Incumbent Senator Brian Schatz has narrowly defeated Rep Colleen Hanabusa in the Democratic primary for the US Senate, reports Hawaii News Now.
A special election held Saturday in two precincts along with 800 discovered absentee ballots in Maui determined the winner.
The final tally was 115,401 votes to Hanabusa’s 113,632.
Just 1635 votes separated the two candidates going into the special election held in two precincts in Puna which had to be shut down during the regular election because of Tropical Storm Iselle.
Only 1,500 of the 6,782 registered Puna voters cast a ballot.
Power outages from the storm have left 3,800 customers still without electricity.
Hanabusa had unsuccessfully gone to court to stop the special election saying the area had not yet fully recovered from Iselle.
Schatz will face Republican Republican Cam Cavasso in the General Election.
You can hear Schatz’s comment after his victory in the clip below.
