Fukushima has until the end of the day Friday to challenge the election result to the Hawai'i Supreme Court.

Nakamura, after discussing the issue with the County Attorney's office, concluded that only those votes properly cast should be included in tallying the numbers. That means blank ballots and spoiled ballots—specifically ones in which more than one candidate had been selected—are excluded.

By that standard, Baptiste received a single vote more than he needed to win. He got 8,173 of 16,342 votes cast. The smallest possible majority would have been 8,172.

The Kaua'i County Charter calls for a runoff between the two top candidates if no candidate gets a majority. In this election, five people were running for the mayor's seat: Baptiste, Fukushima, John Hoff, Bruce Pleas and Janee Taylor. Fukushima was the second-place finisher with 4,725 votes, far behind Baptiste, who had more votes than all four challengers combined.

Nakamura's ruling puts Kaua'i in synch with election policies already in place in Honolulu and Hawai'i County.

The decision concludes, in essence, that blank votes and spoiled ballots are not used in calculating whether a candidate has received a majority of the votes in a multi-candidate primary contest.

Fukushima said yesterday that he believes a runoff is called for. He could launch a challenge. The election results are not yet certified, and any appeal to the Hawai'i Supreme Court of the election result must be filed by Friday.