STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO.1065

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 756

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 756, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the election laws by:

(1) Requiring the Chief Election Officer or the County Clerk in county elections, to order a ballot recount no later than seven days after an election if the difference in votes cast for the winning and losing candidate is 1/8 of one per cent or less;

(2) Requiring the Chief Election Officer or the County Clerk in county elections, to order a ballot recount no later than seven days after an election if the difference in votes received by the lowest winning candidates and the votes received by the highest losing candidates is 1/8 of one per cent or less in an election for multiple seats in one office;

(3) Requiring that recount complaints for primary, special primary elections, and county elections held concurrently with a regularly scheduled primary or special primary election be filed no later than 4:30 p.m. on the sixth day after completion of the recount in the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court; and

(4) Requiring that recount complaints for general, special general, special, and runoff elections be filed no later than 4:30 p.m. on the twentieth day after completion of the recount in the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the League of Women Voters of Hawaii. The Office of Elections provided comments.

Your Committee finds that the validation and confirmation of election results is a total process that includes a myriad of steps. The time period between the primary and general elections is currently insufficient for the Office of Elections to proof and print ballots if a recount is required between the primary and general elections. Therefore, your Committee amended the bill by repealing the second to the last Saturday of September, and inserting the second Saturday in August as the date of the primary election to give the Office of Elections sufficient time to print ballots in the event a recount is required.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 756, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 756, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

		____________________________ COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair