Hawaii is one of seven states lacking a state law allowing losing political candidates to petition for a recount.

Amazingly, the nation’s newest state has nothing on the books. So this year when Trevor Ozawa and Tommy Waters came within 22 votes of each other in the race for the east Honolulu Council seat, there was nothing to help settle the issue.

Instead of a recount, the Honolulu City Clerk’s Office is forced to do a redo — settling the City Council battle with an entire new election.

This is one of those AAARRRRGGHH moments brought about by a state government that apparently expected somebody else to fix the problem.

At least this year, there appears to be an effort to look at the issue of how Hawaii holds elections. Although, when it comes to the state Legislature, “taking a hard look” and just passing around the eye wash is mostly synonymous.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, in at least five states, a political party officer can request a recount, and in at least 17 states, a voter can petition for a recount.

The District of Columbia and 43 states say a losing candidate, a voter, a group of voters or others involved in the election can petition for a recount. It is telling that in Hawaii, where one party has controlled the levers, gears and structure of the political machine for years, there just hasn’t been the demand to keep the election laws current.

That’s because reformers need not apply to start rewriting the laws that have kept the establishment party on top.

Sen. Karl Rhoads, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, is going through the obvious changes to Hawaii’s voting laws, including mandatory recounts if the margin of victory is less than half of 1 percent of the votes cast.

Also included is the intriguing idea of holding ranked choice voting for special federal elections and special elections of vacant county council seats.

In a ranked choice election, voters would rank the candidates, first choice, second, etc. It sounds complicated, although Maine is setting up a ranked choice system and it is in use in Australia and in a few municipal elections.

In a low-voting state like Hawaii, just getting people to vote and sign their absentee ballots is probably enough of a struggle.

While Rhoads’ committee is just in the initial steps of reviewing possible changes, it is hopeful that included in the list is a bill to make voting by mail the universal voting system in Hawaii in 2022.

The 2020 election will be mail-in voting only on Kauai, and the Ozawa-Waters battle will also be run through the mail. Election officials note there are more registered voters in the contested City Council District IV than on Kauai.

So the Legislature has two election-law jobs this session: one is vote by mail, which is like putting Hawaii sort of ahead of the election reform game; the other is installing a mandatory recount law, which is like cleaning your room before your mother comes to tell you, “pick up your socks!”

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.