LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Kaua'i Mayor Bryan Baptiste yesterday was declared the winner of the Kaua'i mayor's race, but runner-up Jesse Fukushima said he would announce today whether he plans to take any action that might challenge the election.

Fukushima said he is simply reviewing information, including legal opinions that gave the election to Baptiste, and has not established what options may be available to him. Any challenge to the election must be filed with the Hawai'i Supreme Court by 4:30 p.m. Friday. Election results can be certified as early as Saturday.

A challenge could delay the certification of votes in the election specifically involved in that challenge, although elections elsewhere in the state could still be certified, said state Office of Elections spokesman Rex Quidilla.

Baptiste, who moves into his second term in office, said his supporters had been ready to continue the campaign if they needed to, but he was relieved to have won.

"We're moving forward with the business of running the County of Kaua'i," he said.

County Clerk Peter Nakamura yesterday morning announced that based on his review of legal opinions, Baptiste received a majority of votes cast in the mayor's election and was re-elected. If Baptiste had received less than a majority, he would have gone to a general election runoff with Fukushima, who placed second among the five candidates for the office.

Baptiste got 8,173 votes, Fukushima 4,725 and other candidates 3,444. Baptiste thus received four more votes than the other candidates combined, and two more than half the votes cast for all candidates.

"We had one vote more than we needed to win. That's the cushion," Baptiste said.

Nakamura said he consulted with the county attorney's office to determine whether the 1,134 blank and spoiled ballots in the election must be counted in determining whether Baptiste had surpassed the 50 percent mark. As a result of that consultation, Nakamura said "blank votes and over votes were not counted when calculating a majority of votes cast."

The issue was raised previously, before the county held its first nonpartisan election, and a 1998 county attorney's decision to then-County Clerk Bunji Shimomura found that when the county charter used the term "a majority of votes cast," blank and "over" votes (in which someone voted for more candidates than allowed) would not be included. The opinion relies primarily on a 1985 Hawai'i Supreme Court ruling in the case "Republican Party of Hawaii v. Waihee."

The court in that case found that a "qualified voter who succeeds in getting his name on the poll list and a ballot in the ballot box is not a voter unless his ballot is such as is prescribed by law, and that blank, illegal, and unintelligible ballots should be rejected in computing the number of votes."

Honolulu and Hawai'i counties use that standard when determining whether a majority has been attained in nonpartisan elections. Maui's rules are different, in that the top two Maui candidates go to a runoff election even if one has a majority in the primary.

Baptiste credited a large and strong team of supporters for his win, which included victories in every Kaua'i precinct as well as the island of Ni'ihau.

"To get over 50 percent of the vote in the primary with five candidates is a very difficult thing to do. A lot of my supporters may not even know about it yet. It's tough to make 1,000 phone calls in a day," he said.

The mayor also lauded the other candidates.

"All candidates, including Jesse, should be applauded for running for office. ... We all want a better Kaua'i and I hope we will all work together to make it that way," Baptiste said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.