SAN JOSE — Defeated City Council candidate Jimmy Nguyen  is questioning 116 contested ballots that he says could have swayed the narrow District 8 election in his favor, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Nguyen in November lost by 68 votes to Councilwoman Sylvia Arenas , who was sworn in Tuesday.

Among other claims, Nguyen’s lawsuit says a ballot recount he paid for found unusual “irregularities, mistakes, errors and misconduct” by the county Registrar of Voters office. He’s asking a judge to set aside Arenas’ election and determine him the winner.

“We should make sure the person who wins is the person who gets the most votes — not the person who gets the most votes that ROV happened to count,” Nguyen told IA. “It could have led to the wrong person winning in my race.”

The elections office disqualified 116 vote-by-mail ballots in the District 8 council race because the voter’s ballot signature didn’t match the one on file. But following Nguyen’s recount, the lawsuit contends, elections staff determined 25 of those ballots were mistakenly disqualified and should have been counted.

The office also disqualified 36 ballots in the November election, but counted those same voters in June primary, and “illegally” opened 70 disqualified vote-by-mail ballots– counting one half but not the other, the suit says.

Arenas said she’s “disappointed” with the lawsuit and called it frivolous. She said it won’t distract her focus from serving District 8 residents.

“The community has spoken and I’m confident in the results,” Arenas said. “If I was in his place, I’d be disappointed but I’d respect what the community wants — even if it’s by a small margin. This is part of the process of democracy.”

Nguyen said he plans to amend the complaint and a court date has not yet been set.