Thielen Candidacy Challenge Tossed
A judge聽rejects the argument of GOP Party Chair Fritz Rohlfing that a Democratic state senator submitted incomplete nomination papers.
A聽1st Circuit Court of Hawaii judge ruled Monday that state Sen. Laura Thielen properly filed her nomination papers for re-election this year.
The court rejected a lawsuit from Fritz Rohlfing, chair of the , who argued that Thielen’s paperwork was incomplete and thus disqualified her.
State law requires the state to verify registered voters by name, date of birth, address and Social Security number.
Rohlfing alleged that the names of three signatories for Thielen’s candidacy did聽not match the names of actual registered voters.
Fifteen聽verified signatures are required for nomination papers;聽17 signatures were initially verified for Thielen, but Rohlfing said the actually count should be 14, thus making her ineligible to run.
Judge Jeannette Castagnetti determined state聽law does not penalize voters who print a reasonable variation of their聽legal names such as using a middle initial instead of a聽full name.
“It鈥檚 notable that the judge鈥檚 order detailed how Mr. Rohlfing鈥檚 complaint was not filed in accordance with court rules, that the ‘return of service’ was not filed properly, that Rohlfing misspelled one of the nominating parties鈥 names in his complaint, and that he failed to timely correct his errors with the court,” said Thielen. “The irony would be funny, but for the fact that Mr. Rohlfing is attempting to disenfranchise voters and is wasting the court鈥檚 time on frivolous charges.”
Asked聽for his response to the court ruling, Rohlfing聽issued this statement:
We have reviewed the 16-page Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order entered by the First Circuit Court this afternoon and we greatly appreciate the expeditious manner in which the Court considered our objection to Senator Thielen鈥檚 nomination papers. We are disappointed with the Court鈥檚 ruling that candidates for public office may be nominated by people who do not clearly identify themselves in the manner prescribed by the nomination form. The Court ruling permits the Office of Elections to exercise its discretion in confirming the nomination of candidates even when citizens who nominate the prospective candidate fail to clearly identify themselves so there can be a quick confirmation of their status as qualified registered voters. As Chief Elections Officer鈥檚 Scott Nago testified in his sworn statement to the Court as part of this proceeding, he believes the format of the nomination form his office prescribes for the printing of the voter鈥檚 name 鈥渋s not a mandatory format and is merely a suggestion.鈥 We believe the Court’s ruling makes our candidate nomination process less certain and vests too much discretion in the Office of Elections.
Thielen, a Democrat representing a district that runs from Kailua to Hawaii Kai on Oahu, will face the winner of the Republican primary that features two candidates.
