SB657.DOC

SECTION 1. Section 16-41, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding four new definitions to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Accessible" means that the information provided on the paper record copy from the voter verifiable paper audit trail mechanism is provided or conveyed to voters via both a visual and a nonvisual method, such as through an audio component.

"Direct recording electronic voting system" means a voting system that records a vote electronically and does not require or permit the voter to record the vote directly onto a tangible ballot.

"Federal qualification" means the system has been certified, if applicable, by means of qualification testing by a nationally recognized test laboratory and has met or exceeded the minimum requirements set forth in the performance and text standards for punch card, mark sense, and direct recording electronic voting systems, or in any successor voluntary standard document, developed and promulgated by the Federal Election Commission, the Election Assistance Commission, or the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

"Paper record copy" means an auditable document printed by a voter verifiable paper audit trail component that corresponds to the voter's electronic vote and lists the contests on the ballot and the voter's selections for those contests. A paper record copy is not a ballot."

SECTION 2. Section 16-42, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§16-42 Electronic voting requirements. (a) When used at primary or special primary elections, the automatic tabulating equipment of the electronic voting system shall count only votes for the candidates of one party, or nonpartisans. In all elections, the equipment shall reject all votes for an office when the number of votes therefor exceeds the number that the voter is entitled to cast.

No electronic voting system shall be used in any election unless it generates a paper ballot or voter verifiable paper audit trail that may be inspected and corrected by the voter before the vote is cast, and unless every paper ballot or voter verifiable paper audit trail is retained as the definitive record of the vote cast.

(b) The chief election officer may rely on electronic tallies created directly by electronic voting systems, in lieu of counting the paper ballots by hand or with a mechanical tabulation system if:

(1) The electronic voting system is subject to inspection, audit, and experimental testing, by qualified observers, before and after the election, pursuant to administrative rules adopted by the chief election officer under chapter 91;

(2) No upgrades, patches, fixes, or alterations shall be applied to the system through thirty days after the election;

(3) The chief election officer conducts a post-election, pre-certification audit of a random sample of not less than ten per cent of the precincts employing the electronic voting system, to verify that the electronic tallies generated by the system in those precincts equal hand tallies of the paper ballots generated by the system in those precincts; and

(4) If discrepancies appear in the pre-certification audits in paragraph (3), the chief election officer, pursuant to administrative rules, shall immediately conduct an expanded audit to determine the extent of misreporting in the system.

(c) Effective January 1, 2010, the chief election officer shall not approve a direct recording electronic voting system unless the system has received federal qualification and includes an accessible voter verifiable paper audit trail.

(d) Effective January 1, 2011, the State shall not contract for or purchase a direct recording electronic voting system unless the system has received federal qualification and includes an accessible voter verifiable paper audit trail.

(e) Effective January 1, 2011, all direct recording electronic voting systems in use on that date, regardless of when contracted for or purchased, shall have received federal qualification and include an accessible voter verifiable paper audit trail. If the direct recording electronic voting system does not already include an accessible voter verifiable paper audit trail, the system shall be replaced or modified to include an accessible voter verifiable paper audit trail."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2009-2010 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2010-2011 for the purpose of establishing a direct recording electronic voting system that produces a permanent paper record with an audit capacity.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the office of elections for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2009.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	657
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII