STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3022

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1651

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1651, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CLASS C FELONIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to remove the cap on the fine for providing false information in a signed affidavit in an application for voter registration during the late registration period or at an absentee polling place to make the maximum fine consistent with the maximum fine for a class C felony.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Elections, Common Cause Hawaii, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that providing false information on a voter registration application during the late registration period or at an absentee polling place is a class C felony with a maximum penalty of $1,000.  Existing law provides that a person convicted of a class C felony may be sentenced to pay a maximum fine of $10,000.  This measure removes the cap on the monetary penalty for providing false information to be consistent with the maximum monetary penalty for a class C felony.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2018, for section 1 pursuant to section 6 of Act 166, Session Laws of Hawaii 2014; and

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1651, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1651, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair