State Rep. Calvin Say is qualified to represent his district, his House colleagues have determined.

The House voted unanimously Friday to approve its special committee’s findings that Say resides in his 20th district – a rebuke to the latest challenge involving Say’s residency.  The challenge was the first of its kind to be considered by the House, according to the chamber’s leaders. 

Say (D, Palolo-Kaimuki-St. Louis Heights) left the chamber during the vote after he asked to be excused because the issue affected him personally.

Voters have formally challenged Say’s residency on five separate occasions, asserting that he lives in Pauoa Valley and not the Palolo Valley home that he owns with his wife in his House district. Say has previously said that he spends time in both places but that his residence is in Palolo, on 10th Avenue.

A group of six Oahu voters brought the challenge before lawmakers in this session, and a six-member panel of House leaders considered the matter in recent weeks.

Last week, Rep. Karl Rhoads (D, Kalihi-Palama-Iwilei-Chinatown), the special committee’s chair, said that "there was nothing even close to compelling" under the law to indicate Say has abandoned his Palolo home. Most of the evidence had already been vetted in the four previous attempts to prove that the longtime representative no longer lives there, Rhoads said last week.

Lance Collins, the attorney representing the voters who brought the challenge, has said that the group intends to keep fighting in court the matter of Say’s residency "until he moves back or resigns."