STAND. COM. REP. NO. 5

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 150

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 150 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VOTING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require any person who is eligible to vote and applies for a motor vehicle driver's license, provisional license, instruction permit, or civil identification card to be automatically registered to vote if that person is not already registered to vote.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Elections, Elections Division of the Office of the County Clerk for the County of Kauai, The Center for Popular Democracy, League of Women Voters, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that voter registration, as a percentage of eligible voters, is dismally low in Hawaii compared to other states.  Automatic voter registration upon application for a motor vehicle driver's license, provisional license, instruction permit, or civil identification card is an ideal way to register more voters.

     Your Committee has amended this measure on the recommendation of the Office of Elections by deleting the requirement for automatic registration and inserting language that conforms with the National Voter Registration Act by specifying that an affidavit on application for voter registration shall be part of the application associated with the issuance of a driver's license and civil identification card.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 150, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 150, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

____________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair