Fourteen candidates are vying for the District 1 Honolulu City Council seat, and the one who wins the Dec. 29 special election could triumph with less than 7.2 percent of the vote to do so.

The winner-take-all dynamic is just another one of those things that makes special elections so, well, special. The City and County of Honolulu is getting strangely accustomed to these races.

Next month’s special election to fill the remainder of former City Council Chairman Todd Apo’s term marks the fifth in less than two years. Former Mayor Mufi Hannemann stepped down over the summer, two city council members have resigned and two city council members have died since February 2009.

For a special election, the barrier to entry is slightly lower than in regularly scheduled elections. It’s still true that candidates must be registered voters and residents in District 1, but no signatures are required on nomination papers in a special election. In regularly scheduled City Council elections, candidates have to get 15 signatures in order to file.

“Whenever there’s a special election, it seems to generate great interest in the community, and I think that’s an excellent thing,” City Council Vice Chair Ikaika Anderson said. “The more people that run for a particular office, the wider variety of choices there are. It’s better and healthier for the public because they have more choices.”

In both special and regularly scheduled elections, the filing fee for those who abide by campaign spending limits is $25, whereas the fee for those who want to spend more than $64,295 is $250.

On Dec. 29, voters will choose a City Council representative from the following pool of candidates:

• Thomas Berg
• Victoria Carvalho-Yuen
• Michael Keoni Dudley
• Rose Ellazar-Martinez
• Jason Espero
• Mel Kahele
• Celeste Lacuesta
• Christopher Lewis
• Matthew LoPresti
• James Manaku
• Bob McDermott
• John Roco
• Patricia Teruya
• Gary Velleses

Whoever wins the District 1 seat will serve the remainder of Apo’s term, which ends January 2, 2013.