East Honolulu voters in Honolulu City Council District 4 are being asked again to choose between Trevor Ozawa and Tommy Waters as their representative at City Hall.

The “all mail” election for the District 4 seat will be mailed out March 21, city Clerk Glen Takahashi said Tuesday. Mailed ballots must be received before 6 p.m April 13 to be counted, and Takahashi suggested voters mail them at least three days before the deadline. Voters also will be able to cast their votes in a booth at Honolulu Hale from April 1 to 13, excluding Sundays.

“We will be open on Election Day to take in any Election Day registrations that might occur and allow them to vote as well if they’re a resident of that district,” Takahashi said.

A winner is expected to be announced the night of April 13, Takahashi said. He estimated the election will cost about $250,000.

Council Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said she and the seven other members will decide on an interim representative for District 4 during two public meetings next week.

The special election was triggered by an order issued Friday by the Hawaii Supreme Court in response to Waters’ legal challenge after final results issued by the state Office of Elections the morning after the Nov. 6 general election showed the incumbent Ozawa winning by 22 votes over Waters, a former state representative.

A group of 39 East Honolulu residents, mostly Waters supporters, separately raised a challenge, and the court issued the same order.

At the heart of the court’s decision was its conclusion that 350 absentee envelopes from the district that were picked up by city election officials from the U.S. Postal Service’s airport branch after 6 p.m. should not have counted.

As midnight approached on Election Night, a fourth printout issued by the state Office of Elections showed Waters ahead by 72 votes. It wasn’t until 4:11 a.m. the following day that a fifth printout showed Ozawa pulling ahead.

Election officials said the 350 absentee envelopes from the district that were collected after 6 p.m. were commingled with other votes and could not be separated, which necessitated the new election.

Gov. David Ige, as required by law, signed a proclamation declaring the need for an election to be held within 120 days of Friday’s judgment.

The 55-page Supreme Court order does not stipulate how the election is to be conducted or state explicitly that only Ozawa and Waters should be the only names on the ballot. But Takahashi said city officials and lawyers have concluded that because only the second special election — which involved only Ozawa and Waters — was the one invalidated, only they should be on the ballot.

Takahashi said his office and USPS officials already have discussed how mail workers will release collected ballots, “whatever they’re able to release before 6 p.m.” to election officials before 6 p.m., he said.

Several state election observers will accompany city election personnel to the collection “to have a couple of witnesses so that they can say, ‘Yes, the transfer did occur before 6 p.m.’”

He said that in future elections he also will ask for observers to accompany city officials during final pickups at the post office.

Takahashi said ballots for more than 200 military and overseas registered District 4 voters will be mailed Feb. 27. Vote-by-mail ballots will be sent out March 21, roughly 22 days before the actual election day, he said.

District 4 residents who are not registered but want to be able to register for this election can do so by March 14. “Walk-in” registration also will occur April 13, Takahashi said.

There are about 66,000 registered voters in the district now, he said.

In December, Kobayashi said she and her colleagues wanted an interim member in place as soon as possible because the Council is deliberating meaty issues and will be considering the annual city budget in March.

The Council Legislative Matters Committee, made up of the eight members, will meet Monday to discuss names of those interested in the interim vacancy. The eight are scheduled to meet again Tuesday, as the full Council, for a final vote.

Neither Ozawa nor Waters will be among the hopefuls, Kobayashi said.

Tony Baldomero, assistant director of the state Campaign Spending Commission, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Ozawa-Waters election will have its own financial reporting schedule. That means any person or entity can contribute up to $4,000 to either candidate, even if they’ve contributed to that candidate in the first two elections, which were part of the last election cycle, which ended Nov. 7, the day after the election.

A new cycle for the seat will start again April 14, the day after the special election, Baldomero said.

Ige said he understands the desire by county clerks to try to collect as many ballots as possible. “Obviously, the Supreme Court ruling says it has to be collected by county personnel before 6 p.m., so we definitely are implementing procedures to make sure that happens,” he said.

On Saturday, the day after the Supreme Court’s decision, Ozawa held a press conference questioning the order and said three of the five justices should have recused themselves due to ties with Waters. The Judiciary, in a rare move, issued a statement Sunday correcting Ozawa on several points.

Asked to comment on Ozawa’s criticism, Ige said of the court, “I’m certain they’re an independent body.” He added, “This ruling just clarifies when that handoff should occur and that we make sure that it happens before the 6 p.m. deadline.”

Ige’s comments mirrored those made Monday by Hono­lulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

Ozawa has long criticized Caldwell for supporting Waters, with whom the mayor served in the state House of Representatives in the 2000s.

The last time a special election was held for a Council seat outside of the regular election process was in December 2010 after Todd Apo resigned to to join a private business.

Tom Berg, with 2,308 votes, won the “all-mail” election over 13 other candidates to fill the last two years of Apo’s term. Only 3.3 percent of the Waianae Coast-Ewa district’s registered voters participated.

Takahashi said Tuesday he expects a larger-percentage turnout in April, noting that the 2010 contest was held in the middle of the holiday season.