Honolulu Councilmember-Elect Trevor Ozawa has the following statement in response to an elections challenge being filed today with the Hawaii Supreme Court:

"It has come to my understanding that Tommy Waters will be filing a challenge today with the Hawaii Supreme Court on the results of our race for Honolulu City Council. Our race was one of the most competitive local races in recent history and I extend my congratulations to him and his team for a job well done. Even though it was a close race, the people of District 4 did speak and I am grateful to them for electing me and I am excited for the opportunity to serve my community. Tommy Waters is exercising his legal right as a candidate, and as an attorney, I recognize that the law provides for a process for his challenge to be acknowledged and reviewed. While I await the final determination from the Supreme Court, I look forward to serving the people of District 4 on the Honolulu City Council."

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Letter: Tommy Waters' Old Boy Network up to No Good Again

SA: Waters challenges election results for City Council seat

PDF: Petition to Hawaii State Supreme Court

CB: Tommy Waters Seeks Recount in City Council District 4 Race

...The attorney and former state representative filed the petition with the Hawaii Supreme Court on Monday afternoon.

Waters argues that the voting results suggest 128 ballots may have been miscounted out of the 37,178 cast. He’s asking for a manual recount of a portion of the votes, including 4,455 blank ballots, in which people didn’t cast a vote for either District 4 candidate.

A state auditor’s report indicates that Hawaii voting machines have a margin of error of .02 percent, said Waters. This suggests that that 78 of the blank votes could have been incorrectly counted, he said....

read ... Recount