STAND. COM. REP. NO. 17

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 238

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 238 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

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

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

Your Committee finds that under existing law, names of candidates for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are placed on the ballot in alphabetical order to ensure that all candidates are properly listed, which corresponds to the voting position for the vote counting system. Your Committee further finds that the ordering of candidate names on a ballot has been shown to affect election outcomes because the first name on the ballot generally has an advantage over names listed further down the ballot. A candidate listed first on a ballot increases their chances of winning by almost five percentage points and going from last to first on the ballot raises a candidate's vote share by ten percentage points. To mitigate any advantage that may arise from the order of candidate names on the ballot, this measure requires that the names of candidates for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs be randomized on individualized ballots.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 238, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 238, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

________________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair