STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2521

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2437

       H.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2437, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an emergency appropriation in the amount of $1,725,000 for fiscal year 2011-2012, to fund the State's voting system contract for the 2012 elections.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Elections, the Office of the County Clerk of the County of Kauai, and the Office of the County Clerk of the County of Maui.

     Your Committees find that the Office of Elections is in a multi-year contract with a vendor to provide a voting system for elections.  Although there was sufficient funding to cover the prior 2010 election cycle, the current biennium budget for the Office of Elections does not include funding for the 2012 election cycle of the contract.  As such, this measure provides the Office of Elections sufficient funding to cover its portion of the cost for the voting system and ensures that the office fulfills maintenance of effort provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which is necessary to maintain the State's eligibility for federal funding.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2437, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair