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HONOLULU — A Honolulu City Council candidate defeated by 41 votes in the November election is asking the Hawaii Supreme Court for a recount or a new election.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports Tommy Waters lost the 4th District seat to Trevor Ozawa by a final count of 16,374 votes to 16,333 votes.
In a 78-page challenged filed Monday, Waters says the Office of Elections listed 4,451 blank votes.
Waters says that with that many blank votes, it’s reasonable to suspect a margin of error great enough to question the results.
He says that if 74 of the blank votes were cast for him or Ozawa or Waters, it could tip the election.
Ozawa says the Elections Office has its own internal auditing system and he has faith in its process.