Report Title:
Elections, Automatic Vote Recount
Description:
Establishes standards for automatic vote recounts if the two highest candidates are less than 1 percentage point apart. Requires the manual recount to be accomplished in 15 days, and the report to be made in 24 hours.
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2135 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO ELECTION RECOUNTS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the lack of an automatic vote recount provision for very close elections has resulted in confusion and excessive cost to the State. For example, the very close result in the 1998 house of representatives district 44 election was challenged after the general election. Because there was no statutory automatic vote recount procedure in place, the challenger had to go to court. It was not until January 1999 that the state supreme court ordered the state chief election officer to manually tally the votes in district 44, precinct 1 and compare the manual count against the computer generated results.
A recount process that requires judicial intervention is both time consuming and expensive. In this case, it left the candidates uncertain as to the winner of the election for over two months following the general election.
Machines are not perfect, and there is a need for automatic manual recounts of votes when an election results in a very close race. The purpose of this Act is to require an automatic vote recount when the final vote tally difference between the top two candidates is less than one percentage point, to be limited to only the particular race involved.
SECTION 2. Chapter 11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part X to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§11- Recount of votes cast for close contests. (a) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the chief election officer shall order a manual recount of votes for a contest if, within three days after an election, it appears to the chief election officer that the plurality of the candidate with the highest total of votes over the votes for the candidate with the next highest total was less than one percentage point of the total number of votes cast for the office, excluding spoiled, over or under counts, and blank ballots. The recount shall be conducted within fifteen working days. Before the recount is made, the chief election officer shall give notice in writing to the two leading candidates in that contest of the time and place where that recount is to be made. The two leading candidates in that contest may send two representatives each to be present at that recount. At the completion of the recount, the chief election officer shall announce the officer's findings within twenty-four hours. The chief election officer may adopt rules under chapter 91 to implement this section in a fair, uniform, and impartial manner.
For purposes of this section, "total number of votes cast" means in the case of multiple openings for the same office, the total number of electors checked as having voted in the State, district, or political subdivision, as the case may be.
(b) Nothing in this section shall preclude the right to judicial proceedings under this chapter."
SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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