STAND. COM. REP. NO.2435
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2002
RE: S.B. No. 3086
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2002
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 3086 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purposes of this measure are to:
(1) Change the maximum allowable amounts of campaign
contributions as to persons;
(2) Require special elections to be conducted by mail;
(3) Clarify an elected official's eligibility to run for another office;
(4) Provide for an automatic recount in close contests;
(5) Provide for a one-time incentive payment to file electronically;
(6) Prohibit contributions from corporations and labor organizations;
(7) Prohibit advertising by a party for any one candidate for any one specific race; and
(8) Require forfeiture of a public office held upon conviction rather than sentencing.
Testimony in support of this measure was received from Common Cause Hawaii. Comments on this measure were received from the Campaign Spending Commission and League of Women Voters.
This measure is intended to revise the campaign contribution limits as to persons, enacted in its current amounts by Act 10, Special Session Laws 1995. Your Committees have not specified new amounts, leaving for later insertion after further discussion.
Your Committees view this measure as part of ongoing and continuing efforts towards campaign finance reform. There is no uniform and unanimous consensus on any one particular aspect in this measure. There are pros and cons on every issue in the realm of campaign finance laws. Your Committees have attempted to carve an equitable and reasonable result in passing this measure.
Your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Deleting reference to an elected official's eligibility for another office, because the matter is covered in the Hawaii State Constitution and is better left to interpretation by the courts;
(2) Specifying the percentage margins of when a vote recount is required in close contests;
(3) Deleting the incentive payment to file electronically;
(4) Deleting the decrease in the limits on the candidate's use of personal funds, because of possible first amendment implications in doing so;
(5) Deleting the prohibition against contributions by corporations and labor organizations, because this provision is contained in S.B. No. 2431, being passed by your Committees;
(6) Deleting the prohibition against party advertising for only one candidate in any one race;
(7) Adding an appropriation of $300,000, to the office of elections for maximizing voter registration and for voter education; and
(8) Adding a severability clause.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3086, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3086, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary,
|
____________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair |
____________________________ CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair |
|
|
____________________________ BRIAN KANNO, Chair |