Lorraine Inouye has abandoned her challenge to a 69-vote election night loss to Malama Solomon for the Democratic nomination to the state Senate’s 4th District seat.

Inouye, a former mayor and state senator, said she attempted to reach Solomon Monday afternoon to concede and offer her congratulations.

Inouye said she reviewed election reports and records at the state Office of Elections headquarters in Pearl City and concluded that she does not have a cause to file a protest of the election results.

The district runs from Hilo’s Paukaa community to Upolu Point in North Kohala.

“Under normal circumstances, I would have conceded the Senate District 4 race to Sen. Malama Solomon on primary election night,” Inouye said in a written release. “However, due to the closeness of my race, and the numerous problems reported regarding the conduct of the election on this island by the Hawaii County clerk, I wanted to first conduct fact-finding.”

Inouye criticized embattled County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi, stating that Kawauchi had not made the same records available to her last week.

“This matter would have been resolved last week,” Inouye said.

Kawauchi has come under fire by state elections as well as voters for a series of irregularities on Election Day.