With the most recent vote count released on Wednesday, Tom Cook (left) leads by a thin margin against Kelly King (right) in the Maui County Council race for the South Maui seat.

Incumbent Maui County Councilman Tom Cook kept his narrow lead over challenger Kelly King in the race for the South Maui seat after a number of deficient voter envelopes were cured by the county clerk’s office.

But the margin was even narrower than before, going from 117 in the tally released on Nov. 6 to 97 votes in the most recent total released Wednesday night.

As a matter of procedure, the Office of Elections goes through various protocols including an audit before declaring the final results.

Cook was ahead 26,315 to 26,198 in the vote count on Nov. 6, the day after the election.

After the general election, officials in the county clerk’s office said they still had 1,069 deficient envelopes — or envelopes that had no signature or whose signatures did not appear to be similar to the handwriting on the voter registration, state ID or driver’s license.

The county clerk’s office tried contacting the voters with deficient envelopes in various ways, including notification through the mail, by emailing them and also calling them by phone.

Voters notified about their deficient envelopes had until Wednesday to turn in their cured envelope with a ballot.

Cook holds a pivotal role on Maui County Council in reviewing construction projects as chair of the Water and Infrastructure Committee.

He was among some council members who received tens of thousands of dollars in mass mailings supporting their election in October by the political action committee For A Better Tomorrow with ties to the Hawaii Carpenters Union. He’s also a former president of the Maui Contractors Association.

King, co-founder of the renewable energy company Pacific Biodiesel, has been involved in promoting sustainability in agriculture and energy. She stepped down from her council seat in an unsuccessful bid to run for mayor in 2022.