Ken Cuccinelli Argues Honolulu Voters Correctly Rejected Ranked Choice Voting

In a column published by Aloha State Daily, Ken Cuccinelli argues that Honolulu voters made a clear distinction between supporting a strong gubernatorial win and rejecting a major overhaul of local elections.

Hawai‘i voters recently handed Democratic Gov. Josh Green a win with over 70% of the vote, according to Aloha State Daily. At the same time, voters in Honolulu rejected ranked choice voting on Question 5 by nearly 25,000 votes.

More than 128,000 people voted no on the ballot measure, with over half of the participating electorate opposing the change. Cuccinelli notes that the Republican candidate for governor secured fewer than 70,000 votes statewide, meaning nearly 58,000 more people voted against ranked choice voting than cast a ballot for the GOP gubernatorial contender.

Question 5 proposed altering how Honolulu selects its mayor, nine City Council members, and prosecuting attorney. Under the current system, a candidate winning a majority in August wins outright. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the top two advance to November.

The rejected measure would have moved most contested races directly to November. Voters would have been allowed to rank up to five candidates, with lower-tier candidates eliminated progressively until a majority emerged.

Ken Cuccinelli Argues Honolulu Voters Correctly Rejected Ranked Choice Voting

Supporters argued that pushing decisions to November would boost voter turnout compared to August contests. However, Aloha State Daily points out that University of Hawai‘i research does not show ranked choice voting independently increases participation.

Cuccinelli highlights the risk of “ballot exhaustion,” explaining that if a voter fails to rank every candidate, their ballot can expire mid-count. Once marked names are eliminated, the ballot stops counting entirely, meaning a winning candidate can secure a majority of remaining ballots without holding a true majority of total votes cast.

“You can like Josh Green and dislike this,” Cuccinelli writes in Aloha State Daily. “You can wish more people showed up in August and still refuse an election system where some ballots stop counting before the count is over.”

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