2026 Primary Election Results & Ballot Measures

By John Desfor & Kaʻū News Staff

Guy Enriques and Zed Aki were the top vote-getters for District 6 councilmember in the Aug. 8 Primary Election, setting up a contest between the two in the General Election on Nov. 4. Enriques garnered 1,364 votes to Aki’s 1,026. Justin Canelas finished third with 935 votes, Jason Masters was fourth with 768 votes and Kyle Jones was fifth with 343 votes.

Jeanné Kapela won the race for District 5 state representative, securing another term with 2,706 votes to challenger Matt Kanealiʻi-Kleinfelder’s 1,183 votes. With 63.9% of votes going toward Kapela, there will be no runoff in the General Election. U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda also won another term after receiving 29,814 votes, or 85.2% of ballots cast.

Resilient Infrastructure for Shelter and Equity Bonds

Official ballot question:

“Shall the Hawaiʻi State Constitution be amended to direct the legislature to authorize the counties to issue resilient infrastructure for shelter and equity bonds to fund public improvements in designated districts, repaid solely by future growth in property tax revenues within those districts, not by increasing real property tax rates, where such bonds are excluded from the counties’ debt limit and are subject to accountability and oversight requirements as may be provided by law?”

In simple terms: This would create a new way for counties to borrow money for public infrastructure projects, using future increases in property tax revenue from designated areas to repay the bonds.

• YES: Amends the Constitution to allow the Legislature to authorize counties to use this type of bond financing for public improvements.

• NO: Leaves the current constitutional rules for county borrowing and debt limits unchanged.

Judicial Appointments

Official ballot question:

“Shall the Constitution of the State of Hawaiʻi be amended to allow the Senate more time to consider and act on the appointments of justices and judges, by increasing the timeframe from thirty days to sixty days for appointments made between April 1 and Dec. 31 when the senate is not in regular session or is about to adjourn the regular session?”

In simple terms: This would give the State Senate more time to review certain nominees for judgeships before deciding whether to confirm them.

• YES: Extends the Senate’s review period from 30 to 60 days for qualifying judicial appointments.

• NO: Keeps the current 30-day period for the Senate to act on those appointments.

GO VOTE! The General Election for candidates and ballots is on Nov. 4.