that the path would have twists and turns and even some significant obstacles, but we are committed to getting to the aha where this long-overdue discussion can take place.”

The extended voting was to end Dec. 21, but ballots will no longer be received. Votes already cast will be sealed and won’t be counted, Asam said.