The elections sideshow continues on the Big Island, with two fired workers suing the county for defamation of character.

From West Hawaii Today:

The lawsuits were filed in 3rd Circuit Court late Wednesday by Hilo attorney Ted Hong on behalf of former Elections Administrator Pat Nakamoto and Senior Elections Clerk Shyla Ayau.

Nakamoto and Ayau and two other employees were fired in January. After union grievance hearings, Nakamoto received a 10-day suspension and she and Ayau were reinstated to their positions, but neither has returned.

…

[Hawaii County Council Chair Dominic] Yagong and [County Clerk Jamae] Kawauchi are being sued both in their official and personal capacities. In addition, the county is being sued, according to the lawsuit, because it was negligent when it failed to provide Yagong, Kawauchi or the private investigator with training on “how to conduct a fair and objective investigation in conformance with the generally accepted practices in public sector collective bargaining.”

Big Island Now has a story up on the suit, as does Hawaii News Now.

Meanwhile, the Big Island’s other daily newspaper, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, is reporting that the County Council there unanimously backed a proposal that, if approved by the Hawaii Legislature, would have the state Office of Elections “monitor the readiness of the counties to conduct an election and to intervene if necessary.”

The resolution, introduced by Councilman Angel Pilago, is silent on how the chief election officer and the Elections Commission should “monitor” the readiness of counties to conduct an election. It also does not specify what would be the trigger for the state to intervene in an election and how that would happen.

But there’s no doubt that the resolution is aimed at the county Office of Elections, which Kawauchi oversees, where “errors compounded by errors,” as elections chief Scott Nago once said, resulted in the governor declaring an emergency and keeping the polls open for an unprecedented 90 minutes longer than normal during the Aug. 11 primary election. Pilago’s resolution says the election “damaged the public’s confidence in the electoral process.”

It can’t be much fun for Kawauchi at this point, taking hits from all sides. She blasted out a press release to media statewide Thursday saying only there would be no comment on the lawsuit at this time.