STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3128

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1652

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Transportation and Energy and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1652, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VOTER REGISTRATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require an affidavit on application for voter registration to be included as part of the application for driver's licenses and civil identification cards.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Elections, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Office of the County Clerk of the County of Hawai‘i, Office of the County Clerk of the County of Kaua‘i, Hawaii Common Cause, and League of Women Voters of Hawaii.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Transportation.

     Your Committees find that this measure will reduce barriers to voting and increase citizen participation in elections by making voter registration more convenient.  This measure will also modernize the registration process and data maintenance by requiring the Examiner of Drivers and the Department of Transportation to electronically transfer voter information files to the Office of Elections and election officials, rather than transferring the information with paper documents.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that an applicant for a driver's license must affirmatively decline to register to vote if the applicant does not want the specified personal information electronically transmitted to the Office of Elections; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Energy and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1652, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1652, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Energy and Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair