Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 106 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to limit vote recounts to only those election contests in which the difference between winner and next highest vote-getter is less than one percentage point of the total number of votes cast for that office.

Your Committee finds that the House of Representatives race in district 44 in the 1998 general election resulted in a manual recount of votes because of the close election result in that contest. The recount, however, was not limited to the votes cast in that contest. Instead, a recount was made of all votes cast in that precinct for all races including the United States Senate and Congress, for governor, and state senator, although those election outcomes were not challenged. This added to the cost and time consuming nature of the recount. If manual recounts are limited to the affected contest, election results for that contest will be resolved more quickly and will not leave so many candidates in doubt as to their respective elections.

Your Committee has amended this bill by moving a sentence from page 2, line 3, to page 1, line 8, and by making technical nonsubstantive changes in keeping with proper drafting style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 106, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 106, S.D. 1.