Requires automatic manual audit by the office of elections of any election contest that is won by a margin of 1% or less.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that election contests litigated before the state supreme court can be expensive, time consuming, and inefficient. In the event of an election contest, the chief elections officer is not required to certify the election. During the pendency of the election contest in the supreme court, the voters of the district in question can be disenfranchised and left without representation until the contest is resolved or decided by the court.

The purpose of this Act is to provide for the automatic manual audit of any election that is won by a narrow margin of one percent or less.

SECTION 2. Chapter 11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§11- Automatic manual audit of close elections. The office of elections shall conduct a manual audit of every election contest that is decided by a margin of one per cent or less of the votes cast in that election contest."

SECTION 3. Section 11-155, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

"§11-155 Certification of results of election. (a) On receipt of certified tabulations from the election officials concerned, the chief election officer or county clerk in county elections shall compile, certify, and release the election results after the expiration of the time for bringing an election contest[.]; provided that no results of an election contest decided by a margin of one per cent or less of the votes cast in that election contest, shall be certified until after a manual audit is completed pursuant to section 11- . The certification shall be based on a comparison and reconciliation of the following:

(b) A certificate of election or a certificate of results declaring the results of the election as of election day shall be issued pursuant to section 11-156; provided that in the event of an overage or underage, a list of all precincts in which an overage or underage occurred shall be attached to the certificate. The number of candidates to be elected receiving the highest number of votes in any election district shall be declared to be elected. Unless otherwise provided, the term of office shall begin or end as of the close of polls on election day. The position on the question receiving the appropriate majority of the votes cast shall be reflected in a certificate of results issued pursuant to section 11-156."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.