STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3283

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2414

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2414 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that each ballot display candidates for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees by residency and non-residency requirements and to randomize the order of candidate names within those groupings.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of Elections.

Your Committees find that numerous studies show that the candidate listed first on a ballot has an advantage. Under existing law, candidates' names are listed in alphabetical order from top to bottom, giving advantage to whomever's surname begins at the start of the alphabet. Therefore, your Committees find that to ensure that candidates are not given an advantage due to ballot placement of their name, placement of candidate's names should be randomized. This measure would require that all candidate names for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees be randomized on the ballot.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the names of the candidates for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees shall be in random order within the groupings by residency requirement;

(2) Inserting an effective date of June 18, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) 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 Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2414, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2414, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair