The number of blunders by state and city elections officials this year are piling up at an alarming rate, raising doubts about the integrity of our elections with some issues still unresolved only weeks before the first ballots are cast.

Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto last week delivered a stinging rebuke to the city clerk for refusing to accept nearly 50,000 voter signatures collected by Stop Rail Now to put an anti-rail initiative on the general election ballot in November.

After Mayor Mufi Hannemann vowed to keep the initiative off the ballot by any legal means, City Clerk Denise De Costa ruled on the advice of Hannemann's corporation counsel that the petition came in too late for the November election and would have to wait for a special election in May at the earliest.

Sakamoto said this was a clear misreading of the city Charter and scolded, "The voice of the people should not be suffocated by the erroneous readings of the law by its own government."

It'll take two more weeks to verify the signatures, leaving little time for an informed debate on whether the city should build a rail-transit system from Kapolei to Honolulu, and the matter could end up back in court if the number of verified signatures comes up short; the city says nearly 45,000 are needed and Stop Rail Now says 30,000.

The delays leave the City Council hanging over muddy waters as they have to decide before the Stop Rail Now dispute is settled whether to put their own rail initiative on the ballot.

City and state elections overseers are now 0-for-3 in their initial rulings on ballot disputes since the July 22 filing deadline.

Earlier, De Costa had to reverse her decision to qualify House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell as a council candidate in the Manoa-Makiki district in the face of questions about when Caldwell — who was urged by Hannemann to run against Duke Bainum — withdrew from his House race and whether the clerk's office improperly helped him complete his paperwork after the filing deadline.

The state Office of Elections had to reverse its decision to qualify Hannemann aide Chrystn Eads for Caldwell's Manoa House seat after allowing her to leave the elections office to collect nominating signatures after the filing deadline had passed.

And Republicans are suing the elections office over its decision to allow Democrats to name Isaac Choy as a replacement House candidate to run against Republican Jerilyn Jeffryes in Manoa four days after the filing deadline.

Officials initially suggested the replacement was tied to Caldwell's withdrawal, but now say that Choy is replacing the disqualified Eads.

Republicans argue that since Eads wasn't a qualified candidate, there was nobody to replace and complain that all of the mistakes favored Democratic Party interests.

Other troubling bungles include possible illegalities in the purchase of new voting machines by the Office of Elections, chief elections officer Kevin Cronin's decision to ignore the law and not show primary election ballots to the political parties before printing, and Cronin's failure to register to vote as required by law.

These officials are plainly making up the rules and their cover stories as they go along, tarnishing the honesty of our elections at a time when voter participation is already at an all-time low.

Our elected leaders need to show resolve to fix this obviously broken system fast instead of continuing to make excuses for these egregious errors that destroy public faith that our cherished right to fairly choose those who govern us is being honored.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog, Volcanic Ash, at volcanicash.honadvblogs.com.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.