Report Title:

Primary Elections

 

Description:

Requires eligible voters in primary election to declare a party preference or nonpartisanship.  Effective upon passage of related constitutional amendment.

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

679

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO PRIMARY ELECTIONS.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  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] Every voter shall be required to state a party preference or [nonpartisanship] nonmembership as a condition of voting[.] in a primary or special primary election.  [Each voter shall be issued the primary or special primary ballot 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 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.]  A voter who declares membership in a political party shall be issued a primary or special primary ballot for that party only.  A voter who declares nonmembership shall be issued the primary or special primary ballot for each political party and also the nonpartisan ballot for that election.

     A voter shall declare the voter's membership in a political party or nonmembership in each primary or special primary election."

     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon the adoption by voters of a constitutional amendment proposing to amend article II, section 4, of the Hawaii state constitution to provide for a closed primary or closed special primary election.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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