The vast majority of ballots for the special election for Congress will be counted and the results announced shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday.

But if the election is close, the final results will not be known for a few more hours as last-minute ballots turned in on Saturday are counted.

Voters have until 6 p.m. that evening to turn in their ballots for the special election in the 1st Congressional District to replace former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who resigned to run for governor.

Some ballots turned in and received by mail on Saturday will still need to have signatures checked, verified and then counted after 6 p.m. and will not be part of the first printout, said Rex Quidilla, a spokesman for the state Office of Elections.

The verification process will be watched by election observers, Quidilla said.

The state Office of Elections will begin counting ballots already received starting today, and the expectation is that the first printout on Saturday should have all the ballots received as of Friday night and perhaps some of the Saturday ballots, Quidilla said.

He said there still should be time for people to drop off their ballots in the mail today so they can be received by Saturday. But if eligible voters want to make sure their votes are counted, they can cast ballots at the walk-in voting site at Honolulu Hale today and tomorrow. Completed and signed ballots can also be dropped off at the state Office of Elections at 802 Lehua Ave. during business hours through Friday and on Saturday until 6 p.m.

Voters can also drop off completed ballots on Saturday at the Father Damien statue at the state Capitol from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

In past elections a few thousand ballots were received in the mail or dropped off at polling places on Oahu on Election Day and not counted until the final printout.

But Quidilla said it is difficult to estimate how many ballots will be turned in on Saturday because the state has not conducted a mail-in election for Congress before.

Ballots received on Election Day made for a long night and morning in 2004 in the close race for Honolulu mayor between Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum.

After the third printout, Hannemann led by 1,300 votes with about 4,000 ballots received on Election Day remaining to be counted before the final printout was released the next morning. Hannemann hung on to win by 1,354 votes, a difference of about half a percentage point.

The three leading candidates to represent the district that runs from East Oahu to parts of Mililani and Ewa are Republican Charles Djou and Democrats Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa.

Recent polls showed Djou ahead by a significant margin, but Democrats mounted a get-out-the-vote effort over the weekend.

As of yesterday about 43 percent, or 137,000 ballots, were returned out of the 317,337 ballots mailed out, Quidilla said.