STAND. COM. REP. NO. 804
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 364
S.D. 2
Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
President of the Senate
Twenty-Eighth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2015
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 364, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish requirements and procedures for the recounting of ballots in an election.
The measure also provides that contests for cause challenging an election result shall be limited to provable fraud, unlawful activity, and force majeure.
Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Office of Elections.
Your Committee finds that existing state law authorizes persons to challenge an election result for cause, including but not limited to provable fraud, overages, or underages, by filing a complaint in the State Supreme Court. Your Committee further finds that this measure provides expanded recourse to challenge the results of a close election by allowing candidates to petition the appropriate elections officer for a recount, if the number of votes cast separating the petitioning candidate and the successful candidate is less than one thousand votes or one-half of one per cent of all votes cast for the office, whichever is less.
Your Committee has amended this measure by defining the term "all votes cast" as all votes cast for candidates for the office and counted pursuant to section 11-151, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 364, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 364, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
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________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair |
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