LIHU‘E — When all the votes were finally tallied, the Kaua‘i County Council race took an unexpected turn.
Late voting favored incumbent council members Felicia Cowden and Billy DeCosta, who passed former council member Ross Kagawa to slot into the sixth and seventh spots, respectively.
As of the fourth printout of results posted at 9:20 p.m. Wednesday, DeCosta led Kagawa by 158 votes.
DeCosta said he was surprised when his wife woke him up Wednesday night to tell him he was now in seventh place.
“I saw the second printout (Wednesday afternoon) and I’d accepted that I wasn’t going to be a council member,” said DeCosta. “I’m going to give it two more years and work hard to promote food security and affordable housing.”
While these are not the final results, they do represent a first count of all submitted ballots, the state Office of Elections said.
The tight race triggered an automatic machine recount, which was being conducted on Thursday afternoon.
The top seven Kaua‘i County Council candidates are now incumbent Luke Evslin (13,119 votes, 7.6 percent), incumbent Bernard Carvalho (12,334, 7.1 percent), Dr. Addison Bulosan (11,494, 6.6 percent), former council member Mel Rapozo (11,137, 6.4 percent), incumbent KipuKai Kuali‘i (10,896, 6.3 percent), incumbent Felicia Cowden (10,371, 6.0 percent) and incumbent Billy DeCosta (10,070, 5.8 percent).
Barring any changes in the recount, these seven will make up the next council.
“I’m humbled by the results,” said Evslin. “I try hard to do my job as a council member well, which means passing policies that improve the lives of Kaua‘i residents,” said Evslin.
“As a council, I think we’ve done a lot of good work on that front. And, as we face enormous
challenges, there is still a lot left to do. So I’m excited to hit the ground running and to continue working with my colleagues and the mayor towards solutions.”
Voters heavily favored incumbents, with all five sitting council members seeking office managing to retain their seats. The other two current members, Vice Chair Mason Chock and Chair Arryl Kaneshiro, were not eligible to run again due to term limits.
Former council member Ross Kagawa (9,912, 5.7 percent) is now in eighth, followed by Fern Anuenue Holland (8,736, 5.1 percent), Lila Balmores Metzger (5,032 , 2.9 percent), Rachel Secretario (4,352, 2.5 percent), Shirley Simbre-Medeiros (4,009, 2.3 percent), Nelson Mukai (2,567, 1.5 percent) and Roy Saito (2,510, 1.5 percent).
Holland, a first-time candidate, expressed gratitude to her voters and her team online.
“They say you never win your first time, but we sure gave it our best attempt,” said Holland. “I will continue to work for our home, our people and the future in every way that I can.”
In the fourth printout of results, Mayor Derek Kawakami’s margin of victory remained steady, with 73.3 percent to challenger Roven Michael Poai’s 21.1 percent.
Though the number of registered voters increased, turnout was relatively low at 50 percent, compared with 72 percent in 2020 and 58 percent in the 2018 midterm election. This was higher than the state turnout of 48.4 percent.
A total of 24,741 people voted, 23,300 from mailed ballots and 1,441 in-person.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
