Former city Managing Director Kirk Caldwell beat former Gov. Ben Cayetano in 24 of 35 House districts on his way to winning the mayor’s seat Tuesday.

That’s a dramatic change from the breakdown of votes in August’s three-way primary election during which Cayetano scooped up the plurality of votes in 33 of 35 House districts over Caldwell and incumbent Mayor Peter Carlisle, who finished third.

In the general, Caldwell had 157,650 votes to Cayetano’s 134,690 votes, a margin of just under 23,000 votes.

In the primary, Cayetano had 90,956 votes to Caldwell’s 59,963 votes while Carlisle held 51,103.

So it appears a majority of Carlisle’s supporters swung to Caldwell’s side, while a decisively larger share of the approximately 90,000 “new” voters — those who did not vote in the primary but voted in the general — went for Caldwell rather than Cayetano.

Of that group, Cayetano gained roughly the same percentage of votes that he got in the primary.

Carlisle, in the closing weeks of the election, appeared in television ads urging people to vote for Caldwell instead of Cayetano.

Harry Mattson, Caldwell’s operations manager, pointed out that the mayor-elect got nearly 100,000 more votes in the general than he did in the primary.

“In order for us to win, he had to do that,” he said.

Cayetano did best in Windward Oahu, East Hono-lulu, downtown Honolulu and Kalihi, and the heart of Waipahu, while Caldwell did best from Palolo to Nuuanu, West Oahu and Central Oahu.

In the 50th District (Kailua-Kaneohe), Cayetano won by nearly 1,000 votes, and in the 18th District (Hahaione-Aina Haina-Kahala), he bested Caldwell by more than 800 votes. But Caldwell won by more than 2,000 votes in the 33rd (Halawa-Aiea-Newtown), 34th (Pearl City-Waimalu-Pacific Palisades), 36th (Mililani-Mililani Mauka-Waipio Acres), 37th (Mililani-Waipio-Waikele) and 42nd (Kapolei-Makakilo).

There were some exceptions to the regional splits. Cayetano took the 38th District (Waipahu) while the 49th District (Kaneohe-Maunawili-Kailua) went for Caldwell.

Mattson said one of the keys to Caldwell’s victory was that Caldwell “did better than anybody would’ve anticipated than he would have done” in strongholds that Cayetano won and was expected to win.

Many saw Tuesday as a referendum vote on the future of the city’s $5.26 billion, Kapolei-to-Ala Moana rail project since Cayetano had vowed to kill it if elected mayor while Caldwell was a staunch supporter.

But Mattson said the fact that Caldwell won all the precincts from Nuuanu to Kaimuki, areas that would not benefit from rail like West Oahu voters, suggests that there were other issues that led them to choose him over Cayetano.

Rob Kay, Cayetano’s communications director, said the campaign is still looking at the numbers and had no comment.

It’s unclear what kind of effect the ballot snafu at 24 Oahu precincts had on the outcome. Those were the precincts that ran out of ballots for a time, sending away an unknown number of voters unable or too frustrated to wait.

Of the 24 precincts in question, eight were within five of the House districts won by Cayetano, including some where he did best.

Of the eight precincts, two were in the 17th (Kalama Valley-Queen’s Gate-Hawaii Kai), one in the 18th (Hahaione-Aina Haina-Kahala), one in the 38th (Waipahu), two in the 50th (Kailua-Kaneohe) and two in the 51st (Kailua-Lanikai-Waimanalo).

Mattson said he did not think the problems influenced the outcome of the mayoral election.

He pointed out that Caldwell beat Cayetano by 23,000 votes.

“That’s a lot for (Cayetano) to make up.”

General Election 2012: Final Results