Democrat Matt LoPresti is asking the Hawaii Supreme Court to order a recount of ballots cast for the District 19 Senate seat representing Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point. LoPresti lost to Republican Kurt Fevella by just 116 votes in the Nov. 6 general election.

In a filing with the court Monday, LoPresti maintains that irregularities on Election Day at one of the Leeward side precincts, as well as potential tampering with ballots, may have altered the results of the election. LoPresti goes on to argue that if the Supreme Court does not grant his request for a recount, then the current election law is unconstitutional because “it prevents access to fundamental rights of free and fair elections, the results of which also must be subject to reasonable challenges to ensure the accuracy and integrity of elections.”

LoPresti alleges that ballots at Ilima Intermediate School may have been doctored and that one of the poll workers at that precinct had been hostile to his candidacy, raising further concerns about whether ballots were handled properly. One of the scanners was not working on the morning of Election Day, and LoPresti raises questions about how poll workers later handled unscanned ballots, which he said were crumpled and folded up.

LoPresti and Fevella have been political adversaries since serving together on the Ewa Neighborhood Board. Fevella’s surprise win over LoPresti, who had served in the state House of Representatives since 2014, made him the lone Republican in Hawaii’s Senate.

Honolulu County Republican Party Chairman Brett Kulbis released a scathing statement following LoPresti’s election challenge saying, “It’s an outrage that crooked Democrat politician Matt LoPresti is now trying to steal an election by challenging the clear outcome resulting in his defeat and his deserved eviction from the state Capitol.”

He also dredged up an embarrassing incident in which LoPresti was caught swiping his primary opponent’s campaign material at a house while canvassing.

“Despite everyone knowing he’s a thief, LoPresti still plays the victim card like a maestro. And here he goes again,” wrote Kulbis. “Though desperate to hang onto his political career, the voters of Ewa Beach have already spoken loudly by saying ‘Goodbye, Matt LoPresti.’”

Twenty states and the District of Columbia require automatic recounts if the margin between the top two candidates is within a certain range, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But Hawaii is not one one of them. Lawmakers unsuccessfully proposed bills in 2017 that would have required a recount if the margin of victory was less than 250 votes or less than 1 percent of the votes cast, whichever was less. If the legislation had passed, it would have required an automatic recount of the District 19 race.