Requires separate ballots, according to party, for the primary election.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 12-21, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§12-21 Official party ballots. The primary or special primary ballot shall be clearly designated as such. The names of the candidates of each party qualifying under section 11-61 or 11-62 and of nonpartisan candidates [may] shall be printed on separate ballots[, or on a single ballot]. The name of each party and the nonpartisan designation shall be distinctly printed and sufficiently separate from each other. The names of all candidates shall be printed on the ballot as provided in section 11-115. When the names of all candidates of the same party for the same office exceed the maximum number of voting positions on a single side of a ballot card, the excess names may be arranged and listed on both sides of the ballot card and additional ballot cards if necessary. [When separate ballots for each party are not used, the order in which parties appear on the ballot, including nonpartisan, shall be determined by lot.]

The chief election officer or the county clerk, in the case of county elections, shall approve printed samples or proofs of the respective party ballots as to uniformity of size, weight, shape, and thickness prior to final printing of the official ballots."

SECTION 2. Section 12-31, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§12-31 Selection of party ballot; voting. No person eligible to vote in any primary or special primary election shall be required to state a party preference or nonpartisanship as a condition of voting. Each voter shall be issued the primary or special primary [ballot] ballots for each party and the nonpartisan primary or special primary ballot. A voter shall be entitled to vote only for candidates of one party or only for nonpartisan candidates. If the primary or special primary [ballot is] ballots are marked contrary to this paragraph, the ballot shall not be counted.

In any primary or special primary election in the year 1979 and thereafter, a voter shall be entitled to select and to vote the ballot of any one party or nonpartisan, regardless of which ballot the voter voted in any preceding primary or special primary election."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.