Attorney Carol Mon Lee took a narrow lead against incumbent Denise Matsumoto in the race for the Honolulu Board of Education seat.

Lee was just 811 votes ahead of Matsumoto after the first print out of results were released shortly before 8 p.m. Lee had 40.2 percent versus 39.1 percent for Matsumoto, according to the first printout.

Matsumoto, who has been on the board since 1988, was overwhelmingly outspent by her challenger. Lee, former associate dean of the University of Hawai'i William S. Richardson School of Law, raised more than $20,000 as of Oct. 20 to increase her name recognition against a 20-year incumbent.

Matsumoto reported raising no money as of Oct. 20. Instead she said she was relying on word of mouth support, while Lee purchased Web and print advertisements and canvassed the island with banners and mailers.

"I'm very happy that Hawaii voters are recognizing that it is really time for a change," Lee said, acknowledging that the numbers could still change.

"It's going to be a long night," she said.

Incumbents in the three other board races took early leads over their challengers.

Oahu at-large members Lei Ahu Isa and Garrett Toguchi led the pack of six candidates seeking three seats on the board. They were closely followed by former state lawmaker Terrance Tom and former BOE chairman Randall Yee.

On the neighbor islands, both Kauai member Maggie Cox and Big Island member Herbert Watanabe led their opponents.

In all, six incumbents are up for re-election with one of them, Breene Harimoto, elected outright since no one is challenging him for his seat as the Leeward O'ahu board member.

Longtime board member and former U.S. Rep. Cec Heftel, who has been largely absent from board meetings for months, chose not to seek re-election to his O'ahu at-large seat. That guarantees that at least one new person will be on the board if all six incumbents return to office.