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Supreme Court to hear arguments on Ozawa-Waters results Tuesday

Gordon Y.K. Pang
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COURTESY PHOTOS

Former state Rep. Tommy Waters, left, and Councilman Trevor Ozawa.

The challenge against the election results showing Trevor Ozawa beating Tommy Waters by 22 votes to win the Honolulu City Council District 4 seat will be argued before the Hawaii Supreme Court Tuesday, the court said in a filing today.

The challenge has left the nine-member Council with only eight certified members and unable to organize and pick a chairman, finalize a meeting calendar for the year or make committee assignments. The Council is scheduled to meet Monday to pick a temporary leadership structure.

Waters is challenging the results from the state Office of Elections and the city Elections Division on several grounds. But in filings earlier this week, the justices have been pressing state and city elections officials for more information on absentee mail-in ballots that were collected by the U.S. Postal Service by the close of the election but not picked up or counted by elections personnel until afterward.

Oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

A group of East Honolulu voters, made up largely of Waters’ supporters, challenged the results of the Ozawa-Waters case using similar arguments. The court decided to consolidate the two cases for purposes of Tuesday’s hearing.

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